Persistent pain, swelling or morning stiffness can be easy to dismiss. Dr Punam Krishan explains the signs that deserve a GP appointment.
Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms are easy to file under somebody else’s problem. Stiff fingers? Too much typing.
Aching joints after the gym? Probably overdid it. Tired all the time? Join the queue. Yet around 450,000 people in the UK have a recorded rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, with 27,000 adults newly diagnosed each year. The condition is most often diagnosed between 46 and 70, but age is not the neat protective barrier many people assume it is.
That matters because rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is not simply the slow wearing-out of joints. Dr Punam Krishan, NHS and TV GP working with stairlift and home lift brand Stannah, describes it as an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks healthy joint tissue, causing inflammation, swelling, pain and stiffness, particularly in the hands and feet.
For Rheumatoid Arthritis Week, running from 14 to 18 September, her central warning is less dramatic than useful: persistent symptoms deserve attention, even if you are young, busy or convinced there must be a more ordinary explanation.
Why rheumatoid arthritis is not just an older person’s condition
The popular picture of arthritis is still stubbornly elderly: worn joints, reduced mobility and a lifetime of use finally presenting the bill. RA does not follow that script.
It can be diagnosed from the age of 16, while other inflammatory forms of arthritis can affect children. Most RA diagnoses still happen later, but often during years already crowded with work, family responsibilities and caring duties.
That makes the tendency to dismiss symptoms particularly unhelpful. A younger adult with stiff fingers may blame a keyboard; someone doing physical work may blame the job; a tired parent may simply assume tiredness is part of the uniform.
Krishan says pain and stiffness are among the joint symptoms younger patients commonly bring to her. Her practical threshold is strikingly simple: if someone is relying on painkillers most days just to manage stiffness or pain, the problem deserves proper assessment.
The pattern of symptoms can be more useful than one bad day
A single ache tells a GP relatively little. A pattern tells them more.
Krishan encourages patients to notice whether symptoms are worse after rest or after activity, whether one joint is affected or several, and whether stiffness is particularly noticeable first thing in the morning. Those details can help turn a vague complaint into something clinically more useful.
The same applies to spread. Persistent pain, swelling or stiffness in more than one joint is more notable than an isolated niggle that behaves exactly as an ordinary strain might. None of these features confirms RA by itself. They are reasons to stop guessing and start describing the problem accurately.
There is a quiet lesson here for anyone who tends to underplay symptoms at appointments: saying your joints hurt is a beginning, not a history.
Why two weeks can be a useful checkpoint after an injury
Exercise provides an especially convincing alibi for joint pain. Twist an ankle, lift badly, push too hard in a session and soreness has an obvious explanation.
The difficulty comes when the expected recovery never quite arrives. Most minor sprains and strains begin to improve within around two weeks. If a joint injury is not starting to settle after that point, or swelling and stiffness begin appearing in joints that were not involved in the original injury, Krishan advises raising it with a GP.
That does not make a stubborn gym injury rheumatoid arthritis. It does make “I probably just need another week” a less persuasive medical strategy.
Family history and sex can add important context
Symptoms still matter most, but background can change how closely they deserve watching.
Krishan says family history is relevant because rheumatoid arthritis has a genetic element. Knowing that RA runs in the family can give both patient and GP useful context if joint symptoms begin to recur or persist.
Women are also two to three times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than men, although the reason is not fully understood. That statistic is not a diagnosis, nor is it a reason to worry in isolation.
It is one more piece of context in a condition that is often recognised by connecting several modest clues rather than discovering one theatrical giveaway.
When persistent joint symptoms deserve a GP appointment
The signs Krishan wants people to take seriously are persistent joint pain, swelling or stiffness; morning stiffness; symptoms affecting more than one joint; and joint problems that fail to improve as expected after an injury.
Early assessment matters even if the eventual diagnosis is not RA. Persistent pain can affect work, exercise, sleep, family life and the small domestic movements nobody thinks about until they become difficult. Starting the right treatment process sooner may help manage symptoms and protect day-to-day function over the longer term.
The useful distinction is not between young and old, athletic and inactive, worried and unworried. It is between symptoms that settle and symptoms that keep returning to the conversation.
A joint that keeps asking for attention is rarely improved by pretending not to hear it.
