What is Rheumatism?
Symptoms:-
1. Joint pain
2. Loss of motion in a joint or joints.
3. Inflammation like redness, swelling warmth in the affected area
4. Stiffness
5. Swelling around joints
6. Feeling unwell
Causes:-
Causes of rheumatism are largely yet to be established. Doctors believe that it happens when the immune system of a person by mistake attacks his own tissues. Some patients have this problem in their genes. External factors like cigarette smoking, pollution or something like that cause an infection.
Osteoarthritis:-
Osteoarthritis happens when there is damage to cartilage, the soft material at the joints of bones. It wears down mainly due to the old age, the joints become harder to move and the hurt and pain. It mainly affects the knees, hips, lower back, neck, fingers and feet.
The patient finds it hard to walk, grip the objects, dress comb hair, sit and perform the routine task.
In order to plan the treatment, the doctor gets an X-ray to check if there is a narrowing of the joint space or presence of bone spurs.
Rheumatoid Arthritis:-
In rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system itself of the patient attacks his or her joints. It can be the joints of hands, wrists and knees or any other in the body.
When the immune system attacks the joints of a patient, it causes pain, inflammation, and stiffness. The joint functions of the patient may be badly affected and there could be deformities in the affected joints.
The patient may experience pain and inflammation for a certain period and then there might be less severe symptoms or no symptoms at all. This period of ups and downs are known as exacerbations and remissions respectively.
Rheumatoid Arthritis can also affect the skin. heart, kidneys, eyes, lungs, and nervous and gastrointestinal systems. Some patient may also develop anaemia.
Lupus:-
It is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system of the patient attacks the organs and tissues such as joints, brain, skin, heart, lungs, eyes, liver, kidneys, etc. It can cause inflammation, pain and even damage to joints and tissues.
Scleroderma:-
When too much collagen, a type of protein is produced and accumulated in the body, the skin and other connective tissues get hardened. This medical condition is called scleroderma.
It normally affects the skin but in certain cases, it can also affect blood vessels, internal organs and digestive tract. It is known as systemic scleroderma.
The scleroderma patient may have difficulty in movements due to tightening and hardening of the skin. The skin of the patient may have shiny look.
Some patients may have their fingers and toes numb or painful due to stress or cold temperature.
Sjogren's syndrome:-
An autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks saliva and tear glands that leads to dry mouth and dry eyes. Sjogren's syndrome can also affect other body parts like joints, skin, and nerves. The patients experience pain in joints and muscles, dry skin, rashes and neuropathy.
Ankylosing spondylitis:-
Ankylosing spondylitis is inflammatory arthritis that attacks the spine resulting in stiffness and bony proliferation along the spine resulting in immobility.
Ankylosing spondylitis also causes pain and stiffness in the pelvis and lower back. It can cause inflammation in joints of hip, shoulders and ribs, Sacroiliac joints may also inflammation.
Sometimes an ankylosing spondylitis patient may form new bones on the spine causing stiffness and decreasing the range of movement. There may also be pain and inflammation in the eyes.
Gout:-
Building up of too much of uric acid in the body can form crystals in some parts especially in joints and skin resulting in gout.
A Gout patient has joint pain, redness and swelling, Sometimes it can affect other joints and big toe.+
Psoriatic arthritis:-
Long time Psoriasis patients may develop psoriatic arthritis that affects the skin. Normally psoriatic patient has joint pain, swelling and stiffness. The following symptoms are common among the patients of psoriatic arthritis.
1. Swollen fingers or toe
2. Swelling of Achilles tendon or inflammation at tendon attachments.
3. Lower back pain.
4. Separation of nails from the nail bed.
Infectious arthritis:-
Bacterial, viral, or fungal infections cause infectious or septic arthritis. The immune system of the body reacts to fight if there is an infection in the joints. It results in inflammation that causes pain and swelling. It can also cause damage to joints.
Infectious arthritis normally occurs among children, older people, and those taking drugs. It generally affects large joints such as hip, knee or shoulder.
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis:-
Generally occurring among children juvenile idiopathic arthritis is caused by the attacks of the immune system on joints and surrounding tissues. The patient experiences joint pain, stiffness. Joints are warm and swollen.
In severe cases, the patient may suffer damage to joints, stunted growth, uneven limbs, long term pain, anaemia, and eye inflammation.
Reactive arthritis:-
The body reacts if there is an infection in any part of the body and this reaction causes joint inflammation particularly in the lower part of the body and the spine.
There may be swelling, redness, and pain in the affected joints. The patient may have symptoms of conjunctivitis and inflammation in the urinary tract.
Polymyalgia rheumatica:-
Polymyalgia rheumatica is an inflammatory condition that causes pain and stiffness in the shoulder, neck and hips. Morning is more painful. A patient may experience fever and weakness.
Systemic vasculitis:-
In vasculitis, the walls of the blood vessels become inflamed that causes narrowing of the walls of the blood vessels which restricts the flow of the blood. The tissues that do not get enough blood die. This results in joint and muscle pain.
Largely the real cause of rheumatism is yet to be known but doctors believe that genetic factors and family history has definite relation with this disease. Apart from that, the risk for RA, polymyalgia, rheumatica increases with age
Conditions like lupus, scleroderma, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis occur normally between the early adulthood and middle age.
Rheumatic diseases like lupus, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome and polymyalgia rheumatica are generally found among women. Men are mostly affected by gout and ankylosing spondylitis.
If any person has some of the initial symptoms of rheumatism, he must immediately consult the expert medical professional as timely treatment can prevent developing severe symptoms. Delay in treatment can cause serious damage to joints and tissues.
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