Hey everyone!
It's doctor Ashley Biscoe here with a short video for you.
Today I am going to talk to you guys about rheumatoid arthritis.
It is such a common condition and I know a lot of people out there have questions
about what are some of the earliest signs and symptoms are of rheumatoid arthritis.
And so that's what we'll talk about today.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory condition, it's an autoimmune.
Which means that the immune system is attacking certain tissues.
And in the case of rheumatoid arthritis the body is attacking the synovium.
Which is basically the lining of the membrane that surrounds the joints.
And so with rheumatoid arthritis a lot of people notice
a very gradual onset of symptoms, it can be very insidious
very sneaky. One of the earliest symptoms a person might notice
is pain or swelling in the small joints
and by small joints, I mean the tiny joints at the base
of the fingers, the knuckles and also the joints in the middle
of the fingers and also at the base of the toes.
Those are the first areas that rheumatoid arthritis
is going to affect before it spreads to the larger joints
like the hips and the shoulders.
Another very common early symptom is morning stiffness.
A person wakes up and they have a hard time getting
moving, walking, getting out of bed and walking around
and it can take 30 minutes or more for that stiffness to go away.
That's another symptom.
When a person has a lot of immune symptom activation
going on or a lot of inflammation happening
they might even feel sick. A general sense of
malaise, fatigue, fly like symptoms, loss of appetite
and sometimes even weight loss.
The other thing to keep in mind with rheumatoid arthritis
is that there are a lot of different types of arthritis
and so don't expect to go to the doctor and get a diagnosis
in the first visit, there is a lot of testing that needs to be
done to be able to figure out exactly what type of
arthritis you have or if you have arthritis at all.
It's very easy to confuse rheumatoid arthritis for
something else, it's a easy to explain it away
Maybe a person thinks their finger hurts because
they have been using a computer a lot
or maybe a person thinks that their toes are hurting
because they have been wearing high heels.
But one of the biggest clues that what's
happening is in fact an inflammatory condtion
like RA or rheumatoid arthritis is that there will be
a symmetrical pattern to the pain, so in other words
if a person has pain in their left hand over the knuckles
they might have a similar pain also in their right hand
and that's a big clue. Another clue for me as a clinition
is when a person reports that they have morning
stiffness that takes 30 minutes or more to go away
I'm thinking that there is something deeper going on
In the case of osteoarthritis or maybe just overuse at the gym
you would expect the morning stiffness to go away
within minutes after waking up. So if you've got symptoms
of pain and swelling in the joints of a knuckles
and the middles of the fingers or at the base of toes
You've got morning stiffness that takes more than 30
minutes to go away. If you've got the feeling of fatigue
or malaise, loss of appetite. Those can all be signs
that you're dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and it's
really important to get in and get evaluated, go see
your doctor so that you can start an appropriate treatment.
The other big clue with rheumatoid arthritis or I should
say it's really more of a tip, is that there is a lot of
correlation with rheumatoid arthritis and infections
There is a lot of research now showing that certain
bacteria and viruses can actually initiate and propetuate
the autoimmune response that causes destruction
of the joint tissue. And so one of the things that you can
do to prevent that process or to stop that process
is to really take care of your gut. I have a free download
for you. I highly recommend that you download our
Quick Start Guide to a Healthy Gut. The link is in the
description bar and that gives a lot of important
information about simple things you can do
to get started to protect the health of your gut,
which will protect the health of your immune system,
which will help you get back on track so that you can prevent
RA or if you're dealing with RA, it'll certainly help you
along your recovery. Comment down below and let me know
if you guys have any more questions. Let me know what
topics you guys are interested in hearing about.
Type any questions you have and I'll be happy to answer them.