What is rheumatoid arthritis?

A form of arthritis that is not very widespread yet impacts around 1 percent of the general populace is rheumatoid arthritis. This kind of arthritis is chiefly characterized by inflammation and women are mostly its victims. Even though people below 30 can also be subjected to this form of arthritis, usually the 30-50 and the 60-70 age group are more vulnerable to the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
What basically happens in rheumatoid arthritis is that the lining of the joints start getting congested with cells that are inflammatory. These cells comprise of macrophages, dendritic cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes and plasma cells. When these cells are encouraged by the immune system to create inflammatory cytokines, there is a complex reaction whereby the cytokines bring about exaggerated inflammation of the joints and cause aggravated symptoms in the patient.
As rheumatoid arthritis is a general disease, apart from the joints it can also affect other body parts like the lungs and the eyes, so one should be aware of this when dealing with this form of illness.