It's doctor Ashley Biscoe here with a short video for you.

Today I am going to talk to you guys about rheumatoid arthritis.

It is such a common condition and I know a lot of people out there have questions

about what are some of the earliest signs and symptoms are of rheumatoid arthritis.

And so that's what we'll talk about today.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory condition, it's an autoimmune.

Which means that the immune system is attacking certain tissues.

And in the case of rheumatoid arthritis the body is attacking the synovium.

Which is basically the lining of the membrane that surrounds the joints.

And so with rheumatoid arthritis a lot of people notice

a very gradual onset of symptoms, it can be very insidious

very sneaky. One of the earliest symptoms a person might notice

is pain or swelling in the small joints

and by small joints, I mean the tiny joints at the base

of the fingers, the knuckles and also the joints in the middle

of the fingers and also at the base of the toes.

Those are the first areas that rheumatoid arthritis

is going to affect before it spreads to the larger joints

like the hips and the shoulders.

Another very common early symptom is morning stiffness.

A person wakes up and they have a hard time getting

moving, walking, getting out of bed and walking around

and it can take 30 minutes or more for that stiffness to go away.

That's another symptom.

When a person has a lot of immune symptom activation

going on or a lot of inflammation happening

they might even feel sick. A general sense of

malaise, fatigue, fly like symptoms, loss of appetite

and sometimes even weight loss.

The other thing to keep in mind with rheumatoid arthritis

is that there are a lot of different types of arthritis

and so don't expect to go to the doctor and get a diagnosis

in the first visit, there is a lot of testing that needs to be

done to be able to figure out exactly what type of

arthritis you have or if you have arthritis at all.

It's very easy to confuse rheumatoid arthritis for

something else, it's a easy to explain it away

Maybe a person thinks their finger hurts because

they have been using a computer a lot

or maybe a person thinks that their toes are hurting

because they have been wearing high heels.

But one of the biggest clues that what's

happening is in fact an inflammatory condtion

like RA or rheumatoid arthritis is that there will be

a symmetrical pattern to the pain, so in other words

if a person has pain in their left hand over the knuckles

they might have a similar pain also in their right hand

and that's a big clue. Another clue for me as a clinition

is when a person reports that they have morning

stiffness that takes 30 minutes or more to go away

I'm thinking that there is something deeper going on

In the case of osteoarthritis or maybe just overuse at the gym

you would expect the morning stiffness to go away

within minutes after waking up. So if you've got symptoms

of pain and swelling in the joints of a knuckles

and the middles of the fingers or at the base of toes

You've got morning stiffness that takes more than 30

minutes to go away. If you've got the feeling of fatigue

or malaise, loss of appetite. Those can all be signs

that you're dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and it's

really important to get in and get evaluated, go see

your doctor so that you can start an appropriate treatment.

The other big clue with rheumatoid arthritis or I should

say it's really more of a tip, is that there is a lot of

correlation with rheumatoid arthritis and infections

There is a lot of research now showing that certain

bacteria and viruses can actually initiate and propetuate

the autoimmune response that causes destruction

of the joint tissue. And so one of the things that you can

do to prevent that process or to stop that process

is to really take care of your gut. I have a free download

for you. I highly recommend that you download our

Quick Start Guide to a Healthy Gut. The link is in the

description bar and that gives a lot of important

information about simple things you can do

to get started to protect the health of your gut,

which will protect the health of your immune system,

which will help you get back on track so that you can prevent

RA or if you're dealing with RA, it'll certainly help you

along your recovery. Comment down below and let me know

if you guys have any more questions. Let me know what

topics you guys are interested in hearing about.

Type any questions you have and I'll be happy to answer them.