Meaning of Arthritis

Have you ever come up to the word Arthritis? Well, in simple terms it can be explained as an inflammation of body joints by targeting your musculo skeletal system. The disease is most commonly seen with stiffness and pain in joints along with swelling.

How do you get Arthritis?

As we already started discussing about the condition, let’s try to make it more clear how you get arthritis. This would eventually help someone to know the exact causes of onset of the disease. As per the recent arthritis research, almost 27 million people currently suffer from the condition. A number of risk factors are involved to make the condition visible that include a person’s age, gender, heredity, stress, injuries, obesity, muscle imbalances, systemic inflammation, etc.

Reversing Arthritis

Well, the condition is so prevalent among almost all age groups of people that you hardly can do anything much to prevent its effects. It’s a common fact that the condition is not curable but still, a lot of research has been done to minimize its effects. Now, before I proceed further to discuss about arthritis reversal, let me discuss something about joints, types and symptoms of arthritis, etc.

What is a Joint?

A joint is referred to a location or an area where two bones connect each other physically. They serve to allow all kinds of movements (except for sternal, skull, sacral and pelvic bones) apart from providing mechanical support to the body. Arthritis is referred to the inflammation in a joint.

Most Common Types of Arthritis

Osteoarthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Infectious arthritis

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) – It’s designated as most common type of arthritis that affects over 16 million people in the United States alone. The condition is accompanied by the degeneration of cartilage and synovial fluid surrounding the ends of bones that leads to severe pain and stiffness. The best part of OA is that it can be reversed.

Osteoarthritis is often termed as “wear and tear arthritis” primarily affecting cartilage of a joint by making it stiff and susceptible to damage. This eventually leads opposing bones to erode into each other.

Due to the continued degeneration of cartilage over time, it becomes weak and fragmented leading to severe pain and restricted joint mobility.

In most cases, pain is best defined as a kind of sharp ache or a severe burning sensation in the regions of affected muscles or tendons.

A number of risk factors are involved that come into play in the development of OA over the time. Some of these factors include patient’s age, gender, obesity, previous history of joint damage or any kind of deformity in the joint, etc.

It’s been observed in most cases that stiffness in the joint tends to make things worse for the patient in the morning hours but later it gets loosen up within a few hours’ time.

One of the few typical characteristics of OA is known by the name “crepitus” (crackling noise) which is produced as soon as the patient tries to touch or move the affected joint. This may result muscle spasms along with contractions in the tendons.

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) – The disease is categorized as a chronic autoimmune disorder that often leads to deformed and painful joints. The major issue with this kind of ailment is that it cannot be reversed unlike osteoarthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic condition often seen with presence of disease flares and remissions. The disease attacks patient’s own immune system.

In normal cases, multiple joints are seen affecting in a symmetrical pattern (affecting both sides of the body).

The disease can go more chronic with its inflammation causing irreversible joint destruction and deformity characterized by joint swelling, pain, stiffness, etc.

It’s always beneficial to get early consultation and treatment of RA to get better results.

RA is going prevalent without its complete cure being known. However, its treatment generally involves a combination of right medication along with focusing on some easy and light exercises, proper rest and right education to protect your joint.

The disease initially starts affecting smaller joints of the body including fingers, elbows, knees, wrists, etc. and then targets other joints as well.

One of the typical symptoms of RA is that it causes morning stiffness that may last up to 60 minutes before its complete resolution. Please find below an enlarged view of a joint describing the destruction of cartilage.

What is the difference between Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Characteristic Osteoarthritis Rheumatoid Arthritis About the disease Involves wear and tear of cartilage of the affected joint Involves inflammation of synovial membrane protecting the joint leading to severe pain and swelling (chronic autoimmune). Starting age Starts later in life and accompanies ageing may begin anytime in life and is often seen among children and adults Speed of onset Relatively slow over years rapid over weeks to months Affected areas Most affected areas in OA include ends of the fingers and base of the thumb RA mainly affects middle and upper joints of fingers Morning stiffness Affected joints remain stiff in the morning hours and come to normal within 20 minutes In RA, morning stiffness remain affected for not less than 45 minutes after the patient gets out of bed. Leading Factors or triggers Some of the major factors triggering OA include obesity, injury or overuse of joints and heredity. Obesity has no prominent role in triggering RA but may involve aggravating the symptoms of the disease. Pain In OA, pain mostly remains in the affected joint, e.g. in the right knee and gradually reduces with movement along with stiffness. In RA, pain starts affecting the joints on both sides of the body, e.g. in both the knees and gets intensified with movement due to more stress. Symptoms affecting whole body (systemic) Major symptoms include pain with swelling, fatigue, general feeling of ill being, and osteoporosis along with frequent infections. In RA, whole-body symptoms are not involved and is limited to localized pain in the joints. Gender affected Both men (before 50 years) and women (after 50 years) of age are affected. Women are more prone to get RA than men. Mode of treatment Drugs treating OA include steroids (DMARDs) and pain killers (NSAIDS) Pain killers (NSAIDS) are more effective to treat RA.

Do you know Fish Oil can reduce the effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Fish oil containing omega fatty acids have been proved quite effective treating Rheumatoid Arthritis. As we know that the condition is irreversible, so these sort of dietary fats can play a vital role in minimizing the effects of the disease.

In the recent past, a number of researches have been made to know the impact of dietary fat on human health causing inflammation, however, it has been found that omega 3 fatty acids can help reduce the symptoms of RA to a great extent.

Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 fatty acids can be used as a supplement in the diet and can become an effective and natural way treating both Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis. They are unlike some potential inflammatory drugs used to treat such ailments along with their potential side effects.

Treatment of Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

Osteoarthritis is a condition that primarily happens in the joints of a patient’s spine, hands, hips and knees. Doctors most often advise little bit of exercises along with certain drugs to treat this most prevalent lifestyle disorder. There are at least four main areas that are stressed upon while treating this disorder:

Maintain a normal body weight

Lead a healthy lifestyle

Improve functioning of joint

Control pain

Osteoarthritis treatment generally involves a combination of the following techniques:

Exercises

Proper rest and joint care

Body weight

A set of alternate and complementary therapies along with drugs

Surgery