Abstract:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease that gives rise to inflammation of
joints (commonly hands, wrists and knees joints), resulting in joint pain, stiffness
and swelling. It is an auto-immune disease meaning that the immune system
attacks healthy cells in patient's body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful
swelling) in the affected parts of the body. For this purpose, medicines like
NSAIDS (Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), Steroids and DMARD(Diseasemodifying
anti rheumatic drugs)are generally used to relieve pain. These
medicines work by lowering white blood cell count that means that the body has
now less protection against infectious diseases ranging from colds and the
flu to bacterial illnesses such as tuberculosis. Not just that, these medicines are
also responsible for causing multiple complications and comorbidities, such as
cardiovascular, pulmonary, and neuropsychiatric diseases, infections, and
malignancy. Other common side effects include high blood pressure, gain weight,
sleep problems etc. Currently, modalities (any physical agent used to bring
change to tissues for improvement cause in body such as light, heat etc) like
laser therapy, ultrasound therapy etc are available as a drug-free solution for
relieving RA pain. However, these modalities are limited to physiotherapy clinics
since they are not portable, easy to use and cheap thus discouraging patients to
use them independently at their homes. In addition, going to physiotherapy
clinics on daily basis require much time and money and thus patients find
medication as an easy and cheap method to relieve pain instead of relying on
modalities.
