Arthritis also includes a range of diseases that affect the muscles, connective tissues and organs, such as fibromyalgia, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoporosis, scleroderma, gout, and even Lyme disease. Arthritis is a very serious disease and if left untreated, it can even be life threatening. Symptoms and levels of pain experienced can vary widely. Other more unfortunate souls, however, suffer from bouts of severe and uncontrollable pain and inflammation that greatly disrupts their lives. Rheumatism is the most common form of arthritis so much so that they are often indistinguishable from each other and arthritis specialists are called rheumatologists.
Women are the unfortunate victims of arthritis almost twice as often as men are.
However Arthritis is an indiscriminate disease, it can effect anybody of any age, race or gender. Although arthritis often arises as a symptom of old age, almost a million children all over the world likewise have arthritis. Altogether, these rheumatic diseases are the leading cause of disability in the world. Every year over 100 million arthritis sufferers around the world visit their physician with complaints about it while more than a million people end up hospitalized because of the disease. It is also the second most common cause of disability in the work place, after heart disease.