Rheumatic diseases are diseases characterized by an inflammatory process in the joints, ligaments, tendons, bones or muscles. More than a hundred are recognized, they arise especially at a young age, they mainly affect women and one of the best known is rheumatoid arthritis.
Professor Carlo Selmi, Head of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at Humanitas, guest in Buongiorno benessere on Rai1, spoke about rheumatic diseases, with an emphasis on rheumatoid arthritis.
“Rheumatoid arthritis generally manifests itself with pain in the small joints of the hands and feet; pain that has characteristics different from the joint pain that can commonly be felt during the day,” explained Professor Selmi.
The three treatment objectives
“Compared to the past, today we have a great many weapons against this disease and we often succeed in preventing its progression. We have three objectives when we deal with rheumatoid arthritis: to make people who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis feel good, to allow them to continue to feel well and avoid the progression of the disease, and to achieve the first two objectives at the lowest possible therapeutic price, that is, with the least possible use of drugs.
We don’t have real treatments to date, those with chronic arthritis will never talk about the disease in the past, but we have increasingly powerful and personalized means to reduce the impact that the disease will have on people’s futures. I’m thinking of biotechnological drugs, but also of the oral drugs that we’ll have in the near future and of the use of cortisone for short periods and at low doses, which allow us to extinguish the inflammation”, underlined the specialist.
To watch the entire interview with Professor Selmi, click here (from minute 21.10).
