Symptoms Of Arthritis Can Be In Any Joint And It's No Mystery Why

Symptoms of arthritis are pretty straightforward...there aren't any surprises here, and hardly any variety.

Doctors think arthritis is uncurable because the don't understand WHY arthritis symptoms show up in the first place.

But you should know that you're hurting for specific and  predictable reasons.

On this page we'll talk about WHAT the symptoms are, and then we'll move you on to WHY the symptoms are there.

Symptoms Of Arthritis Are Similar In All Types

Whether it's Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Reactive Arthritis, etc, the symptoms are pretty similar.

Even if the causes the joint inflammation are different, the outcomes are the same.

How can that be?

Primarily, it's because joint inflammation causes certain symptoms, no matter what causes the inflammation.

Arthritis symptoms will be the same regardless of whether the cause of the inflammation is from:

• Infection
• Auto-immune response
• Joint compression from Tendonitis, repetitive use, etc
• Nutritional insufficiency/deficiency

Again, because all of those create inflammation.  And the Process of Inflammation is a major cause of symptoms of arthritis.

What Are The Symptoms Of Arthritis?

There are different types of arthritis.  Primarily, Osteoarthris (OA) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

You may notice that the symptoms are very much the same

Do note that even though the symptoms are pretty much the same, RA and Osteoarthritis are two very different mechanisms.

What Are The Symptoms Of Arthritis?

That's the list of most common symptoms of arthritis.

You'll notice that it's not very helpful at helping you figure out what kind of arthritis you are suffering.  We'll get to that later, and maybe you have already received an arthritis diagnosis and your doctor told you what kind of arthritis you have.

But even when you get a diagnosis of arthritis, it's not very helpful because it doesn't tell you WHY you're having the symptoms  you're suffering from.

So let's break down the specific causes of arthritis symptoms.

The Causes Of Each Of The Symptoms Of Arthritis

Here we explain what causes each specific symptom of arthritis.

Joint Pain

From RA:

Auto-immune factors cause the body to attack the body, specifically the joint/joint lining.  This causes inflammation (which causes pain).

Eventually it causes damage (which causes pain and other side effects)

From OA:  The compressed joint grinds on itself.  This causes inflammation (which causes pain).

Eventually the grinding and inflammation cause damage to the joint lining and can leave the joint 'bone on bone'.

Joint Ache

From RA: Autoimmune factors cause inflammation, which causeses the ache/pain.

From OA:  The compressed joint grinds on itself.  This causes inflammation (which causes pain).  

Reduced Range Of Motion

From RA:  When the joint lining is inflammed and irritable, movement causes increased irritation.  So moving the joint can cause pain which causes a person to stop the movement.

If this goes on long enough, the joint itself can become deformed, so the joint literally can't articulate very well, or at all.  The longer the RA is in effect, the worse the joint is affected.

From OA: When the joint lining is inflammed and irritable, movement causes increased irritation.  So moving the joint can cause pain which causes a person to stop the movement.

If this goes on long enough, the joint lining can wear away and leave 'bone on bone'.  And that hurts, so the joint isn't going to get moved very much.

'Warm' Joints

From RA:  The inflammation process pulls extra blood to the area. This can cause an area to put off heat (the warmth of all that blood).

From OA: The inflammation process pulls extra blood to the area. This can cause an area to put off heat (the warmth of all that blood).

Increased Pain With Movement

From RA:  Things are irritable and hurting.  Movement presses on irritable and painful tissue, firing off an pain signal to the brain.

From OA: Things are irritable and hurting.  Movement presses on irritable and painful tissue, firing off an pain signal to the brain.

Knee Joint Pain

From RA:  Rheumatoid arthritis can affect any joint.  When it targets the knee(s), the knee hurts.

From OA:  The knee is a load bearing structure.  So when muscles aren't doing their job and absorbing force, that force has to go somewhere.  When it goes to the knee, the knee joint gets compressed and grinds on itself with each step (and when just standing there).

This compression and grinding causes joint pain in the knee.

Finger Joint Pain

From RA: Finger joints are right there at the top of the joints most commonly affected by RA.

For unknown reasons, the auto-immune process targets finger joints.  Resulting in inflammation and irritation, which causes pain signal.

From OA:  When hand and forearm muscles aren't working properly, when they're too tight, then finger joints get compressed and grind on themselves.  This causes pain.

Neck Joint Pain

From RA:  When the auto-immune process targets neck joints, that's where you feel it.  The resulting inflammation and irritation causes pain signal.

From OA: When neck and shoulder/back muscles aren't working properly, when they're too tight, then neck joints (like cervical facet joints) get compressed and grind on themselves.  This causes pain.

Pain In Hip Joint

From RA:  When the auto-immune process targets hip joints, that's where you feel it.  The resulting inflammation and irritation causes pain signal.

From OA: When hip muscles aren't working properly, when they're too tight, then hip joints (like cervical facet joints) get compressed and grind on themselves.  This causes pain.

Pain In Any Joint

With RA:  Basically, the autoimmune process can target any joint or joints.  The resulting inflammation and irritation causes pain signal.

With OA:  Any time a joint, no matter where it is, is compressed and grinding on itself, the joint can/will get irritated and painful and then will eventually get damaged.

Joint Damage

With RA:  Eventually, the constant attack on the joint by the autoimmune process damages and then destroys the joint lining. 

As it's doing that it's attacking the bone too...and the body changes the shape of the bone.   

The joint (bone) itself becomes deformed (which is a form of damage).

With OA: Any time a joint, no matter where it is, is compressed and grinding on itself, the joint can/will get irritated and painful and then will eventually get damaged.

The joint lining is constantly inflammed, AND the interior of the joint is grinding on itself.

The joint lining is worn away, and then it's bone on bone.

Then it's bone on bone, grinding on itself.  More damage creates more joint damage.

Joint Deformation

With RA: As the autoimmune process is attacking the joint lining it's attacking the bone too...and the body changes the shape of the bone.   

So the bone structure of the joints themselves changes shape...and not in a good way.

The future of RA is constant pain and deformed joints.  So you may want to fix your rheumatoid arthritis.

With OA:  As the joint lining is constantly inflammed, AND the interior of the joint is grinding on itself.

The joint lining is worn away, and then it's bone on bone.

When it's bone on bone, grinding on itself, that damage causes the body to try to adapt an make the bone stronger. Unfortunately, that never works out well...but the body tries anyway.  And the shape of the bone changes (for the worse).

All Symptoms Of Arthritis Are Basically The Same, Regardless Of The Cause

Symptoms of arthritis look the same regardless of the cause.

Even 'reactive arthritis', which is the diagnosis when arthritis symptoms caused by a bacterial infection, still shows up as the same symptoms of 'other' arthritis types.

Point being:

1. Regardless of the 'type' of arthritis, the symptoms are the same (So you have to look at multiple factors including the specific flavor of symptomology).
2. The causes of the symptoms are the important thing to focus on.   Symptoms are just telling you what's going on in there under the surface of your skin.

Symptoms of arthritis, whether OA or RA, are caused by certain factors.

Doctors can't fix your arthritis because they're giving you pills to deal with the symptoms, but those pills do nothing for the causes, and ultimately make them worse.

YOU can fix your arthritis.

Let's talk more about What Causes Arthritis?

---->  Next:  What Causes Arthritis?

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