In the minds of many people, rheumatism is nothing more than a change in weather, back pain and leg pain; some people inappropriately classify rheumatism into “rheumatism” and “rheumatoid”. In fact, rheumatism is a large group of diseases that mainly affect muscles, bones, joints and connective tissues. It includes autoimmune rheumatic diseases (such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatomyositis), degenerative rheumatic diseases (such as osteoarthritis), metabolic rheumatic diseases (such as gout, osteoporosis), etc. Are “wind” and “damp” really the culprits of rheumatic diseases? Since we were young, we have heard repeatedly from our families and neighbors that rheumatism is caused by “wind” and “dampness”. A typical example is that many people believe that after giving birth, if you blow or take a bath, you will get rheumatism in the future, so in the hot summer, women in labor hide in the hot house, not daring to fan, not daring to open the window, not daring to use air conditioning, not daring to wash their hair and take a bath. However, it is common for Westerners to sleep after childbirth, get up and take a shower as soon as their strength has recovered, and live in an air-conditioned or ventilated room, as do many Asian immigrants living in the West. It is true that people who have been subjected to cold stimulation (including cold wind and wet cold) for a long time are prone to joint pain; weather changes, especially on the eve of typhoons, often attack people with back pain and leg pain, and they can even make weather forecasts. Under physiological conditions, blood circulation does not reach the joint cavity, and joint cartilage is nourished by synovial fluid. In winter, if you wear less pants, you can often feel the kneecap (Bin bone) is relatively cold. If the cold stimulation for a long time, it will lead to damage and degeneration of joint cartilage, appearing or accelerating joint strain. As for weather changes and back pain, this is an allergic reaction of the damaged synovial membrane, cartilage, ligaments, and fibrous scar tissue to weather changes, as well as the reaction of the synovial cavity to changes in air pressure. It is not difficult to see that some people with traumatic fractures often feel sore when the weather changes after healing; some people with scars have red and itchy scars when the weather changes. This is the same reason. Why is rheumatism a difficult disease? Autoimmune rheumatic diseases are currently recognized as a difficult medical condition because they can invade any tissue in the body, and the complexity and diversity of their manifestations lead to frequent clinical misdiagnosis or underdiagnosis. The normal immune function is to fight against invaders (bacteria, viruses, etc.), foreign substances (e.g. organ transplants) and to remove self-mutated (cancer cells, etc.), senescent and necrotic cells. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune function is disturbed and one mistakenly uses one’s own tissue as an invader. In some autoimmune diseases, the targeting is very specific and damages only one tissue or organ. For example, damage to insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells leads to type I diabetes; damage to the glomerular basement membrane causes glomerulonephritis. Rheumatic diseases are very poorly targeted when immune dysfunction is present, leading to damage in multiple sites. For example, lupus erythematosus can damage any part of the body; rheumatoid arthritis not only damages joints, but also vasculitis also damages important organs such as kidneys, liver, and lungs. The medical profession is divided into various specialties according to physiology and anatomy, such as respiratory medicine, urology, dermatology, orthopedics, etc. When rheumatism involves multiple disciplines, it is often difficult to solve the problem by addressing only one specialty to the lesion, headache and foot pain, making it difficult for doctors of various specialties. Therefore, it has become a “difficult and complicated”. If the following problems occur, you need to find a rheumatologist in time to clarify whether it is rheumatism to avoid misdiagnosis: 1, various joint and muscle swelling and pain; 2, 2 or more systems or organs are damaged, such as nephritis + arthritis, rash + nephritis, arthralgia + pleural effusion, hepatitis + nephritis, etc.; 3, repeated or persistent fever for more than 1 month, the diagnosis is still unclear, various treatments are ineffective. Many clinically difficult diseases are actually very common rheumatic diseases. Although most rheumatic diseases are “incurable diseases”. However, in the past decade, the efficacy and prognosis have improved significantly. Rheumatism is no longer an “incurable disease”.