How Does Psoriatic Arthritis Damage My Body? (0:51)
In psoriatic arthritis, the body attacks its own joints. The disease begins with inflammation of the joints, before progressing to joint damage, explains Darria Long-Gillespie, MD, Sharecare's chief doctor.
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The mechanics behind Psoriatic Arthritis are both inflammation and destruction, so your body actually sees the cartilage in your joints as foreign, as a disease that it has to actually destroy, so it creates these antibodies that go and they attack those, the joints and the cartilage. So the first thing you get is inflammation as a result of the antibodies.
After having the inflammation for a while then you start to get destruction, so it's really a spectrum from one to the next.
Psoriatic arthritis is an autoimmune disorder linked to the skin condition psoriasis. Learn about the symptoms and treatment of psoriatic arthritis, and find out how to prevent painful flare-ups.
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