Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful condition that causes inflammation of the joints. The disease is caused due to adverse immune response that attacks and kills body’s healthy cells. An adult, children, teen or elderly people may fall prey to this disease, while there can be gender discrimination and women may be more vulnerable to the disease than men do.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic condition and the degeneration of the joints in the body may bring in morbidity and functional disability in a person after a few years. Did you know that amongst various symptoms of the disease, the most common early warning sign is, back pain.

Common Symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis:

There is a vast list of Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms and some are commonly experienced by every patient, whereas a few may be unusual specific to a patient.

The most prominent and signature warning sign of the disease is stiffness of one or more joints and especially during the morning hours after getting up from the bed. Another most common early sign of this disease is lower back pain especially in elderly people of age over 60.

Following are some of the other general symptoms associated with the disease:

• Swelling and Pain – Persistent joint pain and swelling may be a symptom of the disease. The pain may be mild or moderate. The inflammation of the joints may cause the joints feel boggy to touch. One or more joints may be involved in the pain and often appear symmetrically. However, in some cases, the most used hand or leg may develop severe pain.
• Fatigue and Tiredness – These are extra-articular symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis as it appears outside the joints. Patient may look anemic, and often complain about fatigue and tiredness. Most of the patients experience flu-like symptoms in this disease.
• Edema – The inflammation of the joints may trigger fluid buildup in many of these joints and then cause edema. Most common area is ankles, but a sac may appear behind the knee to cause baker cyst condition.
• In children, the disease may onset symptoms such as fever and chills. Both the symptoms may be severe accompanied with edema and pain in the joints. In a few rare cases, there may be some skin rashes.
• The other rare symptoms may be related with the cardiac system, blood vessels, skin, muscles and lungs and the symptoms or damage may be even irreversible.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disorder of joints and usually attacks multiple joints of the body. Subtle symptoms may appear during its early stages and later advance to irreversible conditions. Although, there is no age discrimination or gender discrimination in the disease, but elderly women may be more prone to develop the disease.

The symptoms may sometimes even appear for some time and then disappear depending upon the level of inflammation caused in the tissues of the joints. The most common and initial symptoms may be back pain and morning stiffness. It is important to treat the condition before it leads to damage to other organs of the body such as heart, lungs and kidney.