Do you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis?
Or do you know someone who does?
This debilitating disorder is not the result of age or injury.
It’s an autoimmune illness that can start at any time in life.
In fact, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis affects around 300,000 under-16s every year.
Autoimmune arthritis is also more common in girls than boys.
Just like the adult form of the disease.
Actually, women are most likely to develop a wide range of autoimmune disorders.
The reason is in our genes - specifically the genes that control immune function.
Even more specifically, the X-chromosome.
Women have 2 X-chromosomes; men only 1.
And this is why you, as a woman, are more likely to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis
than a man.
When an illness is the result of our DNA, signs and symptoms can begin at any life stage.
And as with all immune disorders, early control is vital to stop these symptoms getting worse.
Today, we’re going to learn about 10 early warning signs of rheumatoid arthritis.
With this knowledge, you can alleviate or enforce any suspicions you might have of suffering
from this painful disease.
Before we begin, would you please help us back by liking this video?
And if you subscribe to our channel, you can use it like a library of in-depth women’s
wellness information.
We cover all kinds of topics that specifically relate to female health.
Every piece of information is based upon recent, trustworthy, scientific sources.
And each one provides safe, easy to understand information and achievable advice that will
guide you to optimal health.
There’s also a free gift for all of our appreciated audience coming up.
So stay with us as we find out about the first signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
Because when you’re informed, you’re empowered.
The first sign most people with rheumatoid arthritis report to the doctor is…
10 - Tiredness.
They feel exhausted all the time.
For non-rheumatoid arthritis, tiredness is commonly part of the aging process.
However, the auto-immune form can affect anyone at any age.
Even young, otherwise healthy individuals might find themselves feeling fatigued.
But why would a joint condition make you feel tired?
Generalised fatigue without sleep problems, psychological reasons or lots of physical
activity often points to a problem inside the body.
Especially with autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.
These disorders require lots of energy because the immune system is working harder than normal
most of the time … or all of the time.
When your body requires too much energy for one function, it has less to give to other
functions.
Like keeping the muscles in motion.
We might feel physically tired.
When the body is at rest, it uses less energy.
Fatigue is the body’s way of telling us to take a break.
With rheumatoid arthritis, you might find you have periods when you feel exhausted and
other periods when you feel fine.
This is because this disease is associated with flares.
A rheumatoid flare is a sudden increase in immune system activity.
A rheumatoid flare causes sudden, more noticeable signs and symptoms.
A sudden increase in immune system activity can be experienced as a period of fatigue.
When that activity dies down, that fatigue stops or decreases.
But as time goes by, this becomes less and less the case.
The immune system becomes more and more active.
Of course, fatigue is a symptom of many illnesses.
So let’s look at the next signal that could point to the early development of rheumatoid
arthritis.
The most commonly reported sign of any type of arthritis is…
9.
Joint Pain.
A painful knee or hip is usually due to aging or injury.
With rheumatoid arthritis, you’re most likely to have painful fingers and toes.
All arthritis, whatever the type, is defined by inflammation.
Arthritis is most often associated with worn and damaged joints.
The damaged and dead cells in the affected joint release chemicals that start an inflammatory
reaction.
An inflammatory reaction has four main symptoms:
* Redness * Heat
* Swelling and * Pain
Why these four signs?
The chemicals released by damaged or dead cells attract white blood cells.
These are immune cells.
To transport these internal cleaning teams to an area of damage, more blood is pumped
there.
The higher blood flow causes heat and redness.
But white blood cells aren’t only found in the blood.
They live all over the body.
To let them move from the tissues into the blood and vice versa, our smallest blood vessels
need to open up a little.
Our capillaries become more permeable.
Rather than a capillary wall closing tightly around the blood inside it, that wall becomes
a little porous.
This allows white blood cells to squeeze through.
But not only white blood cells.
Water also moves through these gaps and into the surrounding tissue.
This is why people with any type of arthritis usually suffer from swollen joints.
Arthritic joints are under constant pressure.
Too much fluid is pushed into the joint and immediate area and this fluid pushes against
the surrounding skin and presses against local nerves.
That’s how an arthritic inflammatory process causes red, tender, swollen and warm joints.
So is rheumatoid arthritis different?
No.
Although the cause is.
Age and injury-related arthritis is caused by wear and tear and usually starts later
in life.
But rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder.
The joints aren’t damaged … at least, not at first.
But the white blood cells behave as if they are.
Instead of responding to chemicals released by damaged cells, white blood cells start
to see certain body cells as dangerous.
Rheumatoid arthritis is the result of the immune system attacking cells in the joints.
The first round of white blood cells incorrectly mark these cells and send out distress messages.
These chemical messages circulate throughout the body and alert the rest of the immune
system.
And so the inflammatory reaction gains momentum.
These chemical messages are composed of the same types of chemicals damaged cells release.
So while the inflammatory mechanism is generally the same in non-rheumatic and rheumatoid arthritis,
the cause is definitely not.
And that makes detecting rheumatoid arthritis early on extremely important.
Because we can slow that inflammatory process right down.
We can’t cure rheumatoid arthritis … yet … but we can control it.
So sign number 8 might be a very small reaction, but it’s a very big warning sign.
Do you suffer from the next sign of rheumatoid arthritis?
You’ll need a thermometer to find out.
This autoimmune disorder often causes a slight raise in…
8.
Temperature
Low-grade fever is a body temperature of between 99.5 and 100.3 degrees fahrenheit.
That’s 37.5 or 38.3 degrees centigrade.
Rheumatoid arthritis is often accompanied by low-grade fever.
This isn’t the case with other forms of arthritis unless lots of joints are damaged.
So why would an autoimmune form cause fever?
Rheumatoid arthritis doesn’t affect one joint, although it might sometimes seem that
way.
As an autoimmune disorder, it works throughout the body.
Every joint is affected.
But we might feel the smaller, frequently moving and better innervated joints first.
Like the fingers and toes.
Left untreated, rheumatoid arthritis will eventually affect every joint in the body.
Not just fingers AND toes, fingers TO toes.
Wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, jaw, spine, hips, knees and ankles.
But also much smaller or lesser-known joints.
Like the joints in our ribs and breastbone that help the chest move up and down during
breathing.
That’s why some people with rheumatoid arthritis find it painful to breathe.
And the tiniest joints in the body that lie between the tiniest bones in the ear can be
affected.
This explains how hearing problems can be a sign of rheumatoid arthritis, too.
Researchers haven’t yet found the exact type of joint cell that causes white blood
cells to attack.
But studies point to cartilage and the layer of bone under that cartilage as possible triggers.
So any area of the body with a layer of cartilage is under threat.
But let’s return to body temperature.
When an inflammatory response happens throughout the body, it’s no longer just 1 or 2 joints
that feel warm.
Every joint is receiving extra blood flow and producing extra heat.
This isn’t the same heat as a fever caused by a sudden viral or bacterial invasion.
It’s a consistent higher temperature caused by increased blood flow.
If you regularly have a slightly raised body temperature, rheumatoid arthritis might just
be the culprit.
Early sign 7 of rheumatoid arthritis is, like fatigue, not an indisputable sign on its own.
But when you suffer from 2 or more warning signs, it’s definitely time to book an appointment
with your doctor.
This sign is…
7.
Weight Loss.
There are 2 central reasons why early-stage rheumatoid arthritis can cause weight loss.
The first is the result of extra energy requirements.
It takes energy to transport tens or hundreds of thousands of white blood cells to every
joint in the body.
And it takes energy for those cells to attack healthy cells and clean up the mess.
The body also has to make new cells to replace the ones that are lost, and flush away the
chemical toxins and dead cells, mostly via the urinary system.
If you don’t rest or don’t have an opportunity to rest, you can’t conserve energy.
Your body responds by using stored fat to keep the inflammatory process going.
The other reason someone with rheumatoid arthritis might lose weight is through loss of appetite.
Too many chemicals and dead cells are toxic to the body.
They can make us feel nauseous.
Pain can reduce the appetite, too.
So if you’ve been feeling achy and tired and are losing weight for no apparent reason,
it’s definitely time to see your general practitioner.
The next warning sign - sign number 6 - is all about…
6.
Symmetry.
And when we think about it, this specific sign makes sense.
Generalised arthritis is caused by wear and tear.
A right-handed person might have more pain in the right hand than in the left.
An athlete might favour the left leg over the right.
This pain begins in one joint.
But rheumatoid arthritis pain is often symmetrical.
Because all joints are affected, there’s symmetry in the signs of pain and swelling.
Both hands, for example.
Or both feet.
It might feel like you’re walking on marbles.
Or perhaps you experience stiffness in both knees in the morning.
This symmetrical sign signals rheumatoid arthritis, especially if you are under retirement age.
But everyone is different.
You can suffer from one-sided rheumatoid arthritis, too.
Or perhaps a combination of wear and tear in one joint and early rheumatoid arthritis
in both means you feel discomfort in the damaged joint first.
Because rheumatoid arthritis works in almost the opposite way to non-rheumatic arthritis.
With non-autoimmune forms, it’s the damage that causes pain and inflammation.
Once damage has occurred, it doesn’t take long to feel pain.
In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, it’s the inflammation that causes damage.
And only then does the joint start to hurt.
This process takes time.
In fact, pain is a very late warning sign for rheumatoid arthritis.
We’re going to carry on sharing these early signs with you in just a minute.
First, it’s time to claim your free gift.
Women’s Wellness Channel would like to gift you a personal copy of 25 Energy-Boosting
Superfoods for Women.
All you need to do is click the secure link in the description.
The foods you’ll find out about in our book won’t only provide extra energy if you’re
caught in the painful grip of rheumatoid arthritis.
Superfoods are exactly that.
Sources of nutrition proven to fight back.
In fact, nutraceuticals are the fastest growing healthcare products on the market.
Healing foods have been used since humans populated the earth, but we’re only just
starting to discover how they heal.
Fighting the signs and even the cause of rheumatoid arthritis through diet is also nothing new.
So find out about the best all-rounder nutraceuticals.
Click on the link and order your copy of 25 Energy-Boosting Superfoods for Women today.
The fourth early-warning signal that might indicate you suffer from auto-immune rheumatoid
arthritis is joint stiffness and…
5.
Lack of Range of Motion.
This isn’t so surprising, as excess fluid increases pressure inside the joint.
We all know it’s easier to twist and bend a partially deflated balloon than a fully
inflated one.
So while there might not yet be enough fluid to observe swelling, joint stiffness could
be telling you the process has begun.
Especially when that stiffness or lack of joint motion comes in pairs.
Like when the left and right hand need time to get moving in the morning, for example.
Sign number 5 is the squeeze test.
Sometimes, we can only feel the pain of an arthritic joint when the arthritis is in much
later stages.
If you squeeze the top 2 finger or toe joints, you might experience a surprising but intense
pain.
This shows the nerves in that joint are already constricted.
The added pressure of the squeeze test lets that person know exactly how painful the later
stages of slow-developing auto-immune arthritis can be.
Orthopaedic surgeons use the finger-squeeze test to look for early signs of non-rheumatic
and rheumatoid arthritis.
But you don’t need to be a surgeon to do that.
You can carry out this test yourself, or ask a friend, family member or partner to do it.
One of the more visible signs of rheumatoid arthritis is number 4, the…
4.
Rheumatoid Nodule.
The average rheumatoid nodule isn’t painful or even dangerous.
But as up to 30% of people with rheumatoid arthritis will develop them, often very early
on, nodules are a definite sign that need to be followed up.
Rheumatoid nodules are hard, small lumps located just under the skin.
They are most commonly found on the fingers and elbows.
Rarer cases present in areas that don’t have joints.
Like the eyelids.
There have even been cases of rheumatoid nodules on heart valves.
While most nodules never end up being painful and some of them disappear on their own, they
are a sign you shouldn’t ignore.
Some drugs like cortisone can shrink larger nodules, but these drugs have side effects.
If a nodule is unsightly or prevents a joint from moving, the first line of treatment is
surgical removal.
Remember our first sign of rheumatoid arthritis?
Fatigue?
This next sign - sign number 3 - could explain tiredness in another way.
With the immune system in overdrive, other body functions suffer.
One of these is the production of red blood cells.
When we don’t have enough red blood cells, we become…
3.
Anaemic.
A 2018 study showed that nearly 70% of newly-diagnosed cases of rheumatoid arthritis were anaemic.
A more recent paper reported a higher figure of 77%.
Why?
One specific type of anaemia is called anaemia of chronic disease or ACD.
Another name for this lack of red blood cells tells us why ACD is associated with rheumatoid
arthritis.
That name is anaemia of chronic inflammation.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease.
Any chronic inflammatory state stops the body from using iron correctly.
We need iron to produce red blood cells.
The result is smaller new red blood cells in lower numbers.
As red blood transport oxygen around the body, anaemia lowers the oxygen supply.
Without oxygen, cells can’t make energy.
They get tired, and we get tired.
Other signs of anaemia are pale membranes inside the lower eyelids, pale gums, rapid
breathing and shortness of breath.
As ACD occurs with all chronic inflammatory diseases, anaemia alone won’t prove you
have rheumatoid arthritis.
But in combination with 1 or more of the other early signs, this chance grows.
The final 2 signs we’re going to look at are also found in the blood.
We can find out if we have rheumatoid arthritis through blood tests.
Sign 2 is…
2.
An elevated C reactive protein blood test result.
C reactive protein or CRP is found in the watery part of the blood - the blood serum.
It’s an inflammatory marker, which means blood testing laboratories measure how much
CRP is in a blood sample.
Doctors use this result to chart how much inflammation is in the body.
An elevated CRP result always points to inflammation.
But it points to all kinds of inflammation.
Someone with uncontrolled diabetes might have an elevated CRP.
Or someone with a viral infection.
All this blood test shows us is that there is inflammation.
A CRP test is quite cheap.
So your doctor might first screen you for CRP and ask about other early signs.
When these signs point to rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor will then refer you for early
warning sign number 1 testing.
These tests are more expensive and only carried out when there is a definite suspicion of
rheumatoid arthritis.
Because sign number 1 proves or disproves this condition about 70% of the time.
This test is the current gold standard when it comes to diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis.
There’s no point having it done multiple times if you test positive.
Once you test positive, you can’t change that result back.
Sign #1 is a combination test for two markers….
1.
Rheumatoid factor and anti cyclic citrullinated peptide.
You might see these scribbled on the doctor’s notes as RF and anti-CCP.
A positive rheumatoid factor result doesn’t actually mean you have rheumatoid arthritis.
About 20% of people with rheumatoid arthritis are RF negative, and around 5% of people without
the disorder are positive.
This is because RF measures an antibody.
Antibodies are part of the immune process that shows the white blood cells are attacking
the body’s own cells.
It’s only because RF was one of the first tests linked to rheumatoid arthritis that
the antibody it looks for was named as such.
But lots of autoimmune disorders can give a positive RF result.
To be as accurate as we can we need an accompanying anti-CCP result.
An anti-CCP also tests for antibodies, but a more specific type.
These antibodies are produced in response to a much narrower range of autoimmune disorders,
the most common of which is rheumatoid arthritis.
A positive RF and positive anti-CCP result means rheumatoid arthritis is highly likely.
And when you have a positive result, it stays positive.
Antibodies, once produced, continue to be made whenever white blood cells come into
contact with something they recognise as foreign.
We’ve come to the end of our list.
Do you know of other signs and symptoms of early rheumatoid arthritis that might help
others get an early diagnosis?
The sooner this disease is diagnosed, the sooner it can be treated and the slower it
progresses.
Let us know your own experiences in the comments section below.
We’d be most grateful for your helpful input.
And please don’t forget to like us and subscribe to our channel.
By the way, if you’ve already clicked on that link, your copy of 25 Energy-Boosting
Superfoods for Women is already on its way!
We hope you’ve found this video helpful and informative.
And hopefully, we’ll see you again very soon!