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RHEUMATISM
The term ‘rheumatism’
The term rheumatism was used in historical contexts when referring to any of the vast array of inflammatory joint disorders. It is no longer used in medical literature as such and the diseases that are listed under rheumatoid disorders may be enumerated under rheumatism.
Some countries use the word Rheumatism to describe fibromyalgia syndrome. Rheumatism thus has two forms:-
- articular or the one affecting joints that commonly includes rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, gout, spondylitis etc.
- non-articular or the ones that affect soft tissues, muscles and lead to regional pain syndromes
There was a time when the aches and pains termed rheumatism was a normal part of aging.
Most of the population as they age develop joint stiffness and pain. Many of the cases that were termed rheumatism were actually cases of osteoarthritis and not rheumatoid arthritis or any of the inflammatory disorders at all.
How many people does rheumatism affect?
Inflammatory rheumatic disorders affect over 7 million Americans and of these 1.3 million adults have rheumatoid arthritis.
In Europe more than 100 million people are affected by rheumatic diseases. This is almost one quarter of the whole population.
It is seen from US statistics that that between 161,000 and 322,000 adults have lupus and nearly 300,000 American children suffer from rheumatic diseases, the most common of which is juvenile idiopathic arthritis or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA).
Estimates suggest that one child in every 1,000 will develop some form of rheumatic disease and 8.4% women and 5% men during their lifetime will develop some form of rheumatic disease.
Women are 2 to 3 times more likely to suffer from rheumatoid disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and 10 times more likely to develop lupus than men. Females in Europe account for 60 percent of diagnosed cases.