Question and Answer arthritis

Question: What is a rheumatologist and when should I see one for my arthritis?

Answer: A rheumatologist is a physician who is specialized in the specialty of rheumatologic disease or arthritic problems. So anybody can start with the primary physician, but eventually the primary physician will ask a specialist -- the rheumatologist -- to see the patients, because a lot more than some years ago -- let's say five years ago even -- to offer to the patients who have rheumatic or arthritic problems.

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Question: Why are there so many different types of arthritis, and does it matter which one I have?

Answer: Well, it matters what kind of arthritis you have, because now we have specific treatments for each kind of arthritis. So if we consider what is the most common arthritis, it's degenerative arthritis, which is wear and tear in the cartilage of the joints, number one in terms of the number of people who have it.

And then there's rheumatoid arthritis in terms of the seriousness of the involvement of the joints with inflammation. And the whole body gets involved.

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Different Types Of Arthritis? Watch Video

And then we have systemic lupus, in which most parts of the body could involve, for example the kidneys, the heart, the lungs -- they can be involved in the process of systemic lupus. And we have gout, for example, which is due to increased uric acid in the body and inflammation of the big toes and then other joints.

So we have rare arthritic problems such as vasculitis, inflammation of the vessels of the body. We have conditions like what is call Behcet's syndrome, in which the mouth gets a lot of sores and the eyes are inflamed and the joints hurt.

So we have so many typical and atypical kinds of arthritis that a rheumatologist can really diagnose.

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Question: What are the causes of osteoarthritis?

Answer: Most of the time we really don't know the cause of osteoarthritis. It seems to develop in people as they get older, and it is not associated with any specific finding. Occasionally we can relate it to another condition, and hence we call it secondary.

Question: What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis And What Are Some Of The Most Common Causes Of Pain Associated With Rheumatoid Arthritis?

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Answer: To explain rheumatoid arthritis, first let me back up a bit, and mention that there's over a hundred different kinds of arthritis. Rheumatoid is the most common in inflammatory arthritis, and by that we mean that there is inflammation in the joints. By far and away, the most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, which is thought to be a degenerative disease. But rheumatoid is one of a member of what we call autoimmune diseases, where the body literally begins to react against itself.

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Even though these diseases affect more than the joints, the major manifestation that patients will feel is pain, swelling, redness, tenderness in their joints, but this may be associated with systemic features such as stiffness, fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite -- all of these things make this more of what we call rheumatoid disease than pure arthritis. With that said though, the pain that most people suffer, early on it's due to mainly inflammation. The joints will be hot, as I mentioned, red, swollen, tender, and this will be all manifestations of how the disease is inflaming and attacking the joints.

Later on, as the disease progresses, there's actually joint destruction, where the joints are damaged. And then the pain becomes problems due to secondary osteoarthritis and deformities, malformations that are caused by damage to the joints, laxity of the ligaments around the joints. And these cause structural problems that then make it difficult for the patient to do the functions that they need to do without hurting. So, in summary, the two main reasons are inflammation, and then damage and destruction later on.