Rheumatoid arthritis can occur due to a number of reasons such as heredity, infection damage to the joints, or improper nutrition etc. Therefore, every body is prone to this disease. However, it is very important to detect it as early as possible. Therefore, everybody should be well aware of the general warning signs of rheumatoid arthritis.

There is not probable age for the warning signs of rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, they can occur at any age.

The initial sign of the rheumatoid arthritis is pain in the joints. As the cartilages are damaged during rheumatoid arthritis, the joints do not function properly. Inflammation occurs in them and therefore this pain arises. After some time this pain, increases and the joints swell up. Rheumatoid arthritis mainly occurs in the joints of wrist, knee, elbow, ankle, neck, finger, and feet. This is because smaller joints are much more prone to rheumatoid arthritis than the larger joints.

As the inflammation increases redness occurs in the skin above that affected joint. After sometime the movements of that, joints are restricted. This happens because the joints become stiff and if moved they pain severely. Also in some cases if the joints are moved or even touched in such condition a crackling sound is produced. This sound usually occurs in the later stages when the stiffness has greatly increased.

The stiffness in the joints in the beginning is the temporary i.e. it occurs form some time during the day. Generally, it occurs during the morning, as during the night when the patient is sleeping, there is no movement of the joint.  However, in advanced cases the stiffness becomes permanent or lasts for longer times.

Another general symptom of rheumatoid arthritis is the numbness or tingling of the joints. This happens because the rheumatoid arthritis also affects the other parts as well. Therefore, the nerves along with the other tissues in that region are affected and the region of the joint becomes numb. Moreover, the patient experiences aches in the muscles.

Rheumatoid arthritis also affects the other body parts and systems as well. One of the common symptoms of the arthritis is the loss of appetite, which results in the loss of weight of the patient. In addition to loss in appetite, the patient generally feels fatigue

These are some of the simple external warning signs of rheumatoid arthritis. However, as the other systems of the body are affected as well the complications with the heart, blood vascular system, etc, occur.