Life with Arthritis Disorders
Life with Arthritis: Joints
Arthritis usually centers around the joints in your bones. It makes bending and any movements subtle and extreme, highly painful. Two areas are helpful in the diagnosis�joint pattern and the presence or absence of extra articular manifestations.
Your doctor will need to answer three specific questions in order to determine the actual diagnosis.
� Is there inflammation in the joints?
� Out of all the joints of the body how many are actually involved?
� What specific joints are affected?
If inflammation is present the chances are that the diagnosis will come back rheumatoid arthritis-systemic lupus-gout. If inflammation is absent chances are you have Osteoarthritis.
If the number of joints involved are monarticular the diagnosis will most likely be gout-trauma, septic arthritis or lyme disease. However, if two through four joints are involved (oligoarticular) then this means one of the following is present: rewriter disease, psoriatic arthritis, or inflammatory bowel disease. If more than five joints are affected (polyarticular) means that rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus is most likely present.
The actual joint involvement of the distal interphalangeal would lead to the conclusion of osteoarthritis and symptomatic arthritis but not necessarily rheumatoid arthritis. Metacarpophalangeal, meaning your wrists, would suggest rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus but not Osteoarthritis. If the first metatarsalphalangeal is involved this would show a diagnosis of gout and Osteoarthritis.
Life with Arthritis: Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis has got to be the most common of all joint disease.s around 90% of all people have some sort of symptoms for this by the time they reach 40 years of age. Age, race, and geographic area, plays no part in elements facilitating this disease.
Degenerative Joint Disease is classified into two types:
� PRIMARY- Which commonly effects the terminal interphalangeal joints and less commonly the proximal interphalangeal joints, the medacarpophalangio, carpomedacarpel joints including the thumb, hip, knee, big toe, cervical and the lumbar spine.
� SECONDARY- this can occur in any joint resulting from rheumatoid arthritis and intra/extra-articular causes.
The onset of arthritis disorder usually occurs with stiffness rarely lasting more than 15 minutes. The arthritis will develop later on into pain and will worsen with activity or weight bearing.
Prevention is key when dealing with joints. For instance, weight reduction reduces the risk of developing new osteoarthritis, while maintaining normal /stable vitamin D levels will help reduce progression of osteoarthritis and may stop it from even occurring.
Life with Arthritis: Gouty Arthritis
Gouty arthritis is usually acute and quite painful. First let’s try to understand gout a little better. It is a metabolic disease and is associated with fluctuation in abnormal amounts of urates within the body and usually as reoccurring acute arthritis and is defined later on by its chronic deforming tendencies. Pacific islanders such as Filipinos and Samoans have the most risk to this certain disorder.
Approximately 90% of all patients with primary gout are men over 30. But in women, it can develop after menopause. The urate crystals are found in cartilage and have been linked to the tissues and fluid during acute arthritis.
Most acute arthritis has a sudden onset during time of sleep. Beer consumption can facilitate a gout attack. While toes, feet and knees are commonly affected, hips and shoulders are rarely affected.
It is important to see a doctor for the diagnosis for the type or types of arthritis you may have as acute gout is often mistaken for cellulitis and chronic tophaceous arthritis may resemble chronic rheumatoid arthritis. So you see, it is absolutely imperative that you see your healthcare professional before making any assumptions as the wrong medicine based on your own educated guess may leave you with more serious health problems down the road.
Life with Arthritis: Conclusion
Since arthritis of all types seems to affect most of us at one point or another, not to mention it affects people in our families, making sure that you are educated on this common disease is mandatory for helping others cope with arthritis and the pain it brings with it. I hope this has helped you better understand this condition and might inspire you to see your doctor regularly and keep up healthy nutrition habits.
