That stiffness can be rheumatoid arthritis

Aashish Chaudhry 

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an auto-immune disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the joints resulting in inflammation that causes the tissue that lines the inside of joints to thicken. As result of this thickening, swelling and pain in and around the joints occur. If inflammation goes unchecked, it can damage the cartilage, the elastic tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint, as well as the bones themselves. Ultimately, it leads to even loss of cartilage. In women, it occurs earlier than in men. Having a family member with RA increases the odds of having RA.

As we age, the degeneration in joints of the body is inevitable despite best efforts to keep them well oiled. You cannot avert it. Sooner or later, you have to confront the age-triggered osteoarthritis and the resulting joint pain. But you can stop rheumatic arthritis from aging. And if you do not, it is going to be a double whammy in your old age. 

In India, according to orthopaedic specialists, people let rheumatoid arthritis go undiagnosed till it is too late. In old age, the mix of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis assumes very painful proportions, which is not easy for doctors to tackle at all. 

We can well avoid this terrible prospect in old age, provided we avoid letting rheumatoid arthritis fester. People resort to self medication to alleviate the pain, unmindful that the disease remains. People let it go undiagnosed for years together and consult a doctor only when pain becomes unbearable and fingers of hands and knee get badly deformed. It is a nightmarish prospect really. It is suggested that one should get themselves checked by a qualified physician.

If there is pain and inflammation in small joints is persisting for a few weeks and if it is associated with morning stiffness lasting over 45 minutes to one hour, there is a high probability that the patient is harbouring rheumatoid arthritis. Though rheumatoid arthritis is not curable but it can be effectively controlled and managed like we do with any other chronic disease, diabetes for instance.

It is advisable to not resort to pain killers for relief. There are specific medicines to manage rheumatoid arthritis. But if this disease is left to worsen for long, treatment gets increasingly difficult, so catching this disease young is the right way to avert this situation. A large number of people visit doctors for treatment of this arthritis but what we see is just the tip of the iceberg because this problem is highly underreported. Rheumatoid arthritis most commonly affects the joints of the hands, feet, wrists, elbows, knees and ankles.

For patients of rheumatoid arthritis, temptation to seek relief is very high and that is where most people err. They turn to all forms of convectional and non-conventional treatments and this temptation has been found to be a reason for worsening of the disease in many patients. 

Sometimes patients who visit for treatment ignore follow-up for multiple reasons, and when disease worsens, they finally return for treatment. Regular follow-up is also a must for limiting dose of medicine. The disease has a genetic predisposition coupled with some extraneous factors.

— The writer is an orthopaedic surgeon and managing director, Aakash Healthcare, New Delhi