What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease which causes inflammation and destruction of the joints. Rheumatoid Arthritis can occur in people of all ages, although onset is most frequent between the ages of 40 and 60. The joints usually affected at the beginning of disease are those of the hands and feet though most joints can be affected.

Common symptoms of RA include joint pain and swelling, joint stiffness, a general feeling of being unwell and tiredness. The precise symptoms experienced and the speed with which they come on varies from person to person. So, for some people the onset of symptoms is very gradual, whereas for others the condition develops very rapidly.

For more information about the journey from health to the development of RA please see the EuroTEAM* website http://www.team-arthritis.eu/  

We are not going into a lot of detail about RA on the current website as there are some excellent resources out there already. For further information about rheumatoid arthritis, please consider visiting the following websites:

*From the EuroTEAM website "Through EuroTEAM, approaches will be developed to predict the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in people who do not yet have the disease. Ultimately, this will help in the development of treatments to prevent people from getting RA in the first place."