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Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease that results in inflammation of joints or surrounding body tissues. The disease generally occurs at middle age, but it can affect individuals from any age group. Women are more prone to Rheumatoid Arthritis as compared to men. Well, the specific cause of this disease is unknown but some popular causes can be infection, hormonal changes, and genetic factors. Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive disease that might lead to serious medical condition such as joint destruction and functional disability. As the diseases present no symptoms initially it`s hard to recognize the condition early.

A person suffering from rheumatoid arthritis may feel stiffness, pain, redness, or swelling of the joints. Other than joints the inflammation may spread to surrounded tissues such as ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Chronic inflammation may cause deformity of the joints leading to functional disability. The onset of the disease has a no known cause and researches are on to find the factors contributing to this critical disease. Well, the factors that believed to cause rheumatoid arthritis are infection, smoking or chewing tobacco, genes, etc.

Symptoms:
The symptoms appear as per the severity of the disease and they come and go as the condition worsens or improves. Some common symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis are:

• Muscle and joint pain and stiffness , particularly in the morning
• Regular existence of fever
• Lack of appetite
• Fatigue
• Low energy levels

Usually Rheumatoid arthritis affect joints on both body sides equally and the most common affected areas are fingers, wrist, knees, ankles, and feet.

Diagnosis:
Well, the diagnosis starts with a physical examination as there is no single test that can confirm the disease. The doctor examines the patient for some common symptoms such as swelling, redness, stiffness of joints, presence of rheumatoid nodules under the skin, to confirm the presence of inflammation. Once doctor gets the clear idea about the disease, he may suggest you for blood and X-ray tests. Examining rheumatoid arthritis is a difficult process, and it become even more difficult when only one or two joints are inflamed.

Treatment:
The treatment procedure is not confined and the first step is to reduce the pain in inflamed joints. The treatment procedure is usually a combined outcome of medicines, physical therapy, patient counseling, and surgery. Well, surgery is performed in extreme cases. There are basically two levels of medications and they are: first inline medications and second inline medications. The specialist follow a treatment procedure depending on the severity of the disease.