What happens if arthritis is left untreated

People with rheumatoid arthritis wake up with stiff and painful joints, but experience an easing of pain as the day progresses. Treatment focuses on a combination of therapies to relieve symptoms, improve joint function and preserve bone and joint health. People are living in debilitating pain, even when the pain and lost productivity is largely preventable.

Treating arthritis and rheumatic conditions not only alleviates the symptoms, but also reduces bone damage and subsequent need for surgery. If the pain persists, painkillers such as paracetamol, tramadol and oxycodone, and hydrocodone preparations help relieve pain, while non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs NSAIDs lower, both, pain and inflammation.

Share Via. If RA is left untreated, chronic joint inflammation will cause permanent joint damage and deformity. RA inflammation also affects the tissues that surround your joints, including the muscles, tendons, and ligaments responsible for stabilizing joints.

This ongoing attack on these tissues eventually weakens them to the extent that they can no longer support your joints, and there is a loss of function and disability. A study reported in in the medical journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings assessed the trends in the functional disability of people with RA versus those without the condition.

Rheumatoid factor and cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies are associated with the development of RA, disease progression, and severe disease. Managing and treating RA is the best way to prevent disability and joint deformity.

Successfully treating RA will require prescription and non-prescription medications, lifestyle therapies like diet and exercise , and seeing your healthcare provider regularly. The same inflammation that attacks your joints can also affect your eyes. Any part of the eye can be affected by RA, but most people with RA experience problems in the front part of the eye.

RA inflammation of the sclera white part of the eye can result in eye dryness, redness, and pain. RA also affects the uvea, the layer between the retina and the white of the eye, leading to pain, redness, blurred vision, and light sensitivity.

If you have RA and experience eye inflammation, vision changes, or other eye problems, contact an ophthalmologist for an evaluation. Early diagnosis and treatment of eye problems can prevent vision loss and serious eye problems. It will cause eyes to feel dry and gritty.

Without treatment, the eyes can become infected, or you could develop scarring of the conjunctiva membrane covering the eye or the cornea the transparent front part of the eye covering the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. The same immune response that inflames your joints can also affect your skin.

Rashes, blisters, and nodules lumps of tissue under the skin are common in untreated RA. Some RA medications can make you more likely to bruise, because they thin your skin and interfere with blood clotting. Other medications used to treat RA can make the skin more sensitive to the sun, leading to redness, itching, pain, tiny blisters, or hives on the skin.

While RA is more common in other joints, it can also affect the spine, particularly in the neck. RA that affects the cervical spine the neck is not osteoarthritis—what's called wear-and-tear arthritis. Instead, it is what healthcare providers consider to be inflammatory arthritis. Other symptoms you may experience when RA affects your spine include:.

If you experience signs of bowel or bladder dysfunction or changes to your ability to walk or move, seek immediate medical attention. These are serious medical symptoms and need to be addressed quickly. Make an appointment with your healthcare provider if you think RA is affecting your spine health. Untreated RA increases the risk of heart disease.

This is because the same inflammation that affects your joints also affects your heart. According to a study reported in in the journal RMD Open, RA is associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. In the RMD Open study, researchers looked at the risk for these events and early death in people with RA who had been referred for cardiac computerized tomography CT scans after complaints of chest pain.

People with seropositive RA have antibodies in their blood that likely contribute to attack on their joints and other body tissues. These antibodies include rheumatoid factor and cyclic citrullinated peptide. Your risk is even higher for cardiovascular disease related to RA if you like additional risk factors, like high blood pressure , high cholesterol , smoking, diabetes , and a mostly sedentary not active lifestyle. And advanced or untreated RA further increases those odds. When blood vessels are inflamed, they weaken and thicken.

Rheumatoid vasculitis can lead to blood vessel damage, reduced blood flow to organs, and, eventually, organ damage. It can affect both small and medium-sized blood vessels and may involve multiple organs—the skin, nerves, eyes, heart, lungs, and more. Fortunately, thanks to better, more advanced treatment options for RA, vasculitis has become an extremely rare complication.

However, it is common in long-standing, severe, and untreated or undertreated RA. RA and some of the medications used to treat it can make it harder for your body to produce the right amount of healthy blood cells or blood platelets. This includes conditions like anemia , thrombocytosis , and Felty syndrome. Symptoms of anemia include fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness, headaches, leg cramps, and sleep problems.

Thrombocytosis occurs when inflammation leads to high amounts of platelets in the blood. The treatment of arthritis is a quality-of-life issue, but is not life-threatening. It is not a diagnosis that will shorten your life expectancy, but if ignored and left untreated, can make the rest of your years of life miserable. This condition cannot paralyze you, but will make normal function of the joint worsen over time.

Untreated arthritis will add to the degradation of the structures in and around the joint leading to more and more pain and a loss of function. The progression of arthritis may lead to requiring a total joint replacement. Treatment options will vary based on the progression and severity of your arthritis.

These may be the recommendation to take NSAIDs non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to oral steroids or injections, physical therapy, and in the most severe of cases surgical intervention may be required. An accurate diagnosis is the key to choosing the correct treatment for your arthritis. This is something the experts at Dr. Burke Orthopedics excel at. These drugs, which include newer biologic medications, can be extremely effective at slowing or even stopping the progression of RA.

Other treatments your doctor may recommend include additional prescription drugs, over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen or naproxen, and regular exercise or physical therapy. With so many potential complications from RA, the importance of staying on track with your treatment plan is clear.

If you have questions or concerns about any aspects of your treatment, be sure and discuss them with your doctor. Open lines of communication between you and each of your healthcare providers can help ensure successful treatment of your RA, and a better quality of life for you.

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