By Ruthie Hawkins, BlackDoctor.org Contributor
Living with arthritis is a very tiring reality for many people and unfortunately, arthritis can come at any age. It can develop when you’re a young adult, it can develop as you begin to age into an older adult, and it can even develop in your childhood. Not only can it develop at different ages in life, but there are also many different types of arthritis. Regardless of which one you may be living with, living with arthritis can be extremely hard and can affect your daily life in many ways, especially when it comes to work. Thankfully there are things out there that you can do to make your life easier when living with arthritis. There are natural remedies, prescribed medicines, certain exercises, and even certain career fields that can work with you when dealing with arthritis.
Again there are many different types of arthritis. One, for example, is rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Since it is considered an autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks its own body tissue.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disorder that can affect multiple joints in your body. It affects the lining of your joints, which causes severe swelling. Once swelling occurs, it can lead to the erosion of your bones and deformity in your joints.
The symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are fatigue, fever, tender and swollen joints, and joint stiffness (which is usually worse when you are inactive and warm).
This autoimmune disorder usually occurs in your smaller joints (hands and fingers) first.
Experiencing pain and swelling in your hands can stop you from completing simple tasks such as brushing your teeth or taking care of your hygienic needs, cooking, writing, typing, or even holding something.
It can also affect the joints in your feet that attach to your toes, making it hard to walk.
As rheumatoid arthritis starts to worsen, it affects the joints in your knees, ankles, hips, shoulders, etc. This can hinder you from even getting out of bed in the morning.
When living with rheumatoid arthritis or any type of arthritis for that matter, sometimes your job can be a major cause as to why you are experiencing flare-ups with your joints. Sometimes the work you may be doing is too much for your joints and will cause inflammation.
Here are five difficult jobs to have when living with rheumatoid arthritis:
Manufacturing
Healthcare
Construction
Retail
Food Industry
If you are someone who works in manufacturing as a manufacturer, in healthcare as a nurse or doctor, or are a construction worker, carpenter, sales associate, chef or waiter, then it may be extremely difficult to perform well in these positions because of the joint pain that rheumatoid arthritis causes and here’s why.
These jobs can be very demanding, both physically and mentally. If you have a physically demanding job when dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, then the chances of ever feeling relief are slim to none.
These jobs usually require you to be on your feet all day, and if you remember, RA starts in your smaller joints (fingers and toes).
These jobs also demand constant movement and bending, which, again, if done for a long period, can cause inflammation to begin, causing swelling and pain.
Repetitive motion for prolonged periods, being in awkward positions often and constantly having to lift, bend and move things and people for hours at a time can worsen symptoms.