Rheumatoid Arthritis Autoimmune Disease

Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the many types of arthritis that exist today. More than that, it is the most common type of arthritis according to medical experts. About 2.1 people in the US have this disease today. This autoimmune disease mainly affects people who are between 30 and 50 years old. However, anybody can get the disease at any age.

This chronic disease has many people's lives a living hell all over the world. The fact that it is an autoimmune disease means that it is triggered by the body's immune system. This means that the tissues of the body are attacked, by mistake, by the system's own immune system. The immune system makes use of complex antibodies and cells in order to fight foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses, which can harm the body.

The rheumatoid arthritis autoimmune disease effects result in inflammation of joints. Moreover, some crucial organs such as kidneys, heart and lungs can also be affected as well. In order for the condition to be diagnosed, there is need for combinations of many diagnosis procedures to be used. The course of rheumatoid arthritis is always difficult to predict since the disease can progress in two completely different ways.

Severe joint pain is a common problem among all rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. This is because the immune system affects the joints. Some patients can go through joint pain without undergoing any painful experiences at all. Therefore, in order for the best treatments to be achieved, many tests need to be carried out.

If you are found to be suffering from rheumatoid arthritis after the blood tests are carried out, you either have the seronegative or seropositive variety. The term 'sero' is derived from the medical term 'serum'. When blood tests show negative results even when you have the disease, then the variety of disease you are suffering from is seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. Conversely, if the serum tests show positive results, then you are suffering from seropositive rheumatoid arthritis. Eighty per cent of all rheumatoid arthritis diagnoses result in the seropositive variety.

Proper description of symptoms is important if patients with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis are to be diagnosed correctly. This is because it is risky to wait until complete joint damage has been done since it might be too late to do anything about the problem. The damage can even extend to muscles, organs and bones.

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