Many Different Diseases All Called Arthritis
Arthritis Meaning?
The meaning of arthritis is joint inflammation. What a lot of people don’t understand is that arthritis is not just one disease but a wide variety of diseases
Today there are many rheumatic diseases and other conditions that are called arthritis. In fact there are over a 100 and all of them will cause pain, stiffness and swelling of the joints.
When one of these conditions damages the joints of the body this is when it is referred to as arthritis. Arthritis effect and disables our seniors and people 65 and older. There are many different forms of arthritis and they each have there own cause.
What do they have in common, 100 different diseases
The 100 forms of arthritis do have something very much in common. Pain is common, far and away the number one answer. This pain is going to be different for each of the sufferers and where the pain is located is also going to be different.
Warning signs and some symptoms of arthritis
One main sign other than pain is the stiffness, swelling in moving your joints
Are you feeling stiffness and swelling in one or more of your joints and have you been feeling this for a couple weeks or more? If you answered yes to the above then you need to visit your physician and have these warning signs diagnosed and treated.
Listing all the different types of arthritis would become quite extensive and I am not about to do that here. I will do another article explaining them, but for now here is a list of some of the most common types and the symptoms that are associated with each type of arthritis.
Osteoarthritis - this disease happens to be a degenerative joint disease. You are going to feel the worst pain at night time or after rest. This happens from wear and tear on the body, but there are other reasons. Here are some symptoms of osteo arthritis:
pain tenderness swelling decreased function
Osteo arthritis is gradual and subtle during the onset. It will involve one or more joints and some of those joints are:
spine area your hands hips become sore hard on the knees
Rheumatoid - pain is felt in the morning. Sometimes in the elderly and children the pain may not be as pronounced, but some limbs may not want to function.
When you are suffering from Rheumatoid arthritis you are suffering from an auto immune disease. What is happening is the body is attacking itself. This can be a chronic and a disabling problem and can cause the following:
Some of these symptoms are similar to other types of arthritis. you can have stiffness pain in the affected joint swelling of the joint you can lose function of the joint
Why rheumatoid arthritis occurs is still not known. Why the body attacks itself is a mystery. Doctors are wondering if this is genetic? It can be hard at first to tell if a person is suffering from rheumatiod arthritis, since it occurs so gradually.
Here are some of the other types of arthritis, and don’t forget there are many more not listed. You have as mentioned rheumatoid, osteo arthritis, gout, pseudogout, septic, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and there are as I say many others.
Today there are many different ways to treat arthritis depending on the type of arthritis you have. Medications can be prescribed as well as arthroplasty.
As a last resort and when the pain becomes so severe that prosthetic joint replacement may be the answer to the problem. Other treatments have failed and surgery is now necessary. Patient’s are quite satisfied of the results of joint replacement. I know of a friend who had a new hip put in and he is back out playing golf like nothing happened to him. You would never know he had this done and he is so grateful that he did.
Arthritis has been around a long time. The first traces of arthritis dates back to 4500 B.C.
Ankle osteoarthritis were found in dinosaurs. Even the native Americans of Tennessee, it was noticed that they suffered from a form of arthritis.
Today all we can do is to treat the pain and stiffness that is associated with the symptoms of arthritis. Maybe in the future as studies continue on this disease, a cure may come. But for now all we can do is to treat the symptoms.
There are other methods to help arthritis sufferers. I only mentioned a couple in this article. I will detail other methods in a future article.