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Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms

July 9th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Do you have rheumatoid arthritis? The symptoms can be difficult to diagnose.

Here are the most common:  joint swelling, joint pain, and joint stiffness. Many people have difficulty with motor skills such as walking or trying to get the lid off of a bottle or jar.

Low energy levels and decreased appetite are also rheumatoid arthritis symptoms but these are not as common. People who have rheumatoid arthritis will usually experience symptoms on both sides of the body at the same time, such as both knees, or both hands.

There is no cure, but you can manage the disease

Although there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, you can treat the symptoms. It is important for those who are experiencing rheumatoid arthritis symptoms to seek medical advice and follow that advice daily. The disease is chronic and progressive and the lack of proper medical care can lead to severe damage to the joints.

The primary goal is to reduce the inflammation and relieve the pain. Reducing the inflammation will help to slow the progression of joint damage. It will also help reduce the pain which allows the patient to increase their mobility.

Many people will have to take medication which is designed to reduce inflammation. Since rheumatoid arthritis attacks the body’s immune system, careful monitoring of theses medications is recommended.

Your doctor may want you to see other professionals to help in formulating a plan of treatment. A doctor who specializes in treating arthritis may be necessary in order to determine the best approach to take. You may have to look at a change in your diet since some foods tend to make rheumatoid arthritis symptoms worse. Keeping a daily chart of all the foods you eat along with the times when you have pain may help determine which foods you need to avoid.

Describing Psoriatic Arthritis

June 24th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Psoriatic arthritis is actually a combination of two different medical conditions. Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition which causes a patchy rash. The affected area is usually inflamed and scaly. Arthritis is described as an inflammation of the joints and is also chronic. Both conditions are fairly common but psoriasis is predominant in the white population. Some people who develop psoriasis will go on to develop arthritis and this condition is known as psoriatic arthritis.

With certain types of arthritis the female is more prone to having the disease. With psoriatic arthritis both male and female are equally affected. Both conditions usually do not appear at the same time. The majority of the people affected will develop psoriasis before they develop arthritis. Since both conditions are inflammatory, the condition can have an impact on many parts of the body such as the heart and other major organs. The spine is another place which is often affected by psoriatic arthritis. There is currently no known cause or cure for the disease.

What Are Psoriatic Arthritis Symptoms?

Many people who are diagnosed with this disease will experience severe cases of acne, even at an advanced age. The acne is not limited to the face; it often causes other parts of the body to break out in an acne type rash. The nails may also develop ridges and pitting.

The arthritis may involve the knees, feet, hands, ankles, and the spine. People with psoriatic arthritis tend to have more spinal pain than other arthritis sufferers. Joints tend to swell and become stiff which causes moderate to severe pain. The pain and stiffness is most often worse during the morning hours after the patient has been in bed all night. For many people the pain and stiffness gets better as they get up and begin moving. Often a hot shower will also help relieve the joint stiffness.

Patients who are diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis will often develop pain and inflammation in their tendons which makes it more difficult and painful to walk. Many times steroids may be used to reduce the inflammation.

Psoriatic arthritis can cause many other health problems such as lung inflammations and eye disease. People with this diagnosis who experience eye problems should immediately contact their physician since this condition could possibly lead to blindness. The same goes for the lungs. When inflammation is present in the lungs, people may experience difficulty with breathing, or they may develop chest pain. It is extremely important to get medical attention if any of these symptoms occur since they could possibly lead to death.

Ankylosing spondylitis affects the spine and sacroiliac joints

June 18th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

One of the rarest forms of arthritis is the ankylosing spondylitis, which is more common in males than in females.

Some of the early signs of ankylosing spondylitis may occur even at an early age, where the patient experiences recurring painful joints. It also shows pain and stiffness at the lower part of the spine. It is also associated with iritis that causes eye pain, and photophobia that increases one’s sensitivity to light.  Some patients may also experience mouth ulcers, fatigue, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and Reiter’s disease.

Like some types of arthritis, there’s no direct test to diagnose ankylosing spondylitis, proper laboratory tests and medical examinations must be conducted first before one can be diagnosed with this disorder.

There are certain degrees or levels in which ankylosing spondylitis are ranged, since this is a progressive type of arthritis, and there are some which can be medically controlled. However, ankylosing spondylitis, has no known cure, there are only available treatments and medications that can control the symptoms, and reduce the pain.

Physical therapy, exercise, and medicine, help the patients diminish the pain, stiffness, and inflammation, caused by ankylosing spondlylitis. For those with severe cases of ankylosing spondylitis, patients can opt to undergo a sugery for joint replacement, but there are procedures which may be risky, especially if the affected areas are the spine and neck.

If one is affected by such disease, it is important that one takes measures in order to suppress its progress, although it will still continuously be present even until adulthood.  Though, there may not be a cure for ankylosing spondylitis, it is still significant on a patientís part to ask a physician of how to improve his condition, to keep the painful attacks from coming, and to avoid the early onset of having a bamboo spine.

Additional info: Ankylosing spondylitis, abbreviated as AS, actually has been known in different terms such as: Marie-Strumpell Disease, Bechterew’s Disease, Bechterew syndrome, Marie-Struempell disease, and spondyloarthritis. It is a chronic, progressive, and inflammatory type of arthritis that affects the spine and sacroiliac joints. It ultimately leads to the complete rigidity of the spine, which is called as the “bamboo spine”.

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