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Natural Health News Articles
| Posted: 7th August 2004 |
| Arthritis |
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Arthritis is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. One in three adult Americans suffer from some form of arthritis and the disease affects about twice as many women as men.
Arthritic diseases include rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, which are autoimmune diseases; septic arthritis, caused by joint infection; and the more common osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease. Arthritis can be caused from strains and injuries caused by repetitive motion, sports, overexertion, and falls. Unlike the autoimmune diseases, osteoarthritis largely affects older people and results from the degeneration of joint cartilage. Other forms are discussed below.
Arthritic joints can be sensitive to weather changes. The increased sensitivity is thought to be caused by the affected joints developing extra nerve endings in an attempt to protect the joint from further damage.
Signs and symptoms
All arthritides feature pain, which is generally worse in the morning and on initiating movement, and resolves in the cause of time. In elderly people and children, the pain may not be the main feature, and the patient simply moves less (elderly) or refuse to use the affected limb (children).
When faced with joint pain, a doctor will generally ask about several other medical symptoms (such as fever, skin symptoms, breathlessness, Raynaud's phenomenon) that may narrow down the differential diagnosis to a few items, for which testing can be done.
Arthritis and fever together are pointers towards septic arthritis (see below). This is a medical emergency, and requires urgent referral to a rheumatologist.
Types of arthritis
Primary forms of arthritis:
Septic arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Osteoarthritis
Gout and pseudogout
Juvenile arthritis
Still's disease
Ankylosing spondylitis
Secondary to other diseases:
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
Henoch-Schönlein purpura
Psoriatic arthritis
Reiter's syndrome
Reactive arthritis
Hemochromatosis
Wegener's granulomatosis (and many other vasculitis syndromes)
Alternative medicine
According to a recent survey the majority of sufferers now use complementary and alternative medicine to treat pain, arthritis, gout, lupus, or fibromyalgia.
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