What Is Arthritis? Symptoms,Treatment, And Prevention

It is pretty common to see our parents, especially our mothers suffering from joint pains and pain in their legs the older they grow. After years of working to take care of the family, parents face many difficulties, especially with a lot of bodily pain. 

When your parents have joint pains, especially pain in the knees and shoulders, it is a sign of Arthritis. This is a pretty common disease that older people face. It causes a lot of pain to your joints and limbs, which often becomes unbearable.

In this article, we are going to discuss Arthritis in detail, going over its causes, symptoms, treatment procedures, and prevention measures in detail.

What Is Arthritis?

Arthritis refers to the swelling around the joints in our body, which causes people a lot of pain and discomfort. There is a high chance for everyone to develop this disease since it generally onsets with age. Therefore, the older you grow, the chances of suffering from this disease increase.

Estimates show that nearly 66 million adults suffer from this disease and almost 330,000 children. Research has shown that it is more common among women compared to men. It makes walking and moving around very difficult for people since the slightest movement will cause pain and discomfort.

Types Of Arthritis

There are many types of Arthritis. The most common types of this disease are:

1. Rheumatoid Arthritis

This is one of the most common types of this disease. Due to old age or some other prevailing illness, our body’s immune and healing systems weaken over time. This can cause several issues, like arthritis, fever, swelling of joints, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

2. Osteoarthritis

This is by far one of the most commonly seen forms of Arthritis. Over time, due to age and a lot of movement and hard work, we wear and tear the muscles in our joints, causing internal swelling. This soon starts generating a lot of pain, restricting movement by making it painful for older people. 

3. Psoriatic Arthritis

This type of disease is caused due to another condition called psoriasis. It is classified as an autoimmune disease that causes skin problems like rashes and irritations for people. Psoriasis causes the infected skin to turn greyish, with joint areas swelling up rapidly and causing arthritic pain.

4. Reactive Arthritis

This is caused by a reaction to an infection or external injury. For example, suppose you received a wound in your joints. In that case, there is a high chance that it might increase in severity and spread over to other joints in the vicinity due to your immune system not overcoming the pain.

5. Juvenile Arthritis

This is caused in juveniles – younger people below 18 years of age. This happens when children are involved in a lot of physical and playful activity, causing wear and tear of muscle tissues near joints. This is pretty uncommon and is often seen in children whose parents differ from arthritis.

6. Gout

Due to higher than average urine levels in the body, crystals or cysts can form in your toes. This can cause immense pain and swelling of the toe joints. It causes tremendous toe pain, restricting walking completely. However, gout flares or pains last for a few weeks only. 

What Causes Arthritis?

Some of the leading causes of Arthritis are:

1. Wear And Tear

If you have led a highly active physical life where you had to travel by walking a lot, then suffering from this disease increases. This causes the cartilage tissues in our joints to erode and break down over time, causing immense pain in our joint bones caused by friction.

2. Old Age

When we become sedentary in our old age, and our strength slowly fades away, arthritis in our hands and legs may develop. This is pretty common since this disease generally happens in older people as our bones start getting weaker and we suffer from back pain. 

3. Other Diseases

It is observed that other diseases can cause reactive arthritis to develop in people. This generally refers to people suffering from gout and psoriatic arthritis. These diseases cause the breakdown of joint bones and muscles, causing swelling that causes pain and discomfort.

4. Physical Injury

Physical injury that causes damage to the joints in your body can cause arthritis. For example, any injury in the toes or your fingers can cause the development of this disease over time as you grow older.

5. Hereditary Genes

If you have parents or grandparents who had arthritis, then there is a high chance that you might too in the future as you grow older. This has been successfully observed since this disease can be passed down from generation to generation, even skipping generations sometimes.

Symptoms Of Arthritis

The primary arthritis symptoms are:

• Pain, stiffness, and swelling of joints are caused due wear and tear of muscles and cartilage bone friction
• Restricted movement due to immense joint pain
• Fever
• Loss of weight due to decreased appetite and abdominal pain
• Rashes near joints, standard near elbows, knees, and between neck and shoulder
• Difficulty breathing due to immense pain that affects muscles contraction and expansion near the chest – also caused due to arrhythmia.

How Is Arthritis Treated?

Several methods can be counted as an arthritis treatment.

They are:

1. Medication

Most commonly, pain relievers like painkillers, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory medicines are used to curb the pain and discomfort. However, it only provides temporary pain relief. Some powerful medications target your immune system directly, making them stronger to combat the effects of arthritis.

2. Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is by far the most effective treatment for arthritis. Rehabilitation for this disease includes regular exercise, a healthy diet, and yoga. These are aimed at improving people’s range of motion and their muscle and bone strength.

3. Therapeutic Injections

Therapeutic injections in the form of cortisone shots are great at relieving joint and muscle pain for quite some time. However, it is not permanent, and you must take periodic injections. As for the knees, viscosupplementation – an infusion that inserts synovial fluid is highly effective in treating the pain in the longer term.

How Can Arthritis Be Prevented?

Arthritis is a disease that you cannot prevent. However, you can lessen the pain and discomfort it causes to some extent. It is essential to lead a healthier lifestyle by doing lots of exercise, doing yoga, and following a healthy diet. This makes your bones, muscles, and joints stronger and more tolerable to pain at older ages.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

1. What Does Arthritis Pain Feel Like?

The pain in your joints may come from time to time Durbin to movement, and can also be intolerable at times.

2. How To Check For Arthritis?

You can check for arthritis using x-rays, ultrasonography, and MRI.

3. What Can Make Arthritis Worse?

Excessive movement and physical activity can make arthritis worsen over time, along with following an unhealthy lifestyle.

4. Does Arthritis Go Away?

No, arthritis doesn’t go away. However, the pain can be temporarily relieved using medications and exercises.

Conclusion

Arthritis is a disease that has been commonly sighted in older people for ages. This happens due to the weakening of bones and muscles in our joints. Some common symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and swelling, followed by fever and rashes. 

It can be treated by medications, physical therapy, and therapeutic injections for severe cases. However, you cannot prevent this disease because it is often hereditary, with the weakening of bone density and muscle mass in older ages being unpreventable. Therefore, we recommend leading a healthier lifestyle.

If you want to know more about other diseases, it would be great if you can check out our other articles and share them with others.

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