Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis, or RA, is a chronic (long-term) disease that causes inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues. It has two forms.

Rheumatoid Arthritis in adults has an unknown cause. It tends to affect women more than men and occurs generally between the ages of 25-55 years.

In simple terms, what happens for people with normal health is that the body's normal immune system fights off foreign substances like viruses. But in an autoimmune disease, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, the immune system confuses healthy tissue for foreign substances. As a result, the body attacks itself. When this happens the white blood cells of the body begin to attack the membranes surrounding the joints, called the synovium. This causes the membrane to become inflamed. This will in turn cause damage to the bone, tendons and the cartilage of this joint. All of this results in pain and swelling in that joint and deterioration of the joint itself.

The most commonly affected joints in Rheumatoid Arthritis are wrists, fingers, knees, feet, and ankles, and usually it affects joints on both sides of the body equally.

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, or JRA, in children, is a chronic disease resulting in joint pain and inflammation. This childhood form general occurs before the age of 16 years.

Reports state that Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis occurs in 50-100 per 100,000 children in the United States.

 Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis has been divided into 3 categories:

1. Systemic JRA: occurs in about 10% of cases
2. Polyarticular JRA: occurs in about 40% of cases
3. Pauciarticular JRA: occurs in about 50% of cases

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a fast spreading disease and can cause degeneration of a joint in 1-2 years as the intensity of Arthritis Symptoms progress.

Once diagnosis has been established aggressive therapy is required to assist the sufferer with Rheumatoid Arthritis to understand and start applying techniques in place for life long treatment.

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