Everything You Need to Know About Arthritis
Everything You Need to Know About Arthritis
According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), states that around 54.4% of people in the United States have received a diagnosis for arthritis. Generally, it affects all age group people, even teenagers. Some forms of arthritis are common in older people. Although there is no cure for arthritis, with proper treatment, it can improve significantly. It certainly makes life tough as it causes severe pain and swelling of joints.
Mostly two kinds of arthritis are there–rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis mainly affects the cartilage, and rheumatoid arthritis affects the joints and damage throughout your body.
What is Arthritis?
Arthritis is not well understood, as it is not a single disease; it is an informal way of mentioning to joint disease or joint pain. A joint is an area where to bones of a body meet and functions to move the body. There are numerous types of arthritis, and it is common in all age group and sex.
Symptoms
- Swelling and stiffness of the joint that leads to reduced body function.
- Tenderness of the inflamed joint can be present with or without pain.
- Causes severe pain while moving the body parts.
- When large joints are involved, there can be loss of cartilage.
- When arthritis affects finger bones, there can be bone growth and loss of handgrip.
Causes
- It causes the reduction of cartilage that protects the bones by gripping the pressure and fright created while moving.
- Normal wear and tear is the reason for OA, the most widespread type of arthritis. Also, an infection on the joints worsens cartilage tissue’s natural breakdown.
- An autoimmune disorder is one more common form of arthritis. It is caused when the body’s immune system starts attacking the tissue of the body.
- It also causes abnormal metabolism.
Risk factors
- Hereditary
Most arthritis is genetic, so you may be more likely to develop this disease if your parents or siblings have arthritis.
- Age
However, arthritis can happen to any age group, but some types of arthritis like osteoarthritis and rheumatoid increases with age.
- Sex
Women are more likely to develop arthritis than men.
- Obesity
People with excess body fat give lots of stress to their joints, especially their knees, spines and hips. This excess pressure in their joints results in a higher risk of developing arthritis.
- Previous injury
People often injure their joints while playing sports like football, basketball, hockey, etc. Later in their life, this injury can eventually develop arthritis.
Treatment
However, the treatment for arthritis solely depends on the type of pain, swelling, and redness present at that moment. The treatments include physical therapy, exercise, splinting, cold pack application, home remedies, pain medication, anti-inflammatory drugs, surgical operations and other medications. Osteoarthritis pain can be relieved by hyaluronic acid injections, and rheumatoid arthritis can be cured through medication that suppresses the immune system. Some treatment programs also involve weight loss and avoid activities that may put excessive pressure on the joints.
Generally, it is difficult to say how arthritis will affect you over time, as sometimes it is not constant. Most people don’t face major problems because of arthritis and even in more severe cases; an effective treatment can cure the disease. Try to stay physically active and stay fit to have control over your life.
