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Osteoarthritis Risk Factors and Causes You Need to Know About
Osteoarthritis is the most common and well-known type of arthritis. It’s largely a wear-and-tear form of arthritis that happens as a result of damage to or overuse of a joint, usually over a long period of time. About 30 million Americans have osteoarthritis. You can also have osteoarthritis at the same time as other kinds of arthritis that are inflammation- or immune-related, such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis. How Osteoarthritis Affects Your Joints In osteoarthritis, the cartilage — the smooth, rubbery connective tissue on the end of bones that cushions the joint, helping bones move smoothly and easily — wears down until the bones are painfully…
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Here’s More Data That Suggests We Shouldn’t Use Opioids to Treat Osteoarthritis Pain
Surprisingly, stronger opioids were the worst at relieving pain in a new multi-study analysis. Despite concerns about safety and addiction, lots of people with osteoarthritis (OA) take opioids to address their chronic pain. A recent study in Sweden, for example, revealed that one in four patients with OA had been prescribed an opioid in the previous year — despite the fact that the drugs aren’t on the list of recommended treatments except in extreme circumstances or after surgery. Opioid medications work by attaching to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord and reducing the pain messages that are sent to the brain. With lots of people with many different…
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The Arthritis Symptoms That Matter to Patients May Not Always Be the Ones They Discuss with Their Doctor
One of the main reasons people with arthritis visit the rheumatologist frequently — every three months is common among patients with inflammatory arthritis — is for doctors and patients to assess how arthritis patients are managing their disease. Typical check-ins may include a doctor’s physical exam and assessment as well as reviewing the results of blood tests and imaging tests. What’s also critical at these visits is something arthritis researchers and doctors call PROs, or patient-reported outcomes. PROs are a patient’s own assessments of how arthritis affects daily tasks — including how you rank or define the difficulty of simple activities like getting in and out of your car or…
- Arthritis, Chronic Awareness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dactylitis, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis
Arthritis in Your Wrist: Signs of Wrist Arthritis, and What to Do About It
When you think of arthritis, you might think of creaky knees or painful, swollen fingers. But if your wrist is feeling swollen and stiff, this wrist pain may be caused by arthritis too. The wrist is a complex joint that connects the hand to the forearm. It is formed by the two bones of the forearm — the radius and the ulna — and eight small carpal bones that sit between your fingers and your arm. The carpal bones are arranged in two rows at the base of the hand, with four bones in each row. The joint surface of each bone is covered with articular cartilage, which is a…
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10 Symptoms of Osteoarthritis You Might Be Ignoring
When the average person hears the word arthritis, chances are they think of osteoarthritis. Although there are over 100 different kinds of arthritis, osteoarthritis is the most common and well-known. It is largely a mechanical disorder that’s often caused by overuse or normal wear and tear on the joints as people get older. (However, osteoarthritis can occur at any age — the idea that osteoarthritis only affects older adults is a common myth.) About 30 million Americans have osteoarthritis. By comparison, about 1.5 million have rheumatoid arthritis, which is among the most common inflammatory types of arthritis. In osteoarthritis, the cartilage that cushions the ends of bones wears down until…
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