Rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is a terrible fact of life for most RA sufferers.
It occurs when the disease causes inflammation of the tendons, ligaments and joint linings.
Rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is generally divided into "acute" and "chronic.
" Acute rheumatoid arthritis pain is defined as temporary, lasting only a few seconds.
It goes away as healing occurs.
However, chronic RA pain lasts for weeks...
or longer.
As any sports doctor will tell you, "pain is our friend.
" Pain tells you when something is wrong.
It's your body declaring "Quit that!" Pain occurs when specialized cells called neurons transmit signals to the brain that something is wrong.
For example, when a piece of paper cuts your finger, although the trauma isn't life-threatening, your neurons protest to your brain that your body has been damaged.
A chemical signal travels from the affected neurons in the skin up through the nerves in your hand and arm and shoulder through the spinal cord to your brain, which responds by jerking your hand away.
That's acute pain.
Chronic rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is far more severe.
It begins with irritation and disruption of normal activities.
The pain increases as blood cells migrate into the joints, causing inflammation.
Next comes a wearing down of the joints' cartilage - the tough, soft tissue at the end of bones.
Swelling of the Teflon-like joint lining or "synovium" follows, then the disease starts producing fluid within the diseased joint lining.
All of this causes rheumatoid arthritis joint pain.
As the cartilage is worn away, the gap between the bones narrow.
Potentially, bones rub against each other.
All of this causes the joint to become extremely painful, swollen and feverish.
Incredibly, new research finds that increasing pain apparently can be a factor in intensifying RA.
Scientists found that nerve pathways carrying pain signals to the brain actually serve to transfer inflammation from arthritic joints to the spine and then back again to the original source of the pain.
The result is the spread of the disease to the spine.
These same studies show that if the nerve pathways repeatedly transmit pain signals, they become more sensitive over time, perhaps a basic survival trait - after all, if an action was painful the first time, the message is not to keep doing it.
Swelling and fever follow.
Although disfigurement and crippling is a terrible eventual result of untreated RA, the pain is what makes the disease so terrible.
At first, rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is not the worst symptom.
The patient may be tired, cranky, and lacking in appetite.
He or she may suffer from low fever, a loss of weight.
Other times multiple joints may become inflamed.
This usually happens simultaneously to both sides of the body - both wrists, both elbows, both knees and both ankles.
The patient may go through stiffness in the morning or after sitting very long.
Increasingly, the joints are tender and painful.
Muscles, too, become stiff, weak and painful.
The patient may complain of numbness and a loss of sensation in their fingers and toes - or tingling.
And the pain grows.
It occurs when the disease causes inflammation of the tendons, ligaments and joint linings.
Rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is generally divided into "acute" and "chronic.
" Acute rheumatoid arthritis pain is defined as temporary, lasting only a few seconds.
It goes away as healing occurs.
However, chronic RA pain lasts for weeks...
or longer.
As any sports doctor will tell you, "pain is our friend.
" Pain tells you when something is wrong.
It's your body declaring "Quit that!" Pain occurs when specialized cells called neurons transmit signals to the brain that something is wrong.
For example, when a piece of paper cuts your finger, although the trauma isn't life-threatening, your neurons protest to your brain that your body has been damaged.
A chemical signal travels from the affected neurons in the skin up through the nerves in your hand and arm and shoulder through the spinal cord to your brain, which responds by jerking your hand away.
That's acute pain.
Chronic rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is far more severe.
It begins with irritation and disruption of normal activities.
The pain increases as blood cells migrate into the joints, causing inflammation.
Next comes a wearing down of the joints' cartilage - the tough, soft tissue at the end of bones.
Swelling of the Teflon-like joint lining or "synovium" follows, then the disease starts producing fluid within the diseased joint lining.
All of this causes rheumatoid arthritis joint pain.
As the cartilage is worn away, the gap between the bones narrow.
Potentially, bones rub against each other.
All of this causes the joint to become extremely painful, swollen and feverish.
Incredibly, new research finds that increasing pain apparently can be a factor in intensifying RA.
Scientists found that nerve pathways carrying pain signals to the brain actually serve to transfer inflammation from arthritic joints to the spine and then back again to the original source of the pain.
The result is the spread of the disease to the spine.
These same studies show that if the nerve pathways repeatedly transmit pain signals, they become more sensitive over time, perhaps a basic survival trait - after all, if an action was painful the first time, the message is not to keep doing it.
Swelling and fever follow.
Although disfigurement and crippling is a terrible eventual result of untreated RA, the pain is what makes the disease so terrible.
At first, rheumatoid arthritis joint pain is not the worst symptom.
The patient may be tired, cranky, and lacking in appetite.
He or she may suffer from low fever, a loss of weight.
Other times multiple joints may become inflamed.
This usually happens simultaneously to both sides of the body - both wrists, both elbows, both knees and both ankles.
The patient may go through stiffness in the morning or after sitting very long.
Increasingly, the joints are tender and painful.
Muscles, too, become stiff, weak and painful.
The patient may complain of numbness and a loss of sensation in their fingers and toes - or tingling.
And the pain grows.