Many Different Diseases All Called Arthritis
Posted on March 4, 2008 - Filed Under Health & Fitness
The Meaning of Arthritis
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
We have a hundred different forms of arthritis, so what is common with all of them? The answer to this question is without a doubt pain. The arthritis pain will be different among all of the individuals suffering from arthritis, and the location of the pain will also be different.
What are some of the warning signs for arthritis?
Swelling of your joints and stiffness are some of the signs and symptoms that you may be suffering from arthritis.
If you have one or more of the above symptoms for two weeks or more, you need to go and talk to your doctor. You need to go and have these warning signs and/or symptoms 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 - what you will find is that the pain is worse at night or after rest. Osteo arthritis is a degenerative joint disease that results from wear and tear. Some of the symptoms of this are:
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.
Rhuematoid arthritis can be a potentially disabling disease. The body is attacking isself. This is how Rhuematoid arthritis is an auto immune disease. Problems can be:
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
The cause of rheumatoid arthritis remains elusive. Doctors believe that there could be something genetic involved with this. Rheumatoid arthritis in the beginning stages can be difficult to diagnose because again this is gradual and has subtle symptoms.
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.
With the technology today and the advances in medicine, treating arthritis symptoms have become many. Drugs, either over the counter or stronger drugs prescribed by your doctor is one way and then there is also arthroplasty. This is just a couple ways to treat the symptoms.
When joint pain is so severe that there may come a time when prosthetic joint replacement may become necessary. The people who have had this done are very satisfied with the results.
You have to understand that arthritis has been around for a long time. Arthritis dates back to 4500 B.C.. It was then the first traces were noticed in humans.
It was noticed that the Native American’s of Tennessee had arthritis. In fact ankle osteo arthritis was noticed in dinosaur remains.
As time and technology advances may be in the future there will be a cure for arthritis. But only time will tell. Right now we try to treat the symptoms of pain and stiffness the best that we can.
There are other treatments besides the couple listed above and I will talk about them in another article.
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