RA can shorten your life expectancy by an average of 10 years compared to people who don't have the disease. But people with RA are living longer than ever before. Though the disease may still affect life expectancy, it doesn't have as much impact as it did in the past.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes pain and swelling in different joints in the body and can also affect the internal organs. It's possible to live a long life with RA, but it is estimated that the disease can potentially reduce life expectancy by 3 to 10 years.
End-stage rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an advanced stage of disease in which there is severe joint damage and destruction in the absence of ongoing inflammation.
Bone erosion and destruction of cartilage can happen quickly within the first two years that you have rheumatoid arthritis, and the damage may continue to develop over time.
You can get rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at any age, but it's most likely to show up between ages 30 and 50. When it starts between ages 60 and 65, it's called elderly-onset RA or late-onset RA.
The joint pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis is usually a throbbing and aching pain. It is often worse in the mornings and after a period of inactivity.
Stage 3 RA is considered severe because the damage extends from the cartilage to the bones, causing increased pain, swelling, mobility loss, and deformity. If left untreated, RA can reach stage 4, which is considered end stage RA. At this stage, the bones become fused, and the joints stop working.
RA is a very serious autoimmune disease, in which your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body's tissues and causes severe joint pain, stiffness, severe fatigue, and sometimes deformity, usually in the hands, shoulders, knees, and/or feet.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that primarily affects the joints. However, rheumatoid arthritis occasionally affects other parts of the body — including the eyes. The most common eye-related symptom of rheumatoid arthritis is dryness.
RA leads to joint damage, too. That can cause disability, and some people end up needing serious medical treatments like joint replacement surgery. It can hurt other parts of the body, too, like the eyes, heart, and lungs.
RA patients had a 1.2 times higher risk of dementia than controls (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.19, 95% CI 1.16–1.23). In patients with RA, the aHR for Alzheimer's disease (AD) was 1.21 (95% CI 1.67-1.25) and the aHR for vascular dementia (VD) was 1.10 (95% CI 0.99-1.21).
RA is a chronic condition with no known cure. People do not die from RA. However, it can lead to serious complications that can compromise overall health. A person with RA may have a reduced life expectancy.
Many people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can silence their symptoms and halt progression of the disease thanks to biologics, targeted DMARDs and more aggressive treatment approaches. Yet some patients who achieve remission struggle to sustain it.
Overexertion, poor sleep, stress or an infection like the flu can all set off RA symptoms. With a predictable flare you'll temporarily feel worse, but your symptoms will resolve in time. Unpredictable flares have more uncertainty associated with them.
Heredity and RA
"RA, like many autoimmune diseases, is quite heritable and unfortunately tends to cluster in families," says Hu. "Many genetic studies have gone into identifying genes that predispose individuals to the risk of RA."
Weight-bearing exercises, such as walking, can help prevent a loss of bone density (osteoporosis), which can result from rheumatoid arthritis. Studies indicate that exercise will not worsen rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition can damage a wide variety of body systems, including the skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels.
Water helps cushion your joints, which RA and other types of arthritis affect. It's important to keep your joints working as well as possible when you have RA or other joint-related conditions. Water can also help reduce inflammation in your body by flushing out toxins.
If you have RA, joint pain can range from mild to moderate or severe. Sometimes it can feel like a sprain or broken bone. Some areas of your body may even be painful to the touch.
The Bright Side
Sun helps the body synthesize vitamin D, which is essential for bone health and a well-functioning immune system; vitamin D deficiency has been linked to autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
There are more than 100 types of arthritis and related diseases. Two of the most common types are rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). OA is more common than RA. Both involve inflammation in the joints, but RA causes much more inflammation.