What is Rheumatology When should one see a Rheumatologist? - Dr. Yathish G. C

Rheumatology is a sub-speciality of internal medicine which deals with the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. It includes more than 100 types of diseases which includes musculo-skeletal and problems related to immune system what we call as autoimmune disorders. Musculo-skeletal diseases can be as minimal as some trauma or spasm and it can be as major as some major arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis or spondyloarthritis. There are many arthritis in numbers. The most common what we see is the rheumatoid arthritis. The other things which we commonly see is spondyloarthritis which includes ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel disease associated arthritis, psoriatic arthritis. There are other rheumatic diseases like vasculitis, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis. All these basically occur because of some problems in our immune systems. Normally immune system has to fight against the external viral and bacterial infections. In these rheumatic diseases the immune system gets overactive and it produces some chemicals called autoantibodies and they cause damage to various organs of our body. The most common involved is the joints and it can involve other system like skin , heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, eyes, brain any other organ system in our body. Whenever someone comes with these signs and symptoms suggestive of rheumatic diseases the most common being some joint pain or swelling, stiffness in the joint, pain getting not relived by routine analgesics one has to go to the rheumatologist and check whether they have any rheumatic disease or not. Some of the most symptoms that one has to remember is any swelling in the joint or any stiffness when they wake up in the morning, back pain lasting for 2 or 3 months and not getting relieved by usual medications, if someone has some skin rashes not responding to the usual treatment, fever or some other diseases which are not getting controlled by routine medication they have to visit a rheumatologist at the earliest.