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| Arthritis Types: What are Other Arthritis Type of Conditions? |
You may be surprised to know that under the umbrella term "arthritis" there are more than 100 arthritis types and arthritis-related conditions. The two most common arthritis types are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
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Arthritis Strategy Pack |
When you are diagnosed with arthritis, your doctor rarely can tell you
exactly what arthritis type of condition you have, other than whether it is osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. This is because
arthritis is largely a disorder of symptoms, or a syndrome. As long as
physicians lump symptoms into one category, and don't examine the causes of
the symptoms, cures are elusive.
Many alternative practitioners place the cause of arthritis at the door of a
wide spectrum of causes: stress; food allergies; digestive problems; a high
fat, high meat diet; chemical sensitivities; genetics, and auto-immune
disorders. Improving overall health can improve arthritis conditions.
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Disease
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Ankylosing Spondylitis
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Scleroderma Symptoms
~ Plaquenil ~ Medrol ~
Lodine
You also may be surprised to know that arthritis doesn't affect only older
people; more than half of the people with arthritis are under age 65.
Arthritis - which means joint inflammation - affects 43 million people,
about one in every six Americans. X-ray evidence shows early arthritis in
the weight bearing joints in approximately 90 percent of the population by
age forty. It is the most common form of inflammatory disorder in the United
States today.
Osteoarthritis is by far the most common of the arthritis types. This
arthritis type of condition is also is
referred to as degenerative joint disease. Osteoarthritis is most often characterized by joint
pain, primarily of the larger weight bearing joints. Approximately 80
percent of those suffering from osteoarthritis are over the age of fifty.
With someone turning fifty every ten seconds in this country, it is easy to
see the significance of the problem.
Over the next two decades, 75
million baby boomers will develop this arthritis type of disorder, and it
is expected that there will be approximately 60 million
people whose lives will be affected in a negative way by
some type of arthritis. For those of you entering this
demographic area or already suffer from the pain of
arthritis, the more you know about this disease, the
more effectively you can take preventive measures.
Osteoarthritis can be primary or secondary. Primary
osteoarthritis usually begins after the age of
forty-five, affecting the fingers, neck, lower back,
knees and hips. Obese people and, for some unknown
reason, women are more commonly affected.
With obese individuals, the pressure on the weight
bearing joints like the knees and the hips is dramatic.
When an obese person runs or jumps, the pressure on the
joints can be as much as ten times a person�s body
weight. For example, if a two-hundred-fifty pound person
jumped down a ladder, the pressure on the hips and knees
could be as much as a ton!
The arthritis type of condition called secondary osteoarthritis can affect any joint in the
body, and is simply due to trauma. Tennis players
commonly get arthritis in their dominant shoulder while
golfers commonly get arthritis in their lower back. A
worker on an assembly line doing the same job over and
over will develop arthritis in the fingers, while a
carpet layer will develop it in his knees and hands.
Continually moving these joints in the same way causes
this arthritis, which eventually can lead to chronic
trauma and then to degeneration of the joint.
Secondary osteoarthritis sufferers usually appear to
have symptoms at earlier ages than do those of primary
osteoarthritis patients. This is due to the more rapid
deterioration of the cartilage that is caused by overuse
of the joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis is different
from osteoarthritis. It affects approximately ten
million Americans, striking women three times more often
than men. While osteoarthritis is age-related,
rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease - the body
attacking itself. It not only affects the joints, but it
affects the entire body due to chronic inflammation. The
most common ages for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers is
between ages twenty and forty, although there is a
particularly cruel form of rheumatoid arthritis called
childhood rheumatoid arthritis. With this disease, the
affected joints are usually swollen, tender, warm to the
touch, and quite stiff.
The cause of rheumatoid arthritis remains unknown, but
inflammation of the synovial membrane is usually an
early rheumatoid arthritis symptom. In most instances,
the body mistakenly identifies a natural part of the
body as foreign. Over time, the inflammation leads to
overproduction of white blood cells, and overgrowth of
synovial cells. This then causes a thickening of the
synovial membrane. In a gradual process, the cartilage,
bone, ligaments, and tendons are damaged by enzymes and
other chemicals released into the body as a result of
the autoimmune process.
With the unchecked progression of rheumatoid arthritis,
joint range of motion can be severely impaired due to
the excess fibrous tissue the body produces under these
conditions. The tissues surrounding the joints also are
inflamed, and this further damages the joints. Over
time, joints become deformed.
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