Arthritis is a condition where damage occurs to various joints of the body due to inflammation. The word is a combination of two Greek words- ‘athron’ meaning joints and ‘itis’meaning inflammation. This disease is supposed to be the main cause of disability among people over fifty five years of age. Arthritis has several forms and each is caused due to a different reason. But whatever the type is the condition is always more or less chronic. One in three adult Americans are known to suffer from this disease and women, in general, has double the chances of acquiring it in their middle age than men do.
Types, Causes and Symptoms
There are several forms of this condition but the most heard about are perhaps
Rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriatic arthritis, Septic arthritis, Gouty arthritis and
osteoarthritis. Of the above mentioned most people, especially women, are seen
to get affected by the last one, that is, osteoarthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis
and psoriatic arthritis are essentially autoimmune diseases, in which the body
decides to attack itself. While septic arthritis takes place due to infection in
the joints, gouty arthritis occurs when uric acid crystals get deposited in the
joints, which ultimately leads to inflammation. There are two main causes of
arthritis- heredity and hormonal imbalance (mostly among women). There are
certain common symptoms that occur in all arthritis types and are namely,
excessive pain and stiffness in the joints and also anemia,. Constipation,
colitis, and in severe cases deformed hands and feet.
Treatment
Now that arthritis has become a global medical issue many kinds of medicines are
being created and innovated to treat the condition. Glucosamine and chondroitin
sulfate are two kinds of dietary supplements that are often used by patients. In
recent times the Prosorba column has also be come quite a popular mode of
treatment. This device consists of a cylinder that contains Protein A, which is
known to attack antibodies. Mobic is a drug that has been recently launched to
treat osteoarthritis.
