Rheumatism is generally wandering joint pain throughout the body, with knee pain being the majority. There is general malaise, lethargy, poor appetite, weight loss, and muscle pain. There is redness, swelling, tenderness, very painful when moving, and stiffness, and in severe cases, joint deformity can occur.
Early symptoms.
1. The initial onset is slow, with symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, weight loss, poor appetite, low fever, and numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.
2. The proximal interphalangeal joints are cicatricially enlarged and most common. This is followed by metacarpophalangeal, toe, wrist, knee, elbow, ankle, shoulder and hip joints.
3, joint involvement often starts from the small joints in the distal extremities, and then involves other joints later. This is one of the early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
4.The joints are painful and swollen, symmetrical, and the surrounding skin is warm and flushed, causing pain when moving automatically or passively.
5.The affected joints become stiff and deformed, and the knees, elbows, fingers, and wrists are fixed in the flexed position and eventually immobilized.
6.The muscles near the joint become stiff and atrophied.
A few preventive measures.
1. Strive for early diagnosis and early treatment
Although the disability rate of this disease is relatively high, if early diagnosis and early treatment are obtained, its development can still be controlled or even cured. Therefore, if the general knowledge of the disease can be popularized, doctors and patients suffering from joint swelling and pain can be vigilant enough about the disease to improve the diagnosis and treatment, control the development of the disease, reduce the disability rate and increase the ability to work.
2.Strengthen exercise, enhance physical fitness
Regular participation in physical exercise or productive work, such as health care gymnastics, qigong, taijiquan, radio gymnastics, walking, etc., is of great benefit. Anyone who adheres to physical exercise, the body is strong, strong resistance to disease, rarely fall ill, and its ability to resist the wind, cold and dampness than the average person who has not gone through physical exercise is much stronger.
3, to avoid the wind, cold and damp attack
Most patients before the onset or recurrence of the disease have a history of cold after sweating, exposure to cold water, these factors play an important role in the development of the disease. In spring and autumn, there is a lot of rain, which is a good season for rheumatoid arthritis, so it is important to prevent cold, rain and moisture, and to keep the joints warm and not to wear wet clothes, wet shoes, wet socks, etc. There are few people who develop rheumatoid arthritis because of sleeping on slabs of stone, concrete floors or long periods of cold water immersion. In autumn, the climate is dry, but the autumn breeze is cool, so it is important to prevent the wind and cold from attacking the joints, and in winter, the wind is cold and bony, so it is important to keep warm.
In addition, some occupations are working in the wet and cold environment, such as underground, open-air work, etc., must pay attention to the use of labor protective equipment, labor or labor, do not take advantage of the warm body sweat will enter the water bath. Mattresses and covers should be diligently washed and dried to keep clean and dry, and sweat from labor, when the wind blows, underwear should be replaced and washed in time after sweating.
4, pay attention to the combination of work and rest
Traditional Chinese medicine has always advocated a diet, regular living, is the main measure to strengthen health care. Excessive exertion, loss of vitality, wind, cold and dampness can take advantage of the weakness and enter. Clinically, some patients with rheumatoid arthritis, although the basic control of the disease in the recovery period, but often due to fatigue and re-aggravation or relapse, so, to combine work and rest, activities and rest to moderate.
5, maintain a normal psychological state
Some patients are triggered by mental stimulation, excessive sadness, mood depression, etc.; and after suffering from the disease, emotional fluctuations often aggravate the disease. Mental (or psychological) factors have a certain influence on the disease. Modern immunological research proves that the immune function of the body is also regulated by neurological and endocrine factors. Therefore, maintaining a normal psychological state is important to maintain the normal immune function of the body. Chinese medicine recognizes that the seven emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, thought, grief, fear, shock) can affect the normal function of the internal organs, mainly affecting the internal organs of the qi, so that the qi lift is out of balance, qi and blood dysfunction, the ability to resist disease is reduced, susceptible to external invasion and disease.
6, prevention and control of infection
Some rheumatoid arthritis develops after suffering from infectious diseases such as tonsillitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, chronic cholecystitis and dental caries. It is believed that this is due to the body’s immune response to the pathogens of these infections that cause the disease. Therefore, it is also important to prevent infections and control the infected lesions in the body.