Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Video

Video Transcript

JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, MD: Hi, my name is Dr. Justin Davis and today, we will be talking about rheumatoid arthritis. There are two very different kinds of arthritis. There is osteoarthritis and there is rheumatoid arthritis. It's important to understand the difference between the two. Osteoarthritis is a common condition found in many older adults that occurs overtime when the joints have a lot use and start wearing away. On the other rheumatoid arthritis which we will be focusing today is a very different condition. This actually an autoimmune disorder that tends to concentrate by attacking mostly the joint spaces or the synovial spaces, the little spaces around the causing an inflammatory reaction which can be very painful and cause deformities in the joints. An autoimmune disorder is some kind of disorder where there is an inflammatory process within the body where the body attacks itself for really unknown reasons; and there's a large family of these disorders, rheumatoid arthritis being one of them. Usually, rheumatoid arthritis is most common in older individuals often developing between the ages of 40 and 60 years old. However, rheumatoid arthritis can occur at any age and there's a condition known as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis which is a severe kind of arthritis that even occurs in young children. The symptoms of arthritis can vary greatly because it's an autoimmune disorder, but typically [INDISCERNIBLE] the most common kind of symptom is where the joints become inflamed meaning swollen and very painful. Often, these may involved the hands or the wrist but they can also involve other joints, such as the knees, ankles even the neck joints. Really, no joint is spared. Another common feature of rheumatoid arthritis that differs it from similarly named but very different disease osteoarthritis is that osteoarthritis usually occurs more on joints that are just overly used. Rheumatoid arthritis doesn't necessarily occur on joints that are more commonly used and tends to occur bilaterally or symmetrically, meaning that it will be on both sides of the body in the same body parts at once. Other common features and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis that one may experience can be fatigue, fevers, and morning stiffness for at least half an hour after getting up. If you suspect that you may have arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, then it's important to seek a physician because there are treatments that can be given to you, that can not only stop it from advancing and getting it worse and causing many of the deformities that can be seen in joints with rheumatoid arthritis, but also to help relieve a lot of the pain that may be involved. Another feature of rheumatoid arthritis is that you don't necessarily have it all of the time, but there maybe flare ups. So you may feel for a period of time of after being treated with certain medicines, you may feel very well and have a little pain and other times for no real known reason, you may have a flare up where your joints are very painful and swollen. Prevention - because we don't really know what causes this and its autoimmune disorder, there is no real prevention, but it's important to lead a healthy lifestyle probably with all autoimmune disorders. There's an element of stress involved and so, it's important to try to live a lifestyle that's healthy and will help you to eliminate as much stress as possible. If you suspect that you may have symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, it is important to seek medical attention. There are also many blood tests that can be done to help diagnose this disorder.