Rheumatoid arthritis still remained a grave medical challenge to the medical practitioners thanks to the mystery that still remained concerning the clinical development of the disease. At the initial stage the signs of rheumatoid arthritis unlike other types of arthritis are not consistent and specific enough except when the disease goes too deep and causes permanent damage to the joints and muscles. Though it is now a medical certainty that rheumatoid arthritis is an effect of rheumatism which is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system of the body attacks its own body organs and joints, still the cause of this autoimmune malfunction is not known by the modern medical science and that make rheumatoid arthritis a tough proposition for the medical practices to address.
In Rheumatoid arthritis the immune system by mistake attacks the joints and muscles of the body causing joint and muscle pain, inflammation, pain in limb or body movement, swollen joints, deformed joints, etc. In many cases when rheumatoid arthritis is settling in it does not show any consistent sign, sometimes continue being non-symptomatic, sometimes the symptoms vanishes on its own and then again flare up in some other portions of the body and finally the symptoms slowly become frequent and gradually they show up with permanent damage. Here are the 10 signs of rheumatoid arthritis.
Joint stiffness
Joint stiffness is one of the most common signs of rheumatoid arthritis that gradually become more severe and painful. If you experience unusual stiffness in your joints, especially in the limbs just don't ignore it as this can be the initial setting sign of the disease.
Severe morning fatigue
Rheumatoid arthritis most commonly expresses itself in feeling severely fatigued in the morning after long sleep of nighttime. Many people consider the fatigue usual outcome of the stress of earlier day, but if the sign persistently recurs everyday it is time to suspect rheumatoid arthritis.
Numbness of the limbs
Feeling numb in the limb is a common sign of rheumatoid arthritis. As the immune system attacks the muscles and joints by mistake, it disrupts the blood circulation and this causes numbness. A typical tingling situation is also observed along with numbness in the initial stages of Rheumatoid arthritis.
Shortness of breath
Patients of Rheumatoid arthritis experience this symptom because the faulty immune system affects the heart muscles and blood vessels as well. If the shortness of breath is persistent besides more than one other symptoms of the disease you can be assured of the presence of rheumatoid arthritis.
Swelling
Swelling with redness over the inflamed muscles and joints is one of the common signs of rheumatoid arthritis. The swelling and redness follows the stiffness and pain in the join and once automatically vanished can flare up in other joints shortly.
Hard to heal injuries
If you have been injured in the limbs it is very likely that it would end up in swelling that would take longer than usual to heal. The joint stiffness and swelling that is common to rheumatoid arthritis can just flare up in the injured spot and can cause a continuous symptom.
Dryness of the eyes, nose, throat, mouth and skin
Unusual dryness of the eyes, skin, throat, nose and mouth is very common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. If the dryness persists for long time throughout these areas along with other symptoms you can really suspect it to be the sign of the disease. Actually faulty immune system causes the glands to stop releasing moisture and that causes such dryness. The dryness can cause eye problems, severe itching of skin etc.
Locked joints and pain in joint movement
The misdirected antibodies of immune system in Rheumatoid arthritis mostly attack the cells of the joints and besides stiffness it can severely affect the joint movement. The joint movement going through regular pain and stiffness all of a sudden can be locked or ended up to be fixed in an angled posture. It happens due to the weakening of the tendons by the immune system. Most commonly locked joints occur in elbows or in knees.
Lumps inside the skin
People who already developed the disease in the advanced stage the formation of nodule or lumps under the skin is one of the common signs of rheumatoid arthritis. The lumps usually occur most commonly in the surrounding of locked or most stiffened joint, particularly behind the elbows.
Anemic tendency
Rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect the blood pallets to a great extent and can cause very low hemoglobin count in the blood. So besides other signs like skin and eye dryness or severe morning fatigue and joint stiffness if you are observing common signs referring to anemia, this can be Rheumatoid arthritis.
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