Fact: Rheumatoid arthritis is not "regular arthritis." What we think of as “regular arthritis” is osteoarthritis, caused by injury or normal wear-and-tear on aging joints. Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease in middle age to older people.
By contrast, rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, progressive autoimmune disorder. In response to an unknown trigger, the body makes antibodies that attack its own tissues. The self-attacks mostly affect the joints, although they can also affect other body parts. Disease attacks, called flare-ups, occur periodically, or can be continuous in some people.
"This is the most common confusion -- between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It gets even more confusing, because people with RA often also have osteoarthritis," adds Kremer.
And the nearly universal, always meaningful, and completely useless, "I had a touch of rheumatoid arthritis but I take ddd, eee, xxx, and do bbb, fff, and yyy and cured it." Or ..."I just take a little Aleve and it takes care of my pain"