Archive for July, 2007
Arthritis - The Big Two: OA and RA
Friday, July 27th, 2007Both osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) involve pain and swelling in the joints, but there the similarity ends. The inflammation or swelling of rheumatoid arthritis is much more severe than the swelling that can occur in osteoarthritis. With osteoarthritis, the basic problem is the breakdown of cartilage and sometimes bone. It can be […]
Arthritis - Working With Your Doctors
Monday, July 23rd, 2007Doctors, of course, understand the difficulties of dealing with arthritis. They know that now and then you may find yourself feeling frustrated or depressed or even tempted to stop taking your medications when they don’t seem to be working. Or, if you forget that trial and error is the name of the arthritis treatment […]
Can I Prevent Arthritis?
Thursday, July 19th, 2007You cannot prevent most forms of this disease. But you certainly can reduce the risk of getting significant osteoarthritis and slow its development if you already have it primarily by controlling your weight. In one study, women who lost an average of 11 pounds reduced the development of osteoarthritis in their knees. And those […]
Arthritis - Coping With A Chronic Condition
Saturday, July 14th, 2007“Chronic” is a technical-sounding word with a lot of personal impact. According to one dictionary definition, chronic means constantly weakning, or troubling. If you have a chronic form of arthritis-most often that’s an inflammatory type such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus it’s the suggestion of constant in “chronic” that can wear you down. But […]
Arthritis - When Thing Go Wrong
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 When you think about it, our bodies are amazingly mobile. They’re constructed so that we can easily bend our knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, and fingers. Some joints move in many directions, such as our hips, which have a ball-and-socket arrangement that allows fluid movement. Others are elegant hinges.
One thing that helps our joints move […]
Arthritis - What Does Treatment Involve?
Monday, July 9th, 2007 For many lucky people, as we’ve noted earlier, osteoarthritis may not progress much beyond morning stiffness and mild pain in the knees and hands. And for many others, very simple therapies or lifestyle changes will take care of the problem. For some, however, osteoarthritis can sometimes become so painful that walking is almost impossible.
The […]
What Causes Arthritis?
Saturday, July 7th, 2007 There are many different causes of arthritis. Some are genetic, some lifestyle-related, and some environmental, such as bacteria and viruses. (The arthritis of Lyme disease, for instance, is caused by bacteria from an infected tick.) Still other causes aren’t yet known or completely understood.
For osteoarthritis, the major cause is often described as wear and […]
Who Gets Arthritis?
Friday, July 6th, 2007Unfortunately, most of us get arthritis. More Americans have arthritis than any disease other than high blood pressure. The Arthritis Foundation estimates that nearly 40million suffer from arthritis of some kind, and as the population ages in the next two decades, that number is likely to skyrocket. With advances in medicine and improved diet […]
Arthritis - What Types Of Arthritis Are There?
Thursday, July 5th, 2007There are over 100 forms of arthritis. Doctors tell them apart by determining which joints or structures of the body are affected. In some types of arthritis, other parts of the body also come into play. Osteoarthritis, for example, damages only the joints. Rheumatoid arthritis, however, affects not only the joints but also other […]
What is Arthritis?
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007Your hip aches every time you settle into your favorite armchair. Your spouse’s knee is beginning to twinge on every trip up and down the stairs. Your uncle’s fingers are so swollen and painful he has given up whittling. And your mother’s neck and shoulders ache so painfully she couldn’t dance at your son’s […]