Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that typically affects the small joints in your hands and feet. It can also affect other organs.

Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity. It generally occurs between the ages of 40 and 60.

You can take steps to care for your body if you have rheumatoid arthritis. These self-care measures, when used along with your rheumatoid arthritis medications, can help you manage your signs and symptoms:

• Exercise regularly

Gentle exercise can help strengthen the muscles around your joints and help fight fatigue. Begin by taking a walk, swimming or gentle water aerobics. Avoid exercising tender, injured or severely inflamed joints.

• Apply heat or cold

Heat can help ease pain and relax tense, painful muscles. Cold may dull the sensation of pain. Cold also has a numbing effect and decreases muscle spasms.

• Relax

Find ways to cope with pain by reducing stress in your life. Hypnosis, guided imagery, deep breathing and muscle relaxation can all be used to control pain.

Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide (Anti-CCP) antibodies are very suggestive of a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) although their absence does not exclude this diagnosis. If present in such a patient at a moderate to high level, it not only confirms the diagnosis but also may indicate that the patient is at increased risk for damage to the joints. In the past, doctors relied on another antibody, the rheumatoid factor (RF) to help confirm a diagnosis.

Anti-CCP antibodies have the highest positive predictive value of any single current laboratory marker for the diagnosis of RA. In 1998 researchers explained that historical markers for RA, such as anti-perinuclear antibodies, anti-keratin antibodies, and anti-filaggrin antibodies all bound peptides containing citrulline.