Arthritis Symptoms: Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms in Women

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The first rheumatoid arthritis symptoms might be swelling and morning stiffness or just a general aching of the joints. In 90 percent of females, the first areas affected by rheumatoid arthritis are the feet and hands. The disease often influences the wrist and the finger joints closest to the palm, also as joints in the jaw, neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles and toes. Any joint within the body could be a target.

Inflammation can lead to body broad symptoms similar to low grade fever, flu like body aches, and a general feeling of not being well. You might also lose your appetite, lose weight, and feel as if yo have no energy. Fatigue is an extremely common symptom of RA and may first overtake you in the afternoon. Fatigue can be also a symptom of anemia, which often accompanies RA. Inflammation can impact the tear producing glands in the eyes and saliva producing glands in the mouth, so you might experience dry eyes and dry mouth. You can have muscle pain and stiffness after sitting or lying in one position for a long time. Depression also is common.

At 1st, all of these symptoms may not add up to much. Often a ladies will complain of joint pain to her doctor, and all which can be viewed in a puffiness of the hands, with no obvious redness or warmth. About one-quarter of women with RA develop elevated , company lumps called rheumatoid nodules. Rheumatoid nodules are in fact abnormal accumulations of cells, much like the synovial cells that we see accumulating within the joint, yet they generally occur just under the skin. Nodules often appear in an area where there's repeated pressure, just like on the elbows where you lean them on a table, or the finger joints. Since rheumatoid arthritis in hands is a systemic disease, nodules can show up in other places, just like the eye, the heart, the lungs. They could possibly be very destructive, very damaging, interrupting what ever is in their path of growth. And they might be disfiguring and disconcerting to patients.

Up to half of RA patients can develop inflammation in the linings of the chest and lungs, causing pain on taking a deep breath and breathlessness; rheumatoid nodules can appear in the lung tissues itself, not just the lining. Inflammation can affect the sac around the heart, producing fever, chest pain, a dry cough and difficulty breathing. Blood vessels may also be inflamed; a common sign is tiny broken blood vessels in the cuticle area of the nail bed.

You could 1st notice the symptoms of RA through the winter, and symptoms often feel worse throughout the cold months and improve in warm weather. As RA develops gradually in about 50 percent of women, with symptoms coming and going for months, a more continuing pattern gradually emerges. This disease desires to be diagnosed rapidly and treatment needs to be started fast. So that grows the value of having females recognize the signs and symptoms.