Arthritis usually means pain in the joints but it is a disease of the muscles and the bones so there could also be swelling and pain all over. Cartilage is considered to be a living tissue that covers both ends of the bones, which protect them as they begin to rub together. Therefore, because of this, cartilage has the exact same needs as the other glands and organs; cartilage cells are referred to as chondrocytes. Like other cells, chondrocytes have a limited life span and are replaced by new chondrocytes when they die.
When there is prolonged inflammation, cartilage cells are destroyed and die faster than the body’s ability to replace them. This happens when the body is not healthy and suffers from malnutrition, injury can also be another cause. The damage that can be caused by this particular condition may also cause instability, joint weakness, interruption of your routine activities and also deformities. The traditional treatment to arthritis demands change of one’s lifestyle besides physical therapy and medication. One method of treating joint problems is invasive joint replacement therapy and is only resorted to after all other treatments have failed.
Arthritis can be grouped into two main categories based upon the ‘localized’ or ‘generalized’ areas of the body or joints that are affected and then into sub-categories. One of the sub-categories is localized conditions which only affect the soft tissue that surrounds the bones or joints, and is used to relate to conditions like tendonitis or bursitis. Another sub-category of the localized conditions only affects one or only a few joints, such as a knee or hip. It could also be that the patient is affected in a more general sense with no arthritis inflammation or signs of swelling. In this condition there is no joint damage and fibromyalgia belongs to this category.
The second one is known to include all of the conditions that involve inflammation that affects the whole body. Under this category, rheumatoid arthritis would be an example of a condition you would see, along with psoriatic arthritis and gout. Still other generalized situations include polymyositis, involving muscles, systemic lupus erythematosus involving the skin, kidneys and or other organs and vasculitis where any organ is involved.
There are about a 100 medical conditions that have affected about 46 million adults and 300,000 children in the US; a person can have more than one type of arthritis. As early on as infancy, this condition can begin, even though it is most commonly seen in adults that are over the age of sixty, in the primary form of osteoarthritis. The number of people suffering out of this condition is increasing proportionally with the increasing average age of the American population; with old age setting in people suffering with arthritis is increasing day by day.
The prime cause of disability in the United States of America is caused because of arthritis; the American population spends over one hundred and twenty four billion dollars on medical care and other related expenses for treating arthritis. Osteoarthritis can easily be prevented by following few easy steps: consume more fresh fruits and vegetables that are rich in vitamin c and vitamin d and also maintain appropriate weight. There should also be sufficient calcium intake, 1000-1500mg per day for adults; in addition regular, moderate exercise can help preventing sports injuries that can aggravate a condition.
