What is polyarthritis?

QUICK FACTS ABOUT POLYARTHRITIS: 

• It is any type of arthritis which involves 5 or more joints simultaneously
•  It is usually associated with autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, amyloidosis, psoriatic arthritis, and lupus erythematosus.
• It may be experienced at any age
• It is found in both men and women
• It can also be caused by infection with an alphavirus such as chikungunya virus and Ross River virus. This condition is termed alphavirus polyarthritis syndrome.
  

Polyarthritis for medical professionals:

MEDICAL ARTICLE: Inflammatory Polyarthritis in the Older Adult

Approach To A Patient With Polyarthritis from Pramod Mahender

Preventing rheumatoid arthritis

 

Some people have recently asked if rheumatoid arthritis can be prevented. Until the cause is understood it may be difficult to stop it.  Some factors do increase your risk of getting it and they include your gender, genetics and age but none of these factors can be controlled. Environmental factors are also thought to be a factor in the development of RA and I suppose they can be controlled to some degree.
      
Genetics certainly is a complex area and the genetics of rheumatoid arthritis are complex. "The genetic component of RA is widely investigated: the strongest gene association is considered to be the one with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region, particularly the HLA-DRB1 genes accounting for about two-thirds of the genetics of RA." Arthritis research & therapy

There is one thing that has been shown to increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, that can be controlled, and that is smoking.  Recently, it has been reported that smoking is involved in the development of many autoimmune diseases such as RA,  Lupus, Systemic sclerosis, Multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.

RESOURCES: Rheumatoid arthritis and smoking: putting the pieces together

Zsuzsanna Baka, Edit Buzás and György Nagy