What is Arthritis?
This present blog will give you a brief insight as what is Arthritis all about. Arthritis is most ubiquitous condition which has caught people’s joints in a way that is difficult to go about. Diagnosing the right form of Arthritis is very important as the wrong diagnosis can lead to a wrong treatment and thus putting into risk your whole health.
So, What is Arthritis?
Well, Arthritis does not refer to a single disease but a group of more than 100 types of conditions which in one way or the other causes Joint Pains. Arthritis is basically inflammation of joints. This inflammation is also associated with pain.
Signs and Symptoms of Arthritis
Early Signs and Symptoms of Arthritis includes the following-
- Joint Pain
- Joint stiffness
- Joint Swelling
- Joint Numbness
- Decrease in range of Motion
- Joint pain may be accompanied by Fever
Types of Arthritis
Most common Types of Arthritis include the following-
Inflammatory arthritis- When immune system takes a toll over your joints health, it leads to inflammatory arthritis. How it happens? A healthy immune system protects you from infection by generating internal inflammation. This internal inflammation wards off infections. But when your immune system gets disturbed, it can lead to wrong chemical reactions and thus this very immune system attacks your own joints. There are two types of arthritis in the list of inflammatory arthritis. These are as follows-
- Rheumatoid Arthritis– It is an autoimmune disease (Immune cells attacks body’s own organs and tissues, in this case joints).So this self attack by our soldier cells(immune cell) leads to inflammation in joints which cause swelling and pain around joints.
- Psoriatic Arthritis- People who have psoriasis — a condition that is characteristic of red patches of skin and visible silvery scales on the top develops Psoriatic Arthritis. In some cases, joint problems even before appearance of lesions of skin. Joint pain accompanied by joint stiffness and joint swelling are the symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis.
Degenerative or Mechanical Arthritis – When the cartilage-degeneration takes a toll over your joint health, it is called degenerative or mechanical arthritis. The cartilage gives the support to your bones and nourishes the joints so that they are display an effective 360 degree like rotation. The wearing away off cartilage makes bone rubbing against each other rough thus causing swelling, pain and stiffness. It also eventually leads to loosing of joint strength. It is commonly called Osteoarthritis.
Infectious arthritis/Septic Arthritis – When microorganism including virus, bacteria or fungi gets into your body, it can affect joints as one of it is site of infection process. Symptoms of inflammation accompanied by redness,fever and locking of joints is common. Microorganisms which infect joints are Salmonella, Shigella, Chylamdia , Hepatits-C Virus. Timely treatment with antibiotics becomes a priority in this type of Arthritis.
- Metabolic Arthritis- Metabolic Arthritis is due accumulation of metabolic compounds in joints. This metabolic compound is Uric Acid.
Uric acid is found to be naturally roaming in blood stream and is formed as a result of breakdown of compounds like purines (purines is found in human cells.(Your DNA is made of it) and also in some food stuff like peas, beans etc. Some people have high levels of uric acid because they naturally produce more uric acid than it is needed. This more production of uric acid is because of inheritance of certain genes.
The final result of uric acid accumulation is feeling of some needles being pinned to your joints (it is due to needle like crystals of uric acid which gives you episodes of sudden joints pain. Gout and Pseudo Gout are the names given to this type of Arthritis. Variants of uric acid crystal depositions lead to defining gout and pseudo gout differently. Gout is caused by Monosodium Urate Monohydrate Crystals deposition and Pseudo Gout is caused by Calcium Pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals deposition.
`Know well about which type of Arthritis you are suffering from’
