Arthritis
What is Arthritis?
Arthritis is a common term used to describe pain in joints
which appears due to degeneration of cartilage or inflammation
of joint lining.
Over the years, it is now one of the most serious ailments
which affect Americans. In fact, the number of Americans afflicted
by arthritis has climbed from 33 million in 1998 to 66 million
in 2005
The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis
and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis happens when the
cartilage covering the bones starts to shrivel and die.As
a result, the bones start rubbing against each other hence
causing intense pain. In case of rheumatoid arthritis, the
pain is resulted from the inflammation of joint lining.
Some of the other common medical conditions include gout,
ankylosing spondylitis, juvenile arthritis and fibromyalgia.
Other than that, there are at least 100 different types of
joint pain which are widely referred to as arthritis. These
are the factors which affect the muscoskeletal system of the
body. Sometimes, they even impact on major organs like lungs,
heart etc.
The most common affects of arthritis are: pain, stiffness,
inflammation and weakening of joints. The joints which are
usually affected are hips, knees, wrists, fingers, spine,
elbows, shoulders and ankles. When this happens, the patient
finds it hard to hadle basic tasks like walking, climbing
stairs, cutting vegetables, wearing clothes, getting in or
out of cars etc.
It is vital to check the happening of arthritis by seeking
medical opinion when the first symptoms appear. You should
be alerted when an individual starts experiencing pain in
a joint or starts suffering from stiffness when waking and
these are usually the signs of osteoarthritis. When the joints
feel hot, red, and tender then it is a usually case of rheumatoid
arthritis.
Arthritis happens due to a couple of different causes. Physical
stress or injury which causes the cartilage to start cracking
up is usually the primary reason of arthritis. This usually
happens to sportsmen or to workers who conduct repetitive
physical activity, exercising pressure on some joints. The
cartilage can even break sometimes. When this happens, the
bones come closer, and start rubbing against each other, hence
causing pain. In some possible cases, joints get disfigured
and make movement becomes hard.
Arthritis can also be resulted from obesity. This condition
arises when the knees can't bear extra load, and the cartilage
starts getting stretched. The people who suffer from improper
joint alignments are especially vulnerable to osteoarthritis.
So are women, after the age of 45. Their finger joints always
become a prey of osteoarthritis. Age is certainly one of the
natural causes of arthritis because all ligaments weaken with
age.
On another hand, rheumatoid arthritis is caused by the improper
working of the body's immune system. One of the common symptoms
includes swelling of joint lining which causes pain.
Different from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis happen
due to the malfunction of multiple joints and this is what
makes it more painful.
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