What to do if you have rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that causes headaches for both patients and doctors. Rheumatoid arthritis patients often have large swollen joints. There is a big difference between rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatism. The joint swelling of rheumatoid arthritis patients is symmetrical. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, which means that there is a problem with the rheumatoid patient's immune system. The doctor's blood test will show a positive rheumatoid factor.

Rheumatoid arthritis is considered a difficult and complicated disease by the general public, and the incidence rate in women is higher than in men. The incidence of rheumatoid arthritis has been quite high in recent years, and the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has become a problem of concern to everyone. Here it is necessary to introduce to you what to do if you have rheumatoid arthritis.

1. Rest. Especially when the disease is in the acute stage, the patient should rest completely to relieve pain; in the non-acute stage, it is not recommended for the patient to be overly active or do strenuous exercise.

2. Physical therapy During the recovery period, effective physical therapy can be chosen as appropriate to help joint movement and improve the inflammatory response of the diseased joints, while also preventing them from losing too much functionality.

3. The main types of drugs are as follows:

(1) Salicylate drugs: They are commonly used in clinical practice, with a dose of 0.5 to 1.0 g, 4 times a day. Gastrointestinal reactions and decreased platelet aggregation ability are likely to occur. Currently, enteric-coated preparations are more commonly used.

(2) Gold preparations: When the former cannot control the symptoms, gold preparations such as gold sodium thiomalate or gold thioglucose can be injected intramuscularly, 10 μg in the first week, 25 μg in the second week, and up to 50 μg per week thereafter. Pay attention to the patient's general condition when taking the medicine, and use it with caution in patients with liver, kidney and blood diseases.

(3) Immunosuppressants: such as cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and other drugs. Mainly used for severe, active rheumatoid arthritis. Methotrexate (MTX) is administered once a week, with the dosage selected as appropriate, ranging from 2.5 to 15 μg. The patient's liver and blood system changes should be closely observed after taking the medicine.

4. Surgical treatment can be performed during the quiescent phase for deformities caused by rheumatoid disease.

What should you do if you have rheumatoid arthritis? In addition to the methods introduced above, the majority of rheumatoid arthritis patients can also use dietary therapy, which is of great benefit to the recovery of the disease. The dietary therapy method is to choose easily digestible food, and follow the principle of light and refreshing cooking. Eat more appetizers such as jujube, coix seed, etc., especially coix seed has the effect of removing dampness and wind.