Question: How do symptoms differ when comparing osteoarthritis
and rheumatoid arthritis? Answer: Rheumatoid arthritis is a
systemic inflammatory disease. By this, we mean that there's
inflammation throughout the whole body. And the problem is not
just in the joints. At the same time, what happens in the joints
is also inflammatory. And that's very different from the
situation in osteoarthritis which is a degenerative sort of
arthritis. In osteoarthritis, the cartilage that lines the
joints begins to wear out. As the cartilage wears, you begin to
get bone spurs and changes in the bone around that joint that
limit the function and also increase pain in that joint. But
that's all the condition of wear-and-tear basically. In
rheumatoid arthritis what happens is inflammation in the tissues
that surround and line that joint causes that kind of damage,
and that inflammation itself can cause stiffness, can cause
pain, can cause swelling, can cause fluid within the joint.
People with rheumatoid arthritis because of th