Arthritis Treatment Guide

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Joint pain is a common complaint among all people suffering from arthritis. Let’s explore more in to the subject to understand where it affects when one suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and why.

Hands and wrists would be one of the most severely affected areas as an side effect of rheumatoid arthritis. During early stages of the disease, the fingers will be swollen making them painful and stiff. It may further lead to carpal tunnel syndrome due to inflamed flexor tendon sheaths. Joint damage to the hands and wrist would cause a variety of other deformities such as ulnar drift. Swelling of ulnar styloid on the other hand would lead to pain in the wrist and cause rapture of the finger tendons, which may even need urgent surgical repair.

Shoulders is another area that is frequently affected by rheumatoid arthritis but goes unnoticed because suffers may tend to think of it as having other origins. Initial symptoms of an affected shoulder may include painful arc syndrome and pain in the upper arms at night. As the joints become damaged further stiffness will occur. At a later stage of the disease, you will find rotator cuff tears becoming common which interferes with dressing, feeding and using the toilet.

When it comes to elbows, the common symptom is swelling and fixed flexion deformity. As your rheumatoid arthritis progresses you may notice that flexion is lost bringing about severe difficulties with feeding in combination with shoulder, hand and wrist deformities. Another common symptom is stiffness of the hands during early morning hours. Some others experience the symptom in a different way where hand and finger movements block all of a sudden and remains blocked for a few seconds. If the symptoms are accompanied by pain and if your medication does not include pain killers, it is probably a good idea to consult your physician and inquire about possible solutions to get over the pain.

As a person suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, exercises are essential to your body to keep the momentum going. So no matter how much it aches or pains and no matter how stiff your joints are, it is a good practice to involve in subtle daily exercises to keep your joints as healthy as possible. A balanced diet rich in calcium will also help you to lead a healthy life.

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