100 Different Diseases, Some Symptoms of Arthritis
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
Most people don’t realize that there are over 100 conditions and rheumatic diseases that are all arthritis related. What they all do is cause pain, swelling and stiffness in a variety of manners and all of them affect different parts of the body.
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
What you are going to find that all the different forms of arthritis have in common is that pain is the number one answer. This pain is going to be located in different areas as well as feeling different to all of the individuals.
Some symptoms of arthritis to warn you of possible problems
Swelling of your joints and stiffness are some of the signs and symptoms that you may be suffering from arthritis.
Pain, swelling and stiffness in moving one or more of your joints may be a sign that you are starting to suffer from arthritis. If you are having these problems for two weeks or longer, then you need to visit your doctor immediately and have these symptoms checked out and treated. You don’t want to let this go with out doing anything.
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 - this disease happens to be a degenerative joint disease. You are going to feel the worst pain at night time or after rest. This happens from wear and tear on the body, but there are other reasons. Here are some symptoms of osteo arthritis:
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 - you are going to feel the most pain during the morning. If this happens in children and/or the elderly then the pain may not be as pronounced. Now sometimes there are going to be cases when certain limbs don’t want to function.
When you are suffering from Rheumatoid arthritis you are suffering from an auto immune disease. What is happening is the body is attacking itself. This can be a chronic and a disabling problem and can cause the following:
stiffness joint pain swelling loss of joint function
Why rheumatoid arthritis occurs is still not known. Why the body attacks itself is a mystery. Doctors are wondering if this is genetic? It can be hard at first to tell if a person is suffering from rheumatiod arthritis, since it occurs so gradually.
Some of the other types of arthritis and by no means is this a complete list are the following. Gout and pseudogout, you have septic, as mentioned rheumatiod arthritis and don’t forget juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and also mentioned osteoarthritis, bursitis and there are many others that have not been mentioned.
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.
As a last resort and when the pain becomes so severe that prosthetic joint replacement may be the answer to the problem. Other treatments have failed and surgery is now necessary. Patient’s are quite satisfied of the results of joint replacement. I know of a friend who had a new hip put in and he is back out playing golf like nothing happened to him. You would never know he had this done and he is so grateful that he did.
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.
Dinosaurs have even had evidence to have had ankle osteoarthritis. The skeletal remains of Native Americans of Tennessee were noticed to have arthritis.
Today all we can do is to treat the pain and stiffness that is associated with the symptoms of arthritis. Maybe in the future as studies continue on this disease, a cure may come. But for now all we can do is to treat the symptoms.
There are other methods to help arthritis sufferers. I only mentioned a couple in this article. I will detail other methods in a future article.
