What is rheumatoid arthritis? Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA for short, is a common rheumatic disease characterized by chronic, destructive arthropathy and symmetric polyarthritis, mainly affecting the peripheral joints, such as the wrist joints of the hands, the metacarpophalangeal joints, the proximal interphalangeal joints, the elbow joints, the knee joints, the ankle joints, the temporomandibular joints, and so on, which may develop at any age, and is more common in the age group of 30-50 years old, with a male-female ratio of 1:3. RA is characterized by pain, swelling and morning stiffness in the diseased joints, which can lead to deformity and loss of function. In addition to arthritis, rheumatoid nodules may appear, causing damage to the eyes, lungs, heart, nerves, blood and other systems. The detection of various autoantibodies is beneficial to the diagnosis of the disease: such as rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cyclic citrulline (CCP), anti-mutant citrulline wave proteins (MCV), anti-glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI), anti-perinuclear factor (APF), anti-keratin antibodies (AKA), anti-RA33 and so on. In the acute stage, there are elevated blood sedimentation, CRP and other inflammatory indexes, ultrasonography can detect synovitis, which is helpful for early diagnosis, and X-ray examination can detect joint destruction.RA’s destruction of joints is continuous development, and joint destruction progresses rapidly in the early stage of the disease, and the disability rate is as high as 25% within 2 years, and as high as 70% within 3 years.The disability rate of RA exceeds cerebrovascular disease, and it becomes the disease with the highest degree of disability. Patients who are treated early and aggressively achieve higher rates and longer periods of remission. How to treat Treatment is based on drugs to improve the condition, commonly used drugs include: methotrexate, leflunomide, salazosulfapyridine, hydroxychloroquine, tretinoin polyphenols, elamod, total paeoniflora glycosides, etc.; small and medium dose glucocorticosteroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Yunker, etc., may be applied in the acute stage of arthritis; high dose glucocorticosteroids and immunosuppressants such as cyclophosphamide are needed when there are severe extra-articular lesions; refractory RA can be Application of biological agents, such as tumor necrosis factor antagonist. In addition to medication, when the joint swelling and pain are not obvious, attention should be paid to the functional exercise of the hand! Action 1: up and down swing: arms flat on the table, palms down Step 1: take the wrist joint as the fulcrum, raise the hand upward, posture similar to greet others, try to achieve the maximum swing; Step 2: take the wrist joint as the fulcrum, the hand is gradually lowered and lower than the plane of the wrist joint, the forearm has the feeling of pulling forward; Step 3: hold for 6 seconds to relax. Action 2: left and right hand: elbow support on the table, the back of the hand to face their own First step: the wrist joint as the fulcrum, the hand to the direction of the little finger askew; second step: the wrist joint as the fulcrum, the hand to the direction of the thumb to fall, the posture as a shaking hand. Action 3: one by one on the finger The first step: with the finger contact with the thumb; the second step: with the middle finger contact with the thumb; the third step: with the ring finger contact with the thumb; the fourth step: with the little finger contact with the thumb. Action 4: Fist stretching The first step: five fingers flexed, clenched into a fist; the second step: five fingers to release, try to straighten. You can also get up in the morning to wash your face with warm water to soak your hands for 10 to 15 minutes, while kneading the joints with kneading the joints, can effectively alleviate the morning stiffness; there is time to do it again at night before going to bed; patients with swollen and painful feet to do the same thing every night to do the feet of the water bath.