One Side Or Both Sides
Another difference between the two diseases is whether they affect one or both sides of the body. PsA tends to be asymmetric, meaning it affects different joints on either side of the body. RA is more likely to cause symmetrical joint pain and stiffness it affects the same joints on both sides of the body, such as both hands or wrists.
Psoriatic Vs Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms
The main symptoms of PsA and RA are similar. They both cause joint pain, swelling, and stiffness. However, the joints they affect can be different.
PsA is a spondyloarthritis, meaning it often affects the spine. RA is not.
RA can affect any joint, but the wrists, hands, and feet are the most common sites. RA is also usually symmetric. This means it affects the same joints on both sides of the body. For example, the left and right wrists. Both tend to be worse in the morning and after long periods of rest.
What Causes Rheumatoid Arthritis Vs Psoriatic Arthritis
The causes of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis are unknown however, genetic factors seem to increase the chances of developing both conditions. People with a relative who has RA have an increased risk of developing the condition and about 40% of people with psoriatic arthritis have family members with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.
Risk factors for developing rheumatoid arthritis include:
- Age: middle-aged or older
- Female sex: twice as likely as men to develop RA
Triggers that increase the chances a susceptible person will develop rheumatoid arthritis include:
- Infection: bacteria in the gut or mouth and gums infection in particular
You May Like: Is Turmeric And Ginger Good For Arthritis
What Are The Causes And Risk Factors Of Arthritis
The cause of arthritis may vary according to the type of the disease. Most types of arthritis do not have a known cause.
Research has revealed the role of three major factors in certain types of arthritis:
- Genetic factors cause some types of arthritis to run in families.
- Physical activity and diet affect arthritis symptoms.
- The presence of other medical conditions such as infections and chronic diseases such as lupus puts you at risk for arthritis.
Several factors may increase a personâs risk for arthritis:
- Age: The risk of getting arthritis, particularly osteoarthritis, increases with age. Age may also worsen the symptoms of arthritis.
- Gender: Arthritis generally affects women more often than men.
- Weight: Being obese or overweight puts extra stress on the joints that support an individualâs weight. Increased weight beyond the normal range for a personâs age and height increases joint wear and tear, and the risk of arthritis.
- Occupation: Certain jobs may involve the worker to keep doing the same movements repeatedly. These include jobs where one needs to do heavy lifting or repeated fine work as done by musicians. It can cause joint stress and/or an injury, which may lead to arthritis.
- Injury: Joint injury or trauma may cause osteoarthritis.
- Autoimmune diseases: These may misdirect the immune system towards the joints as seen in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
- Infections: Certain infections may lead to joint inflammation as seen in tubercular arthritis and .
What Is Psoriatic Arthritis In Children
Psoriatic arthritis is a rare form of arthritis or joint inflammation that affects both skin and joints. Psoriasis is an ongoing condition that causes a red, scaly, itchy rash. It also causes nails to become thick and pitted with tiny holes.
Psoriatic arthritis causes painful joint pain and swelling, along with skin rashes. It most often affects finger and toe joints. But it can also affect wrists, knees, ankles, and the lower back.
This condition is most common in adults ages 30 to 50. But it can start in childhood. In many cases, the skin disease starts before the arthritis.
Early diagnosis and treatment helps to ease pain and prevent joint damage from getting worse.
Also Check: Is Lemon Water Good For Rheumatoid Arthritis
Which Symptoms Are Specific To Rheumatoid Arthritis
In addition to affecting the joints, rheumatoid arthritis can affect the entire body, causing issues in the eyes, lungs, heart, blood vessels, or nerves. The risk of heart disease is also elevated by 50%. It can result in a low-grade fever, especially for children. Rheumatoid arthritis can also cause muscle aches and excessive fatigue.
More advanced cases of rheumatoid arthritis can cause rheumatoid nodules, hard lumps under the skin near joints that could be tender. Inflammation can lead to permanent damage to the joints if its not managed correctly. Rheumatoid arthritis commonly appears first in smaller joints like fingers, eventually developing in knees, shoulders, ankles, and other joints. Symptoms manifest themselves symmetrically, affecting both sides of the body at the same time. While both types of arthritis commonly have worse symptoms in the morning or after an hour of inactivity, stiffness may take over an hour to subside.Rheumatoid arthritis can be challenging to diagnose, with a variety of other symptoms in addition to joint pain.
Early diagnosis is essential, as permanent damage joint damage can occur less than one year from the onset of symptoms. Doctors may need to conduct some tests to make an official diagnosis, including blood tests and X-rays. A thorough physical exam is required to check for swollen or tender joints as well as other symptoms. Health history is also important in diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis.
So What Is Psoriatic Arthritis And How Does It Differ From Rheumatoid Arthritis
Well, just like rheumatoid arthritis, it is an auto-immune disease. Both cause an erosive inflammatory arthritis in addition to chronic fatigue. And both can have symptoms that vary greatly from person to person. However the distribution of joint involvement differs between the two diseases and psoriatic arthritis involves the skin as well as the joints.
Both diseases can cause destruction of the small joints in your hands and feet as well as larger joints such as knees, hips, shoulders and even the vertebrae in your spine. Classic rheumatoid arthritis primarily involves the PIP joints and wrist, and is generally a symmetrical disease effecting both sides of the body equally. Also with rheumatoid arthritis, nodules specific to this disease are often present.
Both diseases can involve inflammation and scarring of major organs such as your heart and lungs and as in my case can involve your eyes. In addition, both can increase your risk of osteoporosis due the condition itself and also from some of the medications that are used to treat these conditions. After years of taking steroids for my arthritis, it resulted in a couple of compression fractures in my thoracic spine. And, both disorders can also result in joint destruction leading to severe crippling disabilities.
- Was This Helpful?
You May Like: How Do Doctors Know If You Have Arthritis
When Should You See Your Physician
If you have the skin condition of psoriasis, you should be sure to speak with your physician if you develop any type of joint pain.
The condition of psoriatic arthritis can be sudden onset or can develop slowly. No matter how it comes on, if you do not seek treatment for it, it can result in some pretty significant damage to your joints.
What Causes Oa And Who Is At Risk
OA causes the cartilage inside the joints to break down and wear away. Cartilage is the flexible connective tissue that surrounds the ends of your bones.
In healthy joints, cartilage helps grease the movement of the joint and absorbs the shock of impact when you move. When you have OA, the layers of your cartilage begin to break down.
Without cartilage, your bones rub painfully against each other. This can cause permanent damage to both your joints and your bones.
These risk factors can increase your chances of developing OA:
- Genes. Certain inherited genetic changes may increase your odds of developing OA. If a family member has the disease, its possible youll get it as well.
- Age. Your likelihood of getting this type of arthritis increases as you age.
- Gender. Women are
- joint support, such as braces
- alternative remedies
If your joint is badly damaged, you may need surgery. OA surgery replaces the damaged joint with an artificial joint made from plastic or metal.
Also Check: What Is The Best Remedy For Arthritis Pain
Joint Symptoms In People With Psa And Ra
Both psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis cause similar joint symptoms. Joints affected by PsA or RA can feel painful, stiff, swollen, and hot. The symptoms of PsA and RA tend to show up in different joints.
The two diseases, for instance, affect different parts of the spine. PsA sometimes leads to a condition called spondylitis that causes lower back pain. Spondylitis involves inflammation in the joints of the spine and between the spine and pelvis. Up to half of people with PsA will experience spondylitis pain. RA, on the other hand, often causes problems in the cervical spine, in the neck. Up to 80 percent of people with RA experience neck pain.
RA is also more likely than PsA to affect the hands, such as the joints in the wrists and fingers, whereas PsA is more likely to affect the feet. Additionally, PsA and RA affect different small joints within the fingers and toes. RA affects the first two joints, and PsA attacks the joint closest to the nail bed.
People with PsA can experience dactylitis, a condition in which the fingers or toes swell up and resemble sausages. Dactylitis is often the first symptom of PsA, and it may be the only joint symptom a person experiences for several years. PsA also affects the nails. People with PsA often have pitted, ridged nails, which appear similar to nails with a fungal infection.
Osteoarthritis Vs Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis
Rheumatoid arthritis is diagnosed by performing several tests. There is no single test that identifies rheumatoid arthritis:
- Physical examination to look for swelling, redness and other outward physical symptoms.
- Blood tests look for the rheumatoid factor, anti-CCP and antinuclear antibodies, and the level of inflammation.
- Imaging tests that include x-rays, MRIs and/or ultrasounds.
Considering what can be determined by an osteoarthritis vs rheumatoid arthritis xray, the x-ray is more beneficial for detecting osteoarthritis because the disease involves the bones in its early stages. Rheumatoid arthritis may not present itself in the bones in its early stages. Instead, the patient may experience non-bone issues first, like chronic fatigue, or synovial and tendon inflammation. For this reason, the MRI and ultrasound are better than x-rays for early diagnose of rheumatoid arthritis.
You May Like: How Do You Treat Arthritis In Your Back
Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Versus Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment
Can rheumatoid arthritis go away? Can you reverse psoriatic arthritis? These are questions you may ask yourself at some point following your diagnosis and, unfortunately, the answer is there is no cure for either condition. However, you can absolutely feel better with treatment and feel more in control of your life. Regardless of your diagnosis, rheumatoid arthritis treatment and psoriatic arthritis treatment overlap quite a bit, because the goal is to get your inflammation under control and to prevent long-term joint damage.
You may start by trying nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to tamp down inflammation, which drives the pain, tenderness, and swelling. Corticosteroids are another drug that suppresses inflammation and are commonly prescribed via oral medications or injection. Prescription medications called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs can also help slow the progression of either disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. If your symptoms dont improve, then your doctor might switch you to a different type of DMARD or to a class of medications known as biologics, which are delivered via IV infusion or injection to help target the specific parts of your immune system involved in causing autoimmune conditions.
Who Will Be Responsible For My Healthcare
Youre likely to see a team of healthcare professionals.
Your doctor, usually a rheumatologist, will be responsible for your overall care. And a specialist nurse may help monitor your condition and treatments. A skin specialist called a dermatologist may be responsible for the treatment of your psoriasis.
You may also see:
- A physiotherapist, who can advise on exercises to help maintain your mobility.
- An occupational therapist, who can help you protect your joints, for example, by using splints for the wrist or knee braces. You may be advised to change the way you do some tasks to reduce the strain on your joints.
- A podiatrist, who can assess your footcare needs and offer advice onspecial insoles and good supportive footwear.
You May Like: How Does Doctor Diagnose Arthritis
How Are Ra And Psa Diagnosed
Because these two conditions share similar symptoms, it’s important to get an accurate diagnosis from a rheumatologist. A rheumatoid factor blood test is one way your doctor can tell which condition you have. RF is a protein found in people with rheumatoid arthritis. People with PsA usually don’t have it. Blood tests looking for other antibodies such as anti-CCP can also help differentiate the two.
Another way to tell is to look at your skin and nails. If you have scaly patches on your skin, pitting and flaking on your nails, or both, you have PsA.
Once you’ve had the disease for a while, X-rays might also be able to distinguish the two conditions.
It is possible to have RA and PsA together, but it’s rare. If you do have both, many of the treatments, including some medications, will work for both conditions.
Show Sources
How Is It Diagnosed What Should I Do Who Should I See
If you feel you may have psoriatic arthritis you should firstly talk to your GP and explain to him your concerns and why you feel you may have psoriatic arthritis.
You may be lucky in that your GP spots all the early warning clues to your aches and pains, and diagnoses you correctly for prompt treatment options. However, there are still many people who are diagnosed much later due to lack of knowledge. This is not a criticism, but merely that GPs have to have such a wide knowledge of many conditions and with psoriatic arthritis, it is not always as simple or obvious to diagnose.
A review of your medical history by your GP, symptoms, and blood tests to rule out certain other conditions are needed. Absence of rheumatoid factor in the blood often helps to distinguish psoriatic arthritis from rheumatoid arthritis.
Pitting of the finger nails, discolouration of the nail due to abnormalities in the growth of the tissue in the nail bed are always a certain clue of psoriatic arthritis presence. People with psoriatic arthritis almost always have nail involvement.
You May Like: Can Psoriatic Arthritis Cause Heart Problems
Do Ra And Gout Have The Same Cause
Rheumatoid arthritis and gout both are types of arthritis, but the underlying causes are completely different. RA is an autoimmune condition. It happens when your bodyâs immune system attacks the tissue that lines your joints. This attack causes painful swelling, inflammation, and joint deformity. Since RA is an immune system disease , it can affect other parts of the body, too, including the skin, eyes, and heart.
Gout affects people with too much uric acid in their blood. Your body creates this type of acid when it breaks down certain foods, including meat. Your kidneys normally get rid of it when you pee. But when thereâs too much of it in your system, the uric acid can form crystals. These needle shaped crystals build up in joints and surrounding tissue where they can cause pain and inflammation.
Which Is Worse Osteoarthritis Or Rheumatoid Arthritis Mosaic Weighted Blanket
We need solutions that soothe joints or muscles. Which Is Worse Osteoarthritis Or Rheumatoid Arthritis. Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis may be difficult sometimes you need assistance stretching with deep tissue tools and finding relief while sleeping with the Mosaic weighted blanket.
Im seeing a ton of rave reviews regarding these Mosaic blankets. I had to dig deeper and I found out that Mosaics are specially designed to be 8-12% of your body weight. We are referring to the sort of low-tech sensory hacks that give calm to arthritis, anxiety, and also those that experience clinical PTSD. The idea is to give you the feeling of being hugged or held. So all the fuzzy and warm feelings you get from this type of sensory input is replicated via an weighted blanket. Most of the times you experience pain or numbness in the joints or muscle it is because you are unable to relax or stretch that joint or muscle.
This blanket, gives the experience of being hugged tight, which is as soothing regardless of your age.
Anyone who has experienced this sort of discomfort and sought relief knows how frustrating it can be.
So at about $150 for the blanket that could last years and help alleviate pain and help me sleep its a no brainer.
But not all are created and only a few are designed for breathability. Like any good idea, tons of brands pop up to provide inferior products .
You May Like: What Is The Difference Between Carpal Tunnel And Arthritis
Treatment For Psoriatic Arthritis
Treatment for psoriatic arthritis aims to:
- relieve symptoms
- slow the condition’s progression
- improve quality of life
This usually involves trying a number of different medicines, some of which can also treat the psoriasis. If possible, you should take 1 medicine to treat both your psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
The main medicines used to treat psoriatic arthritis are:
- non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- biological therapies
Pregnancy Fertility And Breastfeeding
Psoriatic arthritis wont affect your chances of having children. But if youre thinking of starting a family, its important to discuss your drug treatment with a doctor well in advance. If you become pregnant unexpectedly, talk to your rheumatology department as soon as possible.
The following treatments must be avoided when trying to start a family, during pregnancy and when breastfeeding:
- leflunomide
- retinoid tablets and creams.
Theres growing evidence that some other drugs for psoriatic arthritis are safe to take during pregnancy. Your rheumatology department will be able to tell you which ones.
It will help if you try for a baby when your arthritis is under control.
Its also important that your arthritis is kept under control as much as possible during pregnancy. A flare-up of your arthritis during pregnancy can be harmful for you and your baby.
Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis can run in families. If you have either condition, you could pass on genes that may increase your childrens risk though its difficult to predict.
As treatments continue to improve, people with psoriatic arthritis in years to come can expect a better outlook. If you have any questions or concerns, talk to your doctor.
Read Also: What Helps With Arthritis In Knees