Arthritis

Arthritis is the swelling of one or more joints in your body. It can often cause many side effects such as stiffness or joint pain. Furthermore, there are many different types of arthritis and the most common being osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Types of Arthritis

Osteoarthritis

More people have this condition than any other form of arthritis. It’s the “wear and tear” that happens when your joints are overused. It usually occurs with age, but it can also come from joint injuries or obesity, which puts extra stress on your joints. Joints that bear weight — like your knees, hips, feet, and spine — are the most common places it affects. It often comes on gradually over months or years. It makes the affected joint hurt. But you don’t feel sick or have the fatigue that comes with some other types of arthritis.

Cartilage, the material that covers the ends of bones, gradually breaks down. One example is what can happen to your knees when you’re overweight. The extra pounds put more pressure on the cartilage as it gets squeezed between the bones. It gets damaged and wears away, so there isn’t as much left to cushion the joint. The damaged cartilage makes movement painful. You may hear a grating sound when the roughened cartilage on the surface of the bones rubs together. You may get painful spurs or bumps on the end of the bones, especially on fingers and feet. The joint lining can get inflamed, but it’s not common with osteoarthritis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

RA is an autoimmune disease. That means the immune system attacks parts of the body, especially the joints. That leads to inflammation, which can cause severe joint damage if you don’t treat it. About 1 out of every 5 people who have rheumatoid arthritis get lumps on their skin called rheumatoid nodules. These often form over joint areas that receive pressure, such as over knuckles, elbows, or heels.

Doctors don’t know exactly what causes RA. Some experts believe the immune system becomes “confused” after an infection with a bacteria or virus and starts to attack your joints. This battle can spread to other areas of the body.

Scientists think two of the body’s chemicals related to inflammation, tumour necrosis factor(TNF) and interleukin-1, trigger other parts of the immune system in rheumatoid arthritis. Medicines that block TNF, and interleukin-1 can improve the symptom and prevent joint damage.

Psoriatic Arthritis

People with this condition have inflammation of the skin (psoriasis) and joints (arthritis). Psoriasis causes patchy, raised, red and white areas of inflamed skin with scales. It usually affects the tips of the elbows and knees, the scalp, the navel. Only about 10% to 30% of people with psoriasis will also get psoriatic arthritis.

This type of arthritis usually starts between ages 30 and 50, but it can begin as early as childhood. The skin disease (psoriasis) usually shows up first.

Psoriatic arthritis can swell the fingers and toes. People who have it often have fingernails that are pitted or discoloured, too. In some people, only one joint or a few joints are affected. Sometimes, it affects the spine or just the fingers and toes.

Gout

When you have gout, you often wake up with a sudden, sharp pain in your big toe after a night of drinking. But drugs, stress, or another illness can also trigger a gout attack. The attack will last between 3 and 10 days, even if you don’t treat it. It may be months or years before you have another one, but over time, attacks may grow more frequent. And they may last longer, too. If gout goes untreated too long, it can affect your joints and kidneys.

Gout results from one of three things:

• Your body making more uric acid.
• Your kidneys can’t process the uric acid your body makes.
• You’re eating too many foods that raise uric acid levels.

Symptoms almost always come on quickly. Some symptoms include:

• Intense joint pain: Typically in the big thoe, but could also be in the ankles, knees, elbows, wrists, or fingers.
• Discomfort: Even after the sharp pain goes away, the joint will still hurt.
• Inflammation and redness: The joint will be red, swollen, and tender.
• Hard to move: The joint will be stiff.

Treatment

Arthritis treatment focuses on relieving symptoms and improving joint function.

Physical therapy can be helpful for some types of arthritis. Exercises can improve range of motion and strengthen the muscles surrounding joints.

Medications

• Painkillers help reduce pain, but have no effect on inflammation.

• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). NSAIDs reduce both pain and inflammation. Over-the-counter NSAIDs include ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen (Aleve).
• Counterirritants. Some varieties of creams and ointments contain menthol or capsaicin, the ingredient that makes hot peppers spicy. Rubbing these preparations on the skin over your aching joint may interfere with the transmission of pain signals from the joint itself.

Surgery

• Joint repair. In some cases, joint surfaces can be smoothed or realigned to reduce pain and improve function. These types of procedures can often be performed through small incisions over the joint.
• Joint replacement. This procedure removes your damaged joint and replaces it with an artificial one. Joints most commonly replaced are hips and knees.

• Joint fusion. This procedure is more often used for smaller joints, such as those in the wrist, ankle and fingers. It removes the ends of the two bones in the joint and then locks those ends together until they heal into one rigid unit.