Early signs of arthritis

Arthritis is a painful, incurable joint condition that affects people both young and old. It is a progressive degenerative disease that gets worse over time but fortunately, you can minimize the symptoms if you recognize them early enough.

1. Stiffness in the morning. Arthritis often causes pain in the morning. If you wake up with stiff hands, or feel pain in other parts of your body for half an hour or longer, it could be a sign of rheumatoid arthritis. It can take hours to warm up your joints, but you should be aware of stiffness so that you recognize it as arthritis pain.
2. Painful knees. Difficulty or pain when climbing stairs is one of the obvious signs of arthritis. If your knee joints lock or you have pain when bending your knee as you go up or down stairs, it could be a sign of arthritis. Putting extra weight on your knees can damage the joints and cause excessive arthritis pain over time. It's important to keep your weight at a healthy level, because excess weight increases your chances of developing arthritis.
3. Big toe pain. The big toe is one of the most frequently affected areas of the body. Many people report experiencing a red hot pain in their toe and actually seeing the joint turn red and become hot and tender. This can also happen in other joints but is most common in the toe. As with all arthritis symptoms, toe pain, if addressed early, can be managed more easily. Toe pain can also be a sign of gout, a disease closely related to arthritis.
4. Fatigue. Chronic fatigue, weight loss, anaemia and other flu-like symptoms, when accompanied by joint pain, can be warning signs of arthritis. It's important to recognize that arthritis symptoms can extend beyond pain in the joints because otherwise these symptoms can be misdiagnosed. However, if the flu-like symptoms are severe, they definitely warrant a physical exam.
5. Bumps on your fingers. One of the most common early symptoms of arthritis is deformity of the second and third finger joints. This is caused by bone spurs in the joint and generally causes limited mobility of the joint, although there is often no pain associated.