Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, progressive, systemic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease for which there is no current cure. However, there are important and effective advances which have made it possible to put this disease into remission.

The most important advances in treatment in the last 25 years have been the use of methotrexate as a disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) and the use of biologic therapies to get this disease into remission.

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My mother in law was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease about 12 years ago. Now she is showing symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am making her go to the doctor tomorrow but are the two diseases related??? Is it common to get Rheumatoid Arthritis with Hashimoto’s Disease??? I love her to death and I just want to get the best info possible to help her.

Thanks for any info!!!
I know because I have researched the disease and its symptoms. She shows just about every symptom. She has refused to go to the doctor for the last 3 weeks to get it diagnosed. IF it is something else then I hope it is something less severe.

Four rather unusual and rare diseases are now being grouped together by medical investigators as a result of information derived from recent research. Their names, which are little known to the public, are polyarteritis nodosa, diffuse lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, and dermatomyositis.

They resemble each other in that all of them represent disturbances of connective tissue in the body, in contrast to glandular tissue or surface secreting tissue. The connective tissue of the body includes what is elastic and the material between the cells. Sometimes tumors consist almost wholly of connective or fibrous tissue. The walls of blood vessels contain much tissue of this type.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, progressive, systemic, autoimmune disease for which there is no current cure. It is a common disorder affecting more than 2.1 million Americans.

Patients who present with complications of RA outside the joints- what is termed extra-articular disease- are at particular risk for early death. Extraarticular problems that can be seen in RA include, skin ulcers, anemia, eye inflammation, lung inflammation and damage, heart disease, inflammation of blood vessels, and rheumatoid nodules(these are bumps consisting of inflamed tissue that grow at certain areas such as the fingers, elbows, heels, and back of the skull).

A predictor of the presence of extra-articular disease is the level of rheumatoid factor in the blood. The higher the rheumatoid factor, the more likely a patient will have extra-articular disease.

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My doctor has started to run some blood tests to determine whether or not I have rheumatoid arthritis. I have been doing some research on it and I don’t think I have RA, but I am not the doctor. I am just hoping that maybe there is something else less severe that I may have.
Symptoms being for about a month now; pains in hands-knuckles and wrists, stiff feeling up to elbows. Back pains, stiffness, knee pains and stiffness. When I say stiffness, I mean it feels like sandpaper in between my joints. Its worst in the morning and when I am trying to go to bed. Doc’s suggest I take Aleve, but I have been along with Ibuprofen with no success of pain relief.
Also I am a 25 yr old male, in good/decent health. Well until now…

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis: What Now, Old Peoples Disease Being Caught By Kids?

We all know that arthritis, inflammation of bone joints, is normally associated with an illness affecting people over the age of 50. Therefore it will come as a massive surprise to parents when their children are diagnosed with it. Even more surprising is the fact that approximately 300,000 children in the United States alone have some form of arthritis, and that we the public are totally unaware of this fact.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis : Is It A Debilitating Disease?

Like other degenerative diseases, rheumatoid arthritis is on the increase, in fact currently this disease affects about one percent of the population of the United states and the statistics show that this figure is growing fast. Therefore it is important that an understanding of what rheumatoid arthritis is and what the signs are become well known throughout society so that sufferers can get an early diagnosis and relevant lifestyle changes be implemented before the symptoms become to serious.

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Since for the case of RA The inflammation often tends to occur equally on both sides of the body Is there any other disease with the same symptoms such as joint swelling, redness ,…. ?