Arthritis is swelling of the joints. The term ‘arthritis’ refers to over 100 health conditions affecting the joints that connect one tissue to another. Many different types of arthritis exist. Arthritis symptoms differ by the type of it, but joint stiffness and joint pain are two of these. Keep reading to know more about the common arthritis forms.
Osteoarthritis
OA (Osteoarthritis) is more common than all other forms of the health condition. This explains why it comes first in this list of the types of arthritis. Osteoarthritis happens most often in the hips, knees and hands. Damage to the cartilage amid bones leads to OA. With it, the cartilage starts breaking down, in turn, causing changes to the underlying human bone. These changes generally occur slowly and worsen gradually. This kind of arthritis can lead to pain, inflammation, and stiffness. Sometimes, it makes some individuals incapable of doing everyday activities as well.
The symptoms of osteoarthritis are pain, reduced range of motion (ROM), stiffness, and inflammation. Close to 33 million grownups in the United States of America suffer from OA. It is diagnosed by reviewing the symptoms, physical assessment, X-ray, and laboratory tests. OA has no cure, so it is generally treated with a mixture of therapies.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
RA (rheumatoid arthritis) is an inflammatory disease and autoimmune disorder, meaning the immune system mistakenly attacks normal cells, producing inflammation where affected. In RA, it mostly attacks several joints simultaneously.
This sort of arthritis generally affects joints situated in the knees, hands and wrists. In an RA-affected joint, the lining turns swollen, and this damages the connective tissue. The tissue damage can lead to chronic or long-term pain, unsteadiness, and deformity.
Some of the rheumatoid arthritis symptoms are pain, stiffness, tenderness and inflammation all in multiple joints, plus loss of weight, fever, tiredness, and weakness. Specific reasons for RA not known, but many things increase the possibility of having this disease, including age, sex and genetics. More than 1.3 million people in the US have it.
Gout
About 8.30 million individuals in America have gout, an extremely painful and common type of arthritis. It tends to affect the metatarsophalangeal joint. Some of the gout symptoms may be extreme pain, redness, heat, and inflammation. Its symptoms sometimes worsen, which is called gout flares, but other times these go away, and this is called remission. Spells of gout that repeat can cause another type of the disease known as ‘gouty arthritis’.
Gout has no cure, but it is effectively treatable and manageable through medicine and some techniques. Hyperuricemia, a condition characterized by the excessive uric acid present in the human body, sometimes lead to gout. When hyperuricemia occurs without gout’s symptoms, it need not be treated.
Juvenile Arthritis
This is a kind of arthritis that occurs during childhood. So, it is also known as childhood arthritis. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is the most prevalent form of it.
Juvenile arthritis can result in permanent joint damage, which can then make doing daily tasks difficult for the kid and lead to disability.
There is not a cure for juvenile arthritis, but it becomes inactive in some kids. Any joint damage will stay. Some of the symptoms are joint pain, fever, stiffness, swelling, fatigue, appetite loss, and difficulty doing daily activities like walking and dressing. The precise cause for it is not known. In juvenile arthritis, the child’s immune system works improperly, causing inflammation in their body systems including the joints.
Around 300,000 Americans have some form of arthritis in childhood. It can affect kids of every age and race.
Lupus
Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease, which can cause damage to any organ. SLE is more commonly found in women aged between 15 and 44 years, but men and kids also develop it. Some of the lupus symptoms are joint pain, muscle pain, chest pain, loss of hair, fever, rashes, sensitivity to the sun, and anemia.
Healthcare service givers are unaware of the cause for lupus, but they feel that it is possibly a mix of factors including environment, genetics, hormones, infections and medicine. Lupus develops when the immune system in one’s body attacks healthy tissues. This arthritis affects largely women. As per The Lupus Foundation of America’s estimate, 1.50 million people in the nation have it.
Fibromyalgia
This is a rheumatic condition causing ‘widespread pain’, or pain in many body parts, fatigue, sleep issues, and sometimes distress. Individuals with fibromyalgiaare perhaps more pain-sensitive than those who do not have the condition. It affects around 4 million grownups in the country. The cause for fibromyalgia is still unknown, but treating and dealing with the condition is possible through medicine and certain strategies.
Stiffness in multiple organs, widespread pain, tiredness, anxiety, mental depression, cognitive problems, and headaches are some of the most prevalent fibromyalgia symptoms.
