Joint symptoms usually involve three or more joints. The most commonly affected joints are the wrists, fingers, knees, feet, and ankles.
Joint symptoms include:
- Increased pain and stiffness in the morning and after inactivity
- Morning stiffness and pain that lasts more than 30 minutes
- Pain and stiffness symmetrically (that is, both feet or both hands are affected, as opposed to only one)
- Red, swollen, warm joints
- Deformed, misshapen joints
Other symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include:
- Intense fatigue, decreased energy
- Muscle aches
- Decreased appetite
- Weight loss
- Fever and sweats
- Depression
- Problems sleeping
- Anemia
- Bumps occurring under the skin (rheumatoid nodules)
- Inflamed blood vessels
- Bleeding stomach ulcers
-
Inflammation of the heart’s sac (
pericarditis)
-
Inflammation of the heart muscle (
myocarditis)
- Lung problems
- Eye problems