What is Arthritis

Forms of Arthritis

There are more than 100 types of arthritis and treatment may be obtained from arthritis specialists called rheumatologists. Some of the most prevalent forms of arthritis include:

Osteoarthritis (occurs when the tissue that covers the joints breaks down and leaves the ends of the bones unprotected), which is the nation’s number one crippling disease, affecting 17 million Americans

Rheumatoid Arthritis (the most painful and crippling form), an autoimmune disease that afflicts approximately 7 million Americans

Spinal Arthritis, which affects 2.5 million Americans

Gout, which affects nearly 2 million Americans

Related Autoimmune Diseases, such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus), that affect over 100,000 Americans

Autoimmune Forms of Arthritis
Defense of the body against microorganisms and cancer is the job of our immune system.

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus are autoimmune diseases.
The immune system is composed of a family of cells and tissues that are distributed throughout the body. The cells of this system are also found in the blood and are called lymphoid cells or white blood cells. To be effective, the immune system must be able to distinguish "foreign" agents, termed antigens, from our own or "self" tissues. Normally, this system performs flawlessly and we recover from infectious disease and keep abnormal cancer cells under control. However, in certain individuals the immune system appears to make a mistake and identifies "self" tissues as "foreign" and attempts to destroy them.

This unfortunate condition is termed autoimmune disease or attacking self tissues. Autoimmune diseases take many different forms, they may be "localized" and involve a single organ or tissue or they can be "systemic" and involve multiple organs and tissues.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) are examples of systemic autoimmune diseases. They usually begin locally and then the tissue destruction and scarring progresses to include other organs and tissues. These are relentless, progressive diseases which are characterized by alternating periods of active tissue destruction and quiescent periods of repair and scarring. These diseases are debilitating, disfiguring and can be lethal. Both white blood cells and soluble proteins, termed antibodies, which are directed at self tissues are involved in causing this disease. The general therapy is to suppress the patient’s immune system and slow the attacks on self tissues.

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