Rheumatoid arthritis is a very severe form of inflammatory arthritis which can affect many of the joints in the body including the hands, feet, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders and spine. The rheumatoid variety is unlike many other types of arthritic change in that it produces definitive external evidence of its existence in the form of swelling, deformity and sometimes complete disability.
The clinical pathology of this condition classifies it as an autoimmune disease, which links it to the mindbody process, since all autoimmune concerns seem to have a powerful emotional component to both their causation and cure.
This resource section is dedicated to helping RA patients to better understand the prognosis of their diagnosis.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis
RA is often not diagnosed until the disease has already firmly established itself. The longer the condition exists without treatment, the greater the chances for permanent disability and damage to affected joints. RA patients also suffer from misdiagnosis in many cases, with it sometimes being mistaken for gout, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus and other conditions, and the same happens in reverse with many of these autoimmune issues being originally diagnosed mistakenly as RA.
This arthritic disorder is an idiopathic condition with no known or universally accepted anatomical causes. However, like all autoimmune diseases, the potential for a psychogenic causation is high in some sufferers, since the body is literally turned against itself. This is a known component of many psychosomatic disorders and can sometimes be effectively treated using knowledge therapy.
Rheumatoid arthritis, and all autoimmune conditions, have become ever more controversial disorders in modern medical science. There are many Cartesian traditionalists who still look into the genetic code and the contaminant possibilities to find the answer to why some people get the disease. Many of the doctors theorize bacterial, environmental or genetic concerns as the root sources of symptomatic development, yet a number of once embraced theories have fallen out of favor.
Meanwhile, other more objective doctors and scientists have found tons of evidence which shows more behavioral and psychoemotional markers common to affected patients than physical ones. This has driven research towards looking for nonstructural causations which may be responsible for the disease.
RA Topics
RA is a complicated disorder and entails serious mind and body symptoms that can threaten health and functionality. Learning all about RA is the first step in beating the disease:
RA causes might include many known and unknown factors that can create, escalate and virtually cure the condition.
RA diagnosis is typically handled by rheumatologists. However, other types of physicians and complementary caregivers have also focused on diagnosing and treating RA.
RA symptoms range greatly and might mimic other autoimmune diseases.
Psychosomatic RA might explain development of the condition in some patients, but not all.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment
Traditional medical therapies revolve around physical therapy to maintain function and joint mobility, combined with a vast quantity and diversity of drugs. This is such as typical part of rheumatology, since these doctors basically treat all conditions with pills and shots. Pharmaceutical therapy seems to be their only skill and it does not hurt that prescribing these drugs can be incredibly profitable.
Unfortunately for the patient, the majority of drugs used, especially the DMARDs used to slow progression of the disorder, have reputations for being almost as bad as the disease itself. In fact, the side effects are classified as toxic for most drug cocktails, which is never a good sign of successful or enlightened treatment. Read more about RA treatment.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Guidance
RA is unlike many other back pain causes, but strikingly alike in some ways. True that RA does indeed cause symptoms which can be seen and verified upon physical exam alone. However, just like many back pain issues, the root source of the syndrome may exist, at least in part, in the subconscious mind. Medicine has been hard pressed to come up with any other theory which makes even half sense, which is miraculous given the ridiculous notions accepted as fact in some healthcare sectors.
Meanwhile, many mindbody professionals have isolated painful and sensitive issues in many patients which have led to their development of fibromyalgia and RA and have reversed the symptomology using purely psycho-emotional methods. This is enlightened medicine at its finest.
Of course, these psychological tactics are used in many healthcare sectors now, ranging from addiction therapy to cancer care. Doctors have finally conceded that the Cartesian approach to medicine has failed and it is time to usher in a new age of mindbody care. Expect to see much more of this philosophy in the next few decades, as the older guard of antiquated medical professionals retires and new, more enlightened physicians take their place.
Even in cases where no psychological causative or contributory factors seem to exist, some virtual miracle cures do occur and are actually not all that rare. This may be telling of errors in the diagnostic process, but may also show the power of the mind to possibly source and almost definitively cure the condition. Research on the subject is young, even by mindbody standards, but the future is full of hope for the first time that effective treatment without the terrible drugs may be possible. This is great news.
