A joint is a part of the body connecting your bones. It ensures easy mobility, and all other parts attached to it help you have a full range of motion in order to function properly. However, issues can develop that could limit your range of motion. One such concern is arthritis.
What is Arthritis?
The word arthritis is used in describing the disease that affects the joints that connect the bones. Characterized by discomfort, stiffness, swelling, and pain in/to the joints, arthritis can manifest in both chronic and acute forms. Although there are several types of arthritis, the two major ones are rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Types Of Arthritis
What are some types of arthritis to know about? Find out here…
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is degenerative arthritis that is characterized by the wearing-out of the cartilage cushioning the surface on the ends of a bone. Generally, bones run against each other’s surface as this flexible cartilage breaks down, resulting in extreme pain, stiffness, and swelling.
Over time, this weakens the joints and mild pain becomes chronic. Osteoarthritis occurs mostly in the neck, lower back, hips, and knees.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
A healthy immune system offers you protection against inflammation to reduce the risk of disease and infection. However, an immune system that is not working properly can attack the joints mistakenly, potentially damaging some organs. Rheumatoid arthritis is a form of inflammatory arthritis.
Rheumatoid arthritis is also known as an autoimmune disease. This condition causes inflammation of the tissues surrounding the joints. It also causes the swelling of multiple organs in the body.
Psoriatic Arthritis
This is also an autoimmune disease. It is a form of inflammatory arthritis that causes a red scaly skin rash as well as stiffness and painful swelling around the joints. The rash can affect your scalp, buttocks, back, knees, elbows, and other places in the body. Those with psoriatic arthritis often experience fatigue.
People with psoriasis are usually affected by psoriatic arthritis, although arthritis develops in some people before psoriasis does. Also, a patient may not have psoriasis but still develop arthritis. This condition tends to affect adults but can also be seen in people of any age.
Ankylosing Spondylitis
This type of arthritis is a condition that causes swelling and pain around the spine’s joint(s). The body creates more mineral calcium in response to the inflammation. Normally, the body uses calcium to make bones strong. However, the extra calcium created during ankylosing spondylitis promotes the growth of little bits of bone in the spine, thus causing stiffness and pain.
Spondyloarthritis
Spondyloarthritis is another condition used in describing the pain and swelling that mainly bothers the joints of the spine. This condition causes the inflammation of small pieces of connective tissues.
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) or Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic autoimmune joint disease that is diagnosed before a patient’s sixteenth birthday. It only affects adolescents and children. JIA can cause swelling and pain in the joints. When JIA is diagnosed early, effective treatment can begin to limit damage to the body.
What Are The Causes Of Arthritis?
Cartilage is the connective tissue in your joints that is firm but flexible. It offers protection to the joints by absorbing shock and pressure when stress is put on them. When the normal amount of cartilage tissue reduces, it leads to some form of arthritis.
Osteoarthritis is one of the common forms of arthritis that is caused by normal wear and tear. Also, this inflammation, breakdown, and eventual loss of cartilage tissue can be made worse if there is an injury or infection to the joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that is directly a result of an attack on body tissues by your body’s immune system. Synovium, a soft tissue that produces fluids that lubricate the joints and nourishes the cartilage, is affected by this attack which can lead to the destruction of both the cartilage and bone inside the joint.
What Are The Symptoms Of Arthritis?
Arthritis is often characterized by pain and swelling around the joints. The symptoms may be severe, moderate, or mild. Knee symptoms are the most prominent because they carry the weight of the body. Some of the other symptoms related to arthritis may include:
• Extreme pain in the joints
• Limitation in the movement of the joints
• Redness
• Stiffness in the joints
• Swelling of the joints
Treatment For Arthritis
The treatment for arthritis depends on its type and degree. Getting relief from the pain is the major reason to get arthritis treatment. A treatment that works for one patient may not be suitable for another. However, physical therapy/chiropractic care is a generally accepted treatment for patients with arthritis.
Physiotherapy is a natural and safe treatment that helps in reducing your risk of disability as a result of arthritis. The treatment plan involves exercises to strengthen the muscles around the joints. These exercises help in stimulating the joints to heal naturally and prevent pain. To relieve you of the discomfort and pain, here are different recommended physiotherapy treatments:
• Massage: With massage therapy, the production of cortisol is reduced and the brain is stimulated for the production of more serotonin to improve your mood.
• Hot and cold packs: Cold packs reduce swelling and inflammation while hot packs soothe the pain by stimulating the flow of blood to the affected area.
• Acupuncture: The insertion of specialized fine needles to certain parts of the affected areas will help to relieve pain.
• Hydrotherapy: To relieve the symptoms of arthritis, water is used. This procedure is called hydrotherapy and requires that the patient perform some exercises in water.
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS): TENS makes use of a small electric device. In using it, the nerves are blocked from sending pain messages to the brain.
Conclusion
Arthritis is a condition that can be treated by a chiropractor. Treatment should help reduce pain and swelling, thereby improving a person’s quality of life.
