In daily life, some people are “phobic” at the mention of “rheumatism”, thinking that “rheumatism is an immortal cancer”, “rheumatism will be disabled Some people even mistakenly believe that “rheumatism is divided into rheumatism and rheumatoid, and high anti-‘O’ and rheumatoid factor can diagnose rheumatism and rheumatoid respectively”, and “lupus is an infectious disease with spots on the face”. Lupus is an infectious disease with long spots on the face” and so on. These misconceptions and perceptions of people have given the charlatans a ground for survival, and their homemade “ancestral recipes for rheumatism” have harmed many people, so it is necessary to popularize the basic knowledge of rheumatism.
Medical case record
The family lives in Century City, Lu Da Ma is 77 years old, when the young dry decades of hard physical work to raise children, now all six children have grown up, the children are quite successful, but also particularly filial. The original can take care of the old age, but Lu Da Ma is increasingly plagued by leg pain, the most serious time can not even go downstairs, not to mention the old partners and climbing the fragrant mountain, dance, boxing.
The children are also very anxious to see this, as long as you can buy the cream, all to the old mother paste, this magnetic therapy device, that massage ball, all on the battlefield, but ultimately no relief. After a careful examination by Professor Liu Xiangyuan of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at the North Medical Center, Auntie Lu was diagnosed with “osteoarthritis combined with osteoporosis”, a common disease, and after regular treatment, her leg pain began to ease and her quality of life was greatly improved.
Rheumatism: 2000 years of human struggle
Compared to many diseases, mankind’s understanding of rheumatism is very early, only in the past two thousand years, has not been able to find any special way to deal with it.
According to records, as early as the fourth century BC, “rheumatism” was interpreted in ancient Greek as “flow and inflammation”, and by the early nineteenth century, “rheumatism” was defined as a variety of aches and pains In the early nineteenth century, “rheumatism” was defined as a generic term for various aches and pains. Modern medicine considers “rheumatism” as a general term for a large group of diseases that have different causes but have in common the involvement of joints and surrounding soft tissues, with pain, swelling and impaired movement as the main clinical manifestations.
”Rheumatic diseases” is a large group of diseases, covering a wide range of diseases, including hundreds of specific diseases, can be broadly divided into diffuse connective tissue diseases (including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, polymyositis/dermatomyositis, vasculitis and dry syndrome, etc.), seronegative spondyloarthropathies and osteoarthritis and other ten categories. Among them, the most common are about twenty kinds, not “only rheumatic and rheumatoid two”.
Pain in joints and soft tissues should be alerted
Pain is the main symptom of rheumatic diseases, especially pain originating from joints and soft tissues around joints is most likely to indicate rheumatic diseases. Patients with pain in joints, neck and shoulder, lower back and heel should visit the rheumatology department of a regular hospital.
In addition, unexplained myalgia, muscle weakness, rash, photosensitivity, oral and vulvar ulcers, dry mouth and eyes, whitening of fingers (toes) when exposed to cold (Raynaud’s sign), multi-system damage and fever also indicate the possibility of rheumatism and should be promptly seen by the rheumatology department and have relevant examinations.
Each rheumatic disease has different characteristics and treatment, and its diagnosis is mainly based on the patient’s clinical characteristics, experiments and special tests, and not based on a certain laboratory index, and never “high anti-‘O’ is rheumatic, high rheumatoid factor is rheumatoid “It is not a diagnosis based on a certain laboratory index. The main purpose of a rheumatologist’s visit is to diagnose which specific rheumatic disease a patient with rheumatic symptoms has, and to choose the best treatment plan.
Prevent infection and improve health care to stay away from rheumatic diseases
So far, the causes and pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases are not well understood, but it is certain that they are not caused by a single factor, but are the result of multiple factors such as genetics, environment, infection, autoimmunity and endocrine action. For example, the common development of ankylosing spondylitis is associated with intestinal and urinary tract infections and genetic HLA-B27. Therefore, for healthy people whose parents and siblings have ankylosing spondylitis, it is best to prevent various infections, such as not entering unclean food, avoiding colds, diarrhea and painful urination.
Patients with allergies should try to minimize hair dyeing, avoid strong ultraviolet radiation, less exposure to toxic chemicals, pay attention to the environmental protection of home decoration, etc. In addition, it is also important to maintain a good mood and avoid living in a humid and dark environment for a long time.
Dance with wolves and live with the disease after regular treatment
Most of the diagnosed rheumatic diseases including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and dry syndrome are difficult to be completely cured, but regular treatment can completely control the development of the disease. The patient can maintain a “disease-free” state and live a normal life for a long time, that is, “dancing with the wolf and living with the disease”.
As rheumatism patients, they should actively cooperate with doctors’ treatment, especially they should come to the hospital for regular follow-ups after discharge, and they can come more frequently in the first few months, such as once in half a month to once in a month, and then the interval can be gradually extended as the condition is controlled and the amount of drugs is reduced. The main purpose of the follow-up is to monitor the adverse drug reactions and disease activity, and adjust the drugs at any time.
Don’t trust the words of charlatans
All rheumatology patients are advised to visit rheumatology and immunology specialists in regular hospitals. Many “charlatans” take advantage of the psychology of patients, under the banner of “medicine to get rid of the disease”, blowing up, misdiagnosing and mis-treating, harming a lot of people. Recently, the so-called “cure rheumatism elixir pills” were found to contain “dexamethasone (hormone), inflammation and pain Xikang, stomach medicine and vitamins”, all of which are drugs that treat the symptoms but not the root cause and can cause many adverse reactions with long-term use. These drugs are all curative but not curative, and long-term use can cause many adverse effects, including femoral necrosis, obesity, gastrointestinal ulcers and perforation.
In addition, patients must take their medication as prescribed by their doctors, and should not take the initiative to adjust or stop their medication on their own, especially for patients taking hormones, especially not suddenly. Patients with different diseases have different precautions, such as patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon must pay attention to local and general warmth; patients with ankylosing spondylitis should sleep on hard beds, maintain good posture, and do more functional exercises and swimming. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the chronic phase must perform more functional exercises of the joints to prevent joint deformities. Patients taking hormones for a long time should pay attention to monitoring blood electrolytes, blood lipids, blood sugar, blood pressure, intraocular pressure and bone density, and take calcium and active vitamin D to prevent osteoporosis.