If you have pain, swollen joints, you will likely find it arthritis as you look for the cause of your symptoms. But finding the right treatment requires you to be more specific than that. Arthritis is actually a generic term for more than 100 different conditions, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And there are at least two types that may be responsible for your joint pain: psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Despite having some overlapping symptoms, the two conditions are very different. Here’s what you need to know about psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are chronic inflammatory conditions.
With both diseases, an over-excited immune system mistakenly attacks the healthy cells in your body. That, in turn, can be fruitful joint pain, stiffness, and swelling, along with persistent fatigue and other symptoms that are more specific to one of these ailments.
Cause psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis still in the air, but doctors suspect the disease has an underlying genetic component that could make a person more susceptible to certain environmental triggers.
However, psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are both lifelong diseases that can occur in flares (as symptoms get worse). And while there is no cure for both diseases, treatments for psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis have helped a lot to prevent symptoms, sometimes even putting them on the mend. forgiveness. In addition, proper medication can help protect your body from permanent damage from this condition if left untreated, so it’s important to work with your doctor to treat your illness.
Psoriatic arthritis often affects people with psoriasis.
Have psoriasis, a disease that often causes inflamed, scaly patches of skin on areas such as the knees, elbows, and scalp, puts you at a greater risk of developing psoriatic arthritis. Klinik Cleveland estimate that up to 30% of people with psoriasis are diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. However, it’s possible that you might develop psoriatic arthritis even if you don’t have psoriasis, and vice versa. Psoriatic arthritis affects people of all sexes to a relatively equal degree and usually appears in people between the ages of 30 and 50, said Klinik Cleveland.
NYU Langone Health explains that there are five types of psoriatic arthritis, and depending on which one you have, this disease can present itself in very different ways in your body. About three-quarters of people with this condition have a type called asymmetric oligoarthritis, which affects up to five joints, although they don’t have to be the same on both sides of the body. If so, it may be due to symmetrical arthritis, a type of psoriatic arthritis similar to rheumatoid arthritis. There is also spondylytic arthritis, which affects the spine, and psoriatic arthritis that predominantly interphalangeal distal, which mainly involves joints near you. fingernail and toenails. The rarest form of psoriatic arthritis is arthritis mutilans. This is a severe form of disease that can damage the bones in your hands Klinik May.
To 80% of people with psoriatic arthritis experiencing nail changes, such as pitting, crumbling, or grooves and ridges. Additionally, foot pain, especially in the back of the heel or the sole of the foot, where the tendons and ligaments connect with the bones, often occur with psoriatic arthritis, such as low back pain, according to Klinik May.
Inflammation from psoriatic arthritis can also cause it eye problem, such as uveitis. This condition can cause permanent vision loss, so watch for early warning signs, such as eye pain, redness, light sensitivity, and “floaters” that block parts of your vision.
Rheumatoid arthritis has nothing to do with psoriasis.
Klinik Cleveland reported that women diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2.5 times that of men. A common misconception about rheumatoid arthritis is that it is a disease of the elderly, but in fact it is diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50.
While rheumatoid arthritis can affect people in different ways, their characteristic characteristics include tenderness, pain, and swelling in more than one joint, per joint CDC. And although psoriatic arthritis can affect different joints on each side of the body, rheumatoid arthritis usually causes more symmetrical symptoms, says David Wanalista, DO, rheumatologist at Atlantic General Rheumatology. As a progressive disease, it usually gets worse over time, starting with the joints between the fingers and hands and the feet and hands. The inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis can damage your cartilage, and without the tissue to act as a shock absorber, your bones can eventually erode and cause joint fusion.
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