Arthritis and Its Effects on Your Lifestyle

Arthritis is a condition that affects the musculoskeletal system including the joints, causing stiffness, inflammation, pain and eventually damage to the joint cartilage. The joints are protected by tissue called cartilage which ensures the ends of bones don’t rub against one another. Therefore, because of this, cartilage has the exact same needs as the other glands and organs; cartilage cells are referred to as chondrocytes. The cartilage cells that are the chondrocytes are usually replaced by new cells when the old ones die.

However, over time inflammation can kill more cartilage cells than the body can replace. This happens when the body is not healthy and suffers from malnutrition, injury can also be another cause. The condition causes damage where instability, deformities and joint weakness can obstruct daily life. A typical treatment of arthritis includes lifestyle changes and physical therapy. The last option left for the physicians to relieve the patients from discomfort is joint replacement surgery.

Arthritis is divided into to major groups that may affect the ‘localized’ or ‘generalized’ parts of the body or even depending on the joints that get damaged; it then is further divided into sub-groups. Localized conditions are where the soft tissue around the bone or joint is affected; it refers to conditions like tendonitis and bursitis. Another sub-category of the localized conditions only affects one or only a few joints, such as a knee or hip. Generalized arthritis conditions involve a sub category where there is no swelling or inflammation but the muscle and soft tissue are affected. Fibromyalgia, even though it isn’t associated with joint damage, is a very common form which can be placed under this particular category.

The second one is known to include all of the conditions that involve inflammation that affects the whole body. Rheumatoid arthritis is an example of a condition under this category, as well as gout, and psoriatic arthritis. Other generalized conditions are polymyositis (muscles); systemic lupus erythematosus (skin, kidneys, or other organs); and vasculitis (any organ).

An individual is capable of having more than just one arthritis type and it includes over one hundred different medical conditions that are known to affect roughly forty six million adults and three hundred thousand children within the United States. Osteoarthritis is a condition mostly noticed in adults over 60 years, however, it can start at infancy too. The number of sufferers is on the increase at the same pace as the population of America.

Arthritis and related illnesses are the cause of major disability in the U.S. and costs over 124 billion dollars a year in medical care and indirect expenses. Maintaining the right weight, eating fresh fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C and D are simple but effective measures to prevent and arrest osteoporosis, Also ensure that you get enough calcium in the day, for adults the recommended dose is 1000-1500 mg, regular exercise and avoid sport related injuries.