Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the immune system of the human body attacks and destroys the tissues that are responsible for making the joints. As a result, the joints tend to become swollen, stiff, and painful. As the disease become severe, the joints can look deformed and take a bad shape. The disease can also effect a lot of other parts of the body as well. These include your lungs, heart, blood vessels, and eyes. According to the statistics, it has been shown that more than 1 percent of the U.S. population suffers from RA. The age group that is most likely to get prone to this disease are people between 30 and 60, but it can occur at any age.

Symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Some of the early as well as most common symptoms of this disease are: Stiffness, swelling, and pain in and around certain joints. This situation normally happens when you don't move your joints for a long period of time (for example, when waking). The most affected area include joints of  hands, fingers, wrists, ankles, feet, elbows, and knees. Generally, the fact is that if a particular joint on the right side of your body is affected with rheumatoid arthritis, then the same joint on the left side will
also get affected in the same way. It is a natural process. You tend to have a feeling of tiredness as well as run-down with swollen lymph glands. Other symptoms include frequent development of low fever, you don't feel like eating anything, and weight loss.

Here are the major Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms.

  • Joint pain, there is usually pain in several joints.
  • Stiffness in the joints.
  • Inflammation is common around effected joints.
  • Swelling of effected joints and surrounding areas.
  • Small bumps called nodules may appear around the joints that are likely to be effected from the disease.
Here are some early symptoms:
  • Fatigue
  • Morning stiffness (lasting more than 1 hour)
  • Widespread muscle aches
  • Loss of appetite
  • Weakness
Other arthritis symptoms that may show up in the later stages
  • Anemia due to failure of the bone marrow
  • Eye burning, itching, and discharge
  • Hand and feet deformities
  • Limited range of motion
  • Low-grade fever
  • Lung inflammation (pleurisy)
  • Numbness or tingling
  • Paleness
  • Round, painless nodules under the skin (this happens in the later stage)
  • Skin redness or inflammation
  • Swollen glands