One of the misconceptions: rheumatic diseases only include rheumatic fever (including rheumatoid arthritis) and rheumatoid arthritis.
New understanding: Rheumatic diseases refer to a large group of diseases affecting bones, joints and their surrounding soft tissues, such as muscles, bursae, tendons and fascia; they involve a wide range of diseases, including connective tissue diseases, spondyloarthropathies, degenerative or metabolic osteoarthropathies and infectious arthritis, and more than one hundred diseases in ten categories.
Myth No. 2: Only the elderly suffer from rheumatic diseases.
New awareness: Not only the elderly, but all people of different ages, including children, can suffer from rheumatic diseases, and serious rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis are more common in young adults.
Myth No. 3: Rheumatism is caused by living and working in a humid environment.
New understanding: rheumatic diseases can occur in a variety of climatic environments and are mainly immune-related.
Myth No. 4: Rheumatic fever (including rheumatoid arthritis) can be diagnosed by joint swelling and pain coupled with an increase in anti “0”.
New understanding: rheumatic fever is currently a rare disease, so do not make the diagnosis of rheumatic fever indiscriminately. Anti-“0” elevation is only one of the evidence of streptococcal infection, and anti-“0” elevation is also common in patients with upper respiratory tract infections, so rheumatic fever cannot be diagnosed based on this alone. Because rheumatic fever should be treated and prevented with penicillin, while various other rheumatic diseases are not used.
Myth No. 5: Rheumatoid arthritis can be diagnosed in patients with arthralgia who have a positive rheumatoid factor, and rheumatoid arthritis can be ruled out if the rheumatoid factor is negative.
New understanding: rheumatoid factor is an autoantibody with degenerative IgG as the target antigen, it is not a specific diagnostic indicator of rheumatoid arthritis, in addition to rheumatoid arthritis, some other common rheumatic diseases and infectious diseases can also appear rheumatoid factor positive, and even normal people have 4% positive, therefore, rheumatoid factor positive is not necessarily rheumatoid arthritis. In rheumatoid arthritis, the rate of rheumatoid factor positivity is 70%, so rheumatoid arthritis cannot be ruled out based on a negative rheumatoid factor.
The diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis must depend on whether it meets the international diagnostic criteria, not just the rheumatoid factor.
Myth No. 6: Negative blood sedimentation, anti-“0”, rheumatoid factor, rheumatoid eight (anti-ENA antibody) and some other immune tests can exclude rheumatic diseases.
New understanding: the above tests can only detect some rheumatic diseases, and the positive rate is not 100%, there are many patients with rheumatic diseases may have negative test results, therefore, the diagnosis of rheumatic diseases can not be ruled out only by the negative results of the above tests.
Myth No. 7: rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatic diseases are not curable.
New understanding: In recent years, the rapid development of modern rheumatology disciplines has improved the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatic diseases, as long as the early diagnosis, seize the opportunity to give positive and correct comprehensive treatment measures, you can make the condition better, stable or remission, improve the quality of life. Otherwise, if treated negatively and irregularly, it may develop into serious disability or lead to serious complications and death.
Myth No. 8: Routine application of hormones for rheumatic diseases.
New understanding: It cannot be generalized, but should be considered according to different diseases and conditions as appropriate. How to apply hormones to treat rheumatic diseases is an art, and one must be familiar with the effects and toxic side effects of hormones before using them. For example, the use of hormones in rheumatoid arthritis cannot stop the development of the pathological process of arthritis and cannot cure it. Long-term use or improper use can also bring about many adverse reactions, which are even more harmful than rheumatoid arthritis itself.
Myth No. 9: rheumatism with Western medicine can only “cure the symptoms”, Chinese medicine can “cure the root”.
New understanding: Western medicine and Chinese medicine to treat rheumatic diseases have their own strengths, and in recent years the combination of Chinese and Western medicine to treat rheumatic diseases has achieved encouraging results. For example, the most important lesion of rheumatoid arthritis is bone and joint erosion and disability, a large number of clinical studies have found that some western drugs can achieve the “cure” of controlling the progress of the disease and preventing the occurrence of bone and joint erosion; while the long-term efficacy of the Chinese medicine Leigongteng is being studied, no other Chinese medicine has been found to prevent the occurrence of bone and joint erosion. “The long-term efficacy of the Chinese herbal medicine Leigongteng is being studied.
Myth No. 10: Western anti-rheumatic drugs have large adverse reactions, and traditional Chinese medicine has no adverse reactions or mild adverse reactions.
New understanding: anti-rheumatic western drugs do have certain adverse reactions, but they can be safely tolerated when used under the guidance of an experienced doctor and closely monitored for adverse reaction indicators. However, some of the anti-rheumatic herbal medicines are very toxic drugs, for example, Leigongteng can inhibit reproductive function and develop acute granulocyte deficiency, which can lead to serious consequences if applied blindly without careful monitoring by paralysis.