Do you know the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis? While there is no cure, early treatment can help you maintain a more active lifestyle.

 
Symptoms
Joint pain can be an early symptom of many different diseases. In rheumatoid arthritis, symptoms often develop slowly over a period of weeks or months. Fatigue and stiffness are usually early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Weight loss and low-grade fever can occur.

Joint symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include:
Painful, swollen, tender, stiff joints. The same joints on both sides of the body (symmetrical) are usually affected, especially the hands, wrists, elbows, feet, knees, or neck.
Morning stiffness. Joint stiffness may develop after long periods of sleeping or sitting and lasts at least 60 minutes and often up to several hours.
Bumps (nodules). Rheumatoid nodules ranging in size from a pea to a mothball develop in nearly one-third of people who have rheumatoid arthritis. Nodules usually form over pressure points in the body such as the elbows, knuckles, spine, and lower leg bones.
Rheumatoid arthritis can affect the hands, wrists, elbows, feet, ankles, knees, or neck. It usually affects both sides of the body at the same time, and more than three sets of joints are affected at one time.

In addition to specific joint symptoms, rheumatoid arthritis can cause symptoms throughout the body (systemic).
These include:
Fatigue.
A loss of appetite.
Weight loss.
Mild fever.
Numbness and tingling in the hands.
Some of the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis may be similar to symptoms of other health conditions.

Symptom stages of rheumatoid arthritis
 
The cause of the abnormal immune system response that develops in rheumatoid arthritis is not fully understood. Since cells of the immune system are free to travel all over the body through the bloodstream, symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis tend to be less localized than the symptoms of other types of joint diseases. Most often, pain and swelling will begin slowly in a single joint first and then gradually more and more joints will become painful and swollen. Uncommonly, the onset of rheumatoid arthritis may be abrupt, with pain and swelling suddenly striking many joints at once. The joint pain may cause the person to have significant trouble with normal movements.

The joint discomfort associated with rheumatoid arthritis is caused by swelling, heat, and pain signs of inflammation as the immune system is called into action. Inflammation also causes the sensation of stiffness within the joints, especially upon rising or after a period of inactivity. Stiffness lasting longer than 60 minutes is a common symptom of rheumatoid arthritis.

Another characteristic of autoimmune diseases is that they tend to be associated with what are called systemic symptoms, or symptoms that appear throughout the body. These symptoms include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, and malaise. These general symptoms of illness are due to the chemical messengers released by the immune cells when they are activated.

Differences between rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis

"Arthritis" is a general medical term encompassing roughly a hundred different diseases of the joints. In the past, the term "rheumatism" was used to refer to a nonspecific joint disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease, is by far the most common form of arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis affects roughly one-tenth as many people as osteoarthritis. The most significant difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis is that the two have completely different causes behind the breakdown of cartilage in the joint. Osteoarthritis is caused by mechanical wear and tear on joints. By contrast, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, in which the body's own immune system becomes active against itself, leading in this case to cartilage damage.

How can osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis be distinguished?

Three symptoms are very different in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and can help tell the difference between the two.

Location:
 
Since osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear, it most often affects the weight-bearing joints, such as the knees and hips, or the fourth and fifth finger joints or thumbs.
Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by a body-wide immune reaction that can affect joints regardless of how much weight they bear or how often they are used. It tends to cause the greatest problems in smaller joints, such as the hands, balls of the feet, wrists, and elbows.
Rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect the same joints on both sides of the body, since it is due to chemicals that flow to the whole body through the bloodstream.

Stiffness:
People with osteoarthritis may feel stiff upon first awakening or starting to move an arthritic joint, but the stiffness usually goes away within 30 minutes. However, stiffness will return at the end of the day or after periods of activity.
People with rheumatoid arthritis may feel stiff all day long, due in part to swelling of the involved joints.
Fatigue, fever, or weight loss:
These symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis occur all over the body (systemic symptoms).
Since osteoarthritis is caused by a problem local to the joint, body-wide symptoms are less likely to occur.

Can you have both types of arthritis simultaneously?

It is quite common to have both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis at the same time. Osteoarthritis affects the majority of elderly people. Rheumatoid arthritis is less common, affecting around 1% of the population. The majority of people with rheumatoid arthritis may develop osteoarthritis eventually, since joints damaged by rheumatoid arthritis may be more susceptible to the development of secondary osteoarthritis.

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