Causes of rheumatoid arthritis
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Loading ...The exact causes of rheumatoid arthritis are unknown, it can affect people at any time in their life however it usually strikes after 40 and before 80. There is some debate over whether an actual cause of rheumatoid arthritis actually exists it could just be one of those things.
The immune system pays quite an important role in this disease, rheumatoid arthritis is actually an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease is where the body’s own defence system turns against itself and attacks its own tissue. White blood cells move out of the blood stream and into the lining around the joints, causing inflammation.
Women are around twice as likely as men to develop rheumatoid arthritis, but while a woman is pregnant rheumatoid arthritis often goes into recession but comes back on more severely after the baby is born. This suggests a possible link between this form of arthritis and gender.
Some scientists believe that rheumatoid arthritis is a genetic disease as people who have the disease often have certain genetic markers. Other scientists believe that rheumatoid arthritis can be triggered by a number of things such as infection.
There is some evidence that rheumatoid arthritis can affect multiple family members, and so there is of cause the possibility that the disease is hereditary.
Scientists are even debating whether what we now call Rheumatoid arthritis is just one disease or actually a number of different similar diseases. This could mean we will see different treatment paths developing for different types of rheumatoid arthritis.
Unfortunately it is not currently possible to identify the cause of rheumatoid arthritis, and there could in fact be many different reasons someone would develop such a disease. There are also no known cures for this type of arthritis but there are drugs available which help the disease go into recession.
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