Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Cause Hair Loss?: Top 5 Arthritis FAQs
Can rheumatoid arthritis cause hair loss? Does cold weather cause arthritis, or does it make it worse? When it comes to arthritis, managing symptoms, identifying triggers, and making lifestyle changes are already hard enough. In this article, we’ll explore your top five arthritis FAQs to help you support your joints today and for years to come.
What is Arthritis?
Arthritis is a joint disorder that causes joint pain, stiffness, and inflammation. Extremely common in adults over 50, arthritis affects more than 20% of American adults according to the CDC.
While joints naturally wear down as we age, arthritis is a more severe form of wear and tear which can be driven either by injury and overuse (typical causes of osteoarthritis) or autoimmune activity (a common cause of rheumatoid arthritis). Other common forms of arthritis include gout, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. However, osteoarthritis remains the most common form.
Arthritis can impact the entire body, but most people experience symptoms in their hands, wrists, shoulders, lower back, hips, knees, ankles, and feet.
Top 5 Arthritis FAQs
Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Cause Hair Loss?
Curious if rheumatoid arthritis can cause hair loss? The answer is yes. Though rare, hair loss can actually be a symptom of rheumatoid arthritis. This is because the same autoimmune response that mistakenly attacks joint tissue in rheumatoid arthritis sufferers can also attack healthy tissues in the skin and eyes.
Occasionally, autoimmune damage to the skin can affect hair follicles, causing hair to fall out. However, while this might leave your hair looking thin in some places, rheumatoid arthritis hair loss usually isn’t severe. So, if you’re experiencing bald patches or losing hair in clumps, you may want to look elsewhere (ideally, a trained medical professional).
Does Cracking Your Back Cause Arthritis?
It’s a common myth that cracking your joints–especially your knuckles, back, and wrists–can cause osteoarthritis. However, habitual joint cracking or popping can sometimes lead to other sorts of injuries such as torn or displaced ligaments and tendons.
This is particularly dangerous when it comes to the spinal cord–a fragile yet essential bundle of nerves housed within the vertebrae (the bones that make up the spine). Overall, though, studies indicate that whether or not an individual develops arthritis has far more to do with genetics and lifetime patterns of activity than it does cracking your joints.
Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Cause Neuropathy?
Peripheral neuropathy occurs when damage to the peripheral nervous system (the nerves outside of the brain and spine) impedes signaling, communication, and proper functioning. Neuropathy can manifest as tingling, weakness, pain, and even uncontrolled twitching when it occurs in the nerves that control our movement.
Unfortunately, in approximately 50% of cases, the autoimmune damage caused by rheumatoid arthritis will also damage nerves, resulting in a condition known as rheumatoid neuropathy. If you experience numbness or tingling as part of your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, it can indicate nerve compression, nerve damage, or serious progression in RA damage and shouldn’t be ignored.
In addition to speaking with your doctor about long-term solutions, gentle physical activity and regular stretching can help relieve rheumatoid neuropathy.
Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Cause Headaches?
Just when you thought the list of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms couldn’t get more frustrating: those headaches you’ve been experiencing? They could be RA.
While the autoimmune activation that causes rheumatoid arthritis mostly targets joints and cartilage, it can also cause neuroinflammation (brain inflammation), leading to headaches, migraines, and other issues. Additionally, rheumatoid arthritis can attack tissues in the upper spine, resulting in cervicogenic headaches which radiate from the neck up.
Does Cold Weather Cause Arthritis?
Cold weather might not cause arthritis, but it can certainly make arthritis pain worse. So can changes in pressure and humidity. According to a 2023 review and meta-analysis of fourteen studies examining weather conditions and osteoarthritis, factors such as cold temperatures, high barometric pressure, and high humidity can worsen existing arthritis symptoms, especially joint pain.
In general, if temperatures drop, you might want to layer up, stay inside, or even indulge in a hot bath to keep joints warm and flexible. Additionally, light indoor exercise and regular stretching can prevent muscles and joints from “going cold.”
