When it comes to rheumatoid arthritis, it is widely believed to be an “incurable disease” or even an “undead cancer”. Indeed, rheumatoid arthritis is an incurable rheumatic disease, medical science was once helpless to do anything about it, and many patients in the past suffered from the pain of the disease for a long time, eventually leading to the end of joint deformation and disability. However, in the past decade or so, modern medicine has significantly improved the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, and the goal of treatment is no longer limited to “symptom control”, but rather “remission”, stopping joint destruction and preventing disability. To achieve this goal, the key is “early standardized treatment”. Unfortunately, there are still many “misconceptions” about the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The rheumatoid arthritis treatment myths Myth 1: self-selected rheumatic drugs Because rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease, can not yet be completely eradicated. Many rheumatism patients have been sick for a long time, often shopping for their own drugs, or friends and relatives from Hong Kong, Macao or abroad to buy some so-called special drugs for treatment. The composition of these drugs is only dexamethasone (a long-acting hormone that should not be taken for a long time), anti-inflammatory pain and vitamins. The Chinese instructions, however, state that “this product is composed entirely of herbal formulas and vitamins” and that it is a special medicine for rheumatism. It is true that patients feel very relieved from pain in the early stage of taking the drugs, but these drugs cannot really relieve the disease, and long-term use of the joints are still seriously deformed, and may bring gastrointestinal damage (even gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation), osteoporosis, infection, diabetes and other adverse reactions. Therefore, self-selected rheumatic drugs are very prone to danger, and will make the original simple condition becomes complicated. Misconception 2: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are often very anxious. On the one hand, because the pain and swelling of the joints all over the body seriously affects work and life, on the other hand, they are worried about joint deformation and disability, and look for “famous doctors and secret recipes” everywhere for a cure. All the “famous doctors” have searched everywhere, the size of newspapers, television, advertising on the “rheumatic drugs” have tried. A few years down the road, not only to see a doctor to take medicine spent a lot of money, and more harm is to delay the timing of treatment, joint damage and deformation in the end. Myth 3: Western medicine has a lot of side effects, but Chinese medicine has no side effects In fact, “every medicine is poisonous”. Both Western and Chinese medicines have certain toxic side effects. For example, the Chinese medicine Leigongteng has greater ovarian toxicity than western medicine, and long-term application can inhibit reproductive function and early menopause, and may also affect liver function and white blood cells. Do not pursue a one-sided treatment with no side effects, as many of the “silver bullet” type drugs do not work at all. Of course, experienced doctors will try to choose an individualized treatment plan with good therapeutic effects and no obvious adverse reactions according to the patient’s specific situation, and closely monitor the indicators of adverse reactions to improve the safety of medication. Myth 4: Stop taking medication when the joints don’t hurt Some patients stop taking medication after a period of treatment when they find that their symptoms have reduced. In fact, the improvement of clinical symptoms and the complete remission of the disease is not the same, no pain may only be a superficial phenomenon, arbitrary discontinuation of drugs to relieve the disease, the lesion will continue to move forward. The drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis include those that control the symptoms and those that relieve the condition, with those that relieve the condition taking effect relatively slowly. Rheumatoid arthritis requires long-term treatment. The key to effectively stop joint destruction is “early” and “standardized treatment” 1. Early treatment Rheumatoid arthritis cartilage or bone destruction can occur within 3 months of the onset. The internationally recognized treatment window (i.e., the best time for treatment) is within 3 months of disease onset. Numerous clinical cases confirm that most joint erosions in rheumatoid arthritis occur within the first 1-2 years of disease onset. At this point, if appropriate treatment is not given immediately, it can lead to joint deformity and impaired function, making the disease more difficult to treat and reducing the patient’s quality of life. Therefore, it is advocated that once the symptoms appear, you should go to the rheumatology department of a regular hospital as soon as possible. 2, standardized treatment: At present, the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis drugs are divided into several categories. One is to control the symptoms of the drug, also known as the symptoms of the drug, mainly including anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve pain; another category is to relieve the disease, also known as the root of the drug, mainly including immunosuppressive drugs and other slow-acting drugs (DMARDs). The standardized treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is the early use of these disease-relieving anti-rheumatic drugs. This is because only this class of drugs can control the disease and stop joint destruction and deformation. The American College of Rheumatology has released the latest treatment guidelines for rheumatoid arthritis to the world. The Chinese Society of Rheumatology in China has also developed relevant treatment guidelines that further emphasize the importance of early standardized treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Another new class of drugs is the biological agents (tumor necrosis factor antagonists), which mainly target some patients with more active arthritis and achieve better efficacy. Specialists should use a combination of palliative anti-rheumatic drugs according to the severity of the disease. Methotrexate is the drug of choice and is the centerpiece of the combination therapy regimen. Although methotrexate is currently recognized as the most effective drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis worldwide, it was approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of active rheumatoid arthritis as early as 1988. However, in China, it is still listed as an “anti-tumor drug” in the manual, which inevitably raises questions and concerns among patients. In fact, methotrexate is a classic immunosuppressant that plays both an immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory role in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Its application in rheumatoid arthritis is very different from oncology treatment and the dosage is smaller. Patients can rest assured that it is applied under the guidance of a specialist. In addition, other drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis include Leflunomide, hydroxychloroquine sulfate, salazosulfapyridine, azathioprine, and some plant-derived immunosuppressants.