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The Meaning of Arthritis

Arthritis literally means joint inflammation. You also have to understand that arthritis is not a single disease. Arthritis refers to an entire group of diseases.

There are more than 100 rheumatic diseases and other conditions, that can cause pain, stiffness in the body and also swelling of the joints.

The time that joints are starting to get damaged is when it is said that you have arthritis. Most of us realize that this condition affects the older population. Each of the different forms of arthritis all 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.

Some symptoms of arthritis to warn you of possible problems

Stiffness swelling pain difficulty in moving one or more joints

Are you feeling stiffness and swelling in one or more of your joints and have you been feeling this for a couple weeks or more? If you answered yes to the above then you need to visit your physician and have these warning signs 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:

tenderness decreased function of the joint pain in affected joint swelling

The onset of osteo arthritis is very subtle and gradual, usually involving one or only a few joints. Some of the joints most affected by this are:

tough on the knees sore hands hips become sore and stiff spine area is affected

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.

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.

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.

4500 B.C. where when the first signs of arthritis were seen. So as you can see this disease has been around for a very long time.

Dinosaurs have even had evidence to have had ankle osteoarthritis. The skeletal remains of Native Americans of Tennessee were noticed to have arthritis.

There may be a time in the future when a cure for arthritis will be found. But today we can just treat the symptoms of arthritis the best we can. To help the person have a better form of life is what the goal is today, by using drugs and other treatments. Time will tell if something happens out on the horizon, but for now there is no cure for arthritis but there are natural arthritis treatments that are available.

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.

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