does rheumatoid arthritis affect your whole body?
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune inflammatory condition that causes pain, stiffness, and swelling, is most noted for its effects on the body's joints. But rheumatoid arthritis is also a systemic disease, meaning it can affect the whole body and lead to damage of major organs and even a shortened life span.
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Rheumatoid arthritis causes joint pain and swelling, reduced mobility and physical weakness. General tiredness, trouble sleeping and exhaustion are other common symptoms. All of these symptoms can greatly affect your everyday life and overall wellbeing.
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This chronic inflammatory arthritis affects two to three times as many women as men. Although RA is most commonly associated with joints of the hands and wrists, it can also affect larger joints, such as the hips, knees, and shoulders.
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If you have rheumatoid arthritis, there's a chance you're at an increased risk for ear problems such as varying levels of hearing loss as well as autoimmune inner ear disease. Not only that, but RA can also affect the teeny, tiny bones, joints, and even the cartilage contained within the ear.
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Usually, but not always, rheumatoid arthritis affects many joints. Classically, RA affects the small joints of the hands and wrists and balls of the feet. Also, not uncommonly, knees, elbows, hips, ankles, and shoulders can be inflamed.
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Rheumatoid arthritis can start in the smaller joints of your hands and feet. As the disease progresses, however, it can spread to other parts of your body like the neck. This doesn't typically happen until years after the onset of arthritis symptoms.
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Neuropsychiatric manifestations are quite common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a comprehensive review published in Autoimmunity Reviews. Though most commonly known for its destructive effects on joints, RA can also affect the central nervous system (CNS), spine, and brain.
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Rheumatoid arthritis is known to cause pain in the joints of the fingers and wrists. But it can also affect other parts of your body, like your neck. If your neck feels stiff and you have pain when you turn your head, it could be your rheumatoid arthritis.
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Although RA is most commonly associated with joints of the hands and wrists, it can also affect larger joints, such as the hips, knees, and shoulders. Symptoms of hip arthritis may occur later than those from RA affecting smaller joints.
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The disease commonly affects the hands, knees or ankles, and usually the same joint on both sides of the body. But sometimes, RA causes problems in other parts of the body as well, such as the eyes, heart and circulatory system and/or lungs.
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Rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that makes your immune system attack the lining of your joints, leading to inflammation. Chronic inflammation can speed up metabolism and reduce overall weight.
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Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity. The inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis is what can damage other parts of the body as well.
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It can cause problems in any joint in the body, although the small joints in the hands and feet are often the first to be affected. Rheumatoid arthritis typically affects the joints symmetrically (both sides of the body at the same time and to the same extent), but this is not always the case.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes a person's immune system to mistakenly attack healthy tissue. When left untreated, RA can have wide-ranging effects. Along with the joints, RA can affect many of the body's organs, including the heart, eyes, and brain, as well as the skeleton.
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While rheumatoid arthritis affects the body's joints, vasculitis is a condition in which blood vessels become inflamed. When blood vessels become inflamed, they may become weakened and increase in size, or become narrowed, sometimes to the point of stopping blood flow.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects joints on both sides of the body, such as both hands, both wrists, or both knees. This symmetry helps to set it apart from other types of arthritis. RA can also affect the skin, eyes, lungs, heart, blood, or nerves.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can affect any joint in your body, including those in your hands and fingers. You may have: Hand pain, finger pain, swelling, and stiffness.