Archive for September, 2007


A Few Of The Different Arthritis treatments One Can Use To Get Relief

A very simple yet effective arthritis treatment method is using heat as well as cold in different situations to get relief from the stiffness and pain in your joints. For heat treatment, using hot water bottles or a hot wheat pack and even a heat lamp over the exact spot where the pain is occurring will help you get relief. Or, you can use an electric blanket and take a warm shower and even bathe to relieve you off your morning stiffness and start a new day on a more positive note.

Having To Learn New Habits

For cold treatment, using cold packs over an inflamed and hot and tender joint should provide considerable relief, while in instances of severe pain, a physiotherapist may advise you a deep heat therapy treatment such as ultrasound. When applying different arthritis treatments, it is necessary to learn some new habits that will relieve your pain and help your body cope with arthritis and also mean not having to take drugs for relief.

Pain is a way in which the body warns you that something has gone wrong and you should pay heed to these signals, and you must try and stop the activity before it further tires the joints and causes excess pain. Also, you should try and plan your activities in a way that they do not end up causing you more pain. Another arthritis treatment you can use to get relief is to make sure that you only use your strongest muscles and joints. An example of this would be to use thigh muscles instead of the back muscles when lifting a heavy object, or using forearm muscles instead of the wrists to carry or lift or hold objects.

You could also think of using joint-saving gadgets as a form of arthritis treatment which is very helpful in making your routine tasks such as turning a tap and getting ready for work much easier. However, the usual arthritis treatment that most arthritics use is to take an arthritis drug, which have different effects on different people and which can also result in some unwanted side effects and adverse reactions. It also common for some people to take pain killers and analgesics as an arthritis treatment because they help control the pain that in turn is very necessary for the proper treatment of arthritis.

Unlike non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, these pain killers cannot help relieve inflammation, which means that you may have to take narcotic analgesics, especially when your pain is extreme and severe. It is really up to you and your doctor to decide which form of arthritis treatment is best suited for your particular condition.

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS STUDY

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS STUDY

Arthritis Symptoms And Signs

With over a 100 different forms of arthritis, it can be difficult to determine which type a patients has.  Pinpointing arthritis symptoms can help expedite the diagnoses of arthritis.

Typical Arthritis Symptoms

The word arthritis means joint inflammation, and this is a result of having arthritis.  Some forms of arthritis can actually affect body’s organs and can cause death.

Arthritis symptoms in the initial stages can be somewhat undefined.  Vague pain and being tired may accompany joint pain that can come and go.  Most of the specific pain surrounds the joints of the patient.  These arthritis symptoms can be in the form of direct joint pain, redness and warmth around the joints, swelling and tenderness around the joint and the patient may experience limited range of motion in the joint.

Arthritis symptoms are important to keep track of in order to get definitive diagnoses.  When a patient begins seeking medical advice in regards to their symptoms, the patients history will play an important part in being able to determine the form of arthritis that they have.

A doctor will also perform a physical evaluation of a patient that is experiencing arthritis symptoms.  This can be in the form of looking at the patients joints, and determining if the rang of motion is compromised.  The doctor may also be searching for warm or red joints, and will ask the patient numerous questions in order to get a clear physical picture of the patient.  Arthritis symptoms may not be obvious to a patient, so the doctors questioning can lead to a proper diagnoses.

There are several major forms of arthritis.  Discovering which arthritis symptoms go with these diseases can help in finding out which form of arthritis a patient has.  Rheumatoid Arthritis has some classic arthritis symptoms, including severe morning stiffness, the small bones of the hands and feet may be swollen and painful and extreme fatigue are common arthritis symptoms in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Osteoarthritis often appears as a constant pain in a specific joint.  This pain may be more evident after continued use of the joint.  The pain is more common later in the day, and this form of arthritis can also occur with other arthritis conditions.

Psoriatic Arthritis affects not only the joints but also the skin.  The arthritis symptoms associated with this arthritis include, swollen joints and red, patchy and scaly skin.  This form of arthritis has an impact on both joints and skin areas.

Anklosing spondylitis is another form of arthritis.  The arthritis symptoms associated with this disease include, severe lower back pain that will progress up the spine and into the ribs.  This form of arthritis is very painful and begins with chronic lower back pain.

As arthritis is a very common condition, learning some of the classic arthritis symptoms can assist a patient in getting the proper treatment.

Arthritis: Herbal Therapy

Herbal therapy is an alternative medicine that can be effective for pain relief.