One of the most know crippling disease to man is the rheumatoid arthritis. This long term disease normally affects ones joints such as the wrist, hand and feet but also the disease can go further to affect a more serious place such as the joints that are found in the spine but this only happens when the disease has progressed tremendously. When the disease attacks the spine it first appears on the neck and progresses downwards.

Some of the symptoms that the patient is likely to experience are swellings all over the affected joint, intense pain around the area, tenderness and the joints may start to be stiff. The symptoms may appear without any warning and some times they may develop slowly. Patients tend to complain of tired especially when they are in too much pain. The rheumatoid arthritis is a disease unlike any other as some times the patient may not experience any symptoms for months then out of no where the symptoms appear once again.