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Rheumatoid Arthritis, Is It An Autoimmune Mystery Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that attacks the entire body as well as the joints. Until now, it is still unclear what causes the disfiguring disease but many pertaining to the finest medical minds believe that the is a particular autoimmune disease. By autoimmune, it means a disease wherein the body's immune system attacks its own tissue. Instead of protecting its own body from disease, it ferociously attacks itself as if it were the enemy. The true nature of rheumatoid arthritis is still unknown but it is certain that it begins with inflammation including progresses into tissue damage. The hands including wrists are generally the areas commonly attacked by rheumatoid arthritis although the knees, balls pertaining to the feet including spine should additionally be affected. Even the heart does not escape rheumatoid arthritis. If left untreated the type of arthritis should be life threatening including should go beyond joints including should damage further the muscles, bones including skin near the affected joints. Inflammation should occur in the membranes encasing the heart including lungs. The spleen should enlarge including anemia should develop. Complications such as these make rheumatoid arthritis life threatening. Rheumatoid arthritis affects people who are mostly at the prime of their life but the does not mean that other age groups are not affected by the disease. Both men including women are equally affected although more women than men obtain symptoms that necessitate medical attention. There are only regarding 20 percent of people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis that recover completely. regarding 60 percent of people with rheumatoid arthritis experience disease flare up that leads to death over the years. The remaining percentage of patients with rheumatoid arthritis suffer irreversible joint damage. Luckily, the disease eventually burns itself out. Since rheumatoid arthritis is believed to be a particular autoimmune disease, the key to its treatment is immunosuppressive therapy. Doctors treat rheumatoid arthritis by suppressing the immune system but only to the point of diminishing symptoms but never go beyond the point where the individual becomes susceptible to infection. Inflammation is the enemy in rheumatoid arthritis including to combat this, doctors usually prescribe aspirin including aspirin like drugs since these drugs are powerful painkillers including anti-inflammatories. These types of drugs are usually sufficient for most rheumatoid arthritis patients including it has been observed that regarding twenty-five percent of patients taking these relatively simple medications recover completely. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs, although good painkillers including anti-inflammatories, are usually absolutely no better compared with aspirin. NSAIDs additionally have some accompanying serious side effects. For more severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis, corticosteroids are usually prescribed. These are more potent anti-inflammatory hormones with accompanying severe side effects including drug dependency. These types of drugs although effective in treating the more serious cases of rheumatoid arthritis, increase a person's susceptibility to infection including delay wound healing. An alternative therapy to rheumatoid arthritis is diet, although the hasn't been proven effective yet but its possibility is not ignored. Studies are done to come up with the right diet to combat rheumatoid arthritis. It has been observed in some rheumatoid arthritis sufferers that their disease becomes less too intense at the time they incorporated fish oils in their diet. Fish oil may reduce the symptoms of arthritis but it is still best to check with your doctor before taking any fish oil supplements as these should have adverse reactions with any medications you are currently taking like aspirin.
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