Rheumatoid Arthritis - Autoimmune Disease 

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Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the autoimmune diseases. It is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect parts of the body such as the skin and joints. It shares symptoms that are common with other autoimmune diseases. 

If a person is found to have an autoimmune disease,  the immune system mistakenly attacks itself and targets the tissues, cells and organs of the person’s own body. 

This particular disease affects mostly joints of the hands and feet and tends to be symmetrical. This means the disease affects the same joints on both sides of the body (like both hands or both feet) at the same time and with the same symptoms. No other form of arthritis is symmetrical. About two to three times as many women as men have this type of disease. 

It is one of the most common types of rheumatic diseases and affects a person's joints, causing discomfort and pain. The range of motion in a joint can lessen, making it harder for a person to perform daily activities. Sometimes the joint can lose all function (not be able to move). 

Diagnosing rheumatic diseases  can be difficult because some symptoms are common to many different diseases. Your health care provider will first do a complete physical exam, looking for any swelling, redness, warmth, deformity, ease of movement, and tenderness in your joints. Your heart, lungs, eyes, ears, throat and other parts of your body may be examined as well. This is because some types of arthritis can affect your organs.  

The causes of   autoimmune diseases  are not known. It is known that some autoimmune diseases seem to run in families. However, the diseases may show up as different illnesses in different family members. For example, a grandmother may have lupus, her daughter diabetes, and her mother rheumatoid arthritis. 

A doctor can diagnose autoimmune diseases asking a patient about her symptoms and in addition by looking at laboratory tests. Autoimmune diseases are difficult to diagnose, especially in the early stages. In some cases, a diagnosis cannot be made and the patient must continue with many visits to the doctor.    

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