Pain Joint

Suffering from joint pain?

You've got plenty of company! Roughly 40 million Americans have arthritis or other rheumatic conditions. And based on projected estimates, this number is likely to reach 59 million by the year 2020.

What are rheumatic diseases?

They're a medical condition in humans affecting joints, muscles, cartilage, tendons, ligaments and bones. Some rheumatic diseases can also affect internal organs.

There are well over 100 rheumatic diseases. The defining features of these diseases are swelling, stiffness and constant pain.

Rheumatic diseases are the leading medical condition limiting physical activities among adults age 65 and older.

A lot of people mistakenly apply the word "arthritis" to all rheumatic diseases. When in fact, the various kinds of arthritis make up just a fraction of the rheumatic diseases.

Rheumatic diseases fall into one of two groups:

1.Connective tissue diseases. They're those diseases altering the body's support structure and its internal organs. The support structure includes skeleton, muscles, tendons and ligaments.

2. Autoimmune diseases. They're those diseases causing the immune system to get out of whack and lose its ability to tell the difference between harmful invaders (viruses and bacteria) and the body's own cells and tissues.

Rheumatic diseases don't discriminate. They affect people of all races, ethnicity, age, religion and gender but some rheumatic conditions are more common among certain groups of the population.

For instance:

- Rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, lupus, and fibromyalgia occur more often in women than in men.

- Gout and ankylosing spondylitis are more common in men than in women.

- Lupus is three times more common in black women than in white women.