Arthritis is a health condition which deteriorates with aging. While browsing on the internet you will get a lot of articles on curing arthritis, but do you have arthritis? How do you get to know it? What are the symptoms? How many types of arthritis are there which can affect you? What causes it? Well, you might not know all the answers to these questions but this article can help you. By the end of this article, you will enough ideas about arthritis, its symptoms and causes.
Arthritis is the swelling of joints causing stiffness, trouble in walking and changing postures. It aggravates with age but can be cured if detected at an early stage. Osteoarthritis, gout and rheumatoid arthritis are some of the most common types of arthritis affecting people all over the world. Even though there are treatments available for these health conditions but it varies from one person to another.
Why should you preserve your Joints?
Bone health of a person deteriorates after a certain age, in the case of women it starts from the early ’30s, while for men it starts a little late. It is very important to keep your joints healthy as it is what keeps your body moving. Every, step you take or every structural posture you make, the joints play a pivotal role in it. If your joints are in perfect health, you can be more productive irrespective of your age and structure. The symptoms of arthritis are pretty normal which makes it hard to detect at an early stage.
Why is it tough to diagnose Arthritis?
It is tough to diagnose arthritis because it is a tricky health condition. The symptoms are as normal as fatigue, decreased range of motion, joint pain, morning stiffness, etc. This, in turn, makes the early detection of this condition impossible. You might be suffering from arthritis but you don’t know it. Further, what type of arthritis has affected you is tough to detect as there are as many as 100 plus types of arthritis. Going through this article, you will get to know about some of the types of arthritis. Each type has different symptoms but there are also some common symptoms as well. It is not necessary that the symptoms will occur and last forever, it might come and go. This is why it is tough to detect arthritis at an early stage.
What are the Common Types of Arthritis?
Here is a list of 10 common types of arthritis affecting people all across the world.
- Osteoarthritis
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Gout
- Psoriatic Arthritis
- Septic Arthritis
- Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Joint Infections
- Reactive Arthritis
- Thumb Arthritis
What are the Symptoms of Arthritis?
1. Morning stiffness
It is an early sign of Arthritis and often goes unnoticed due to various reasons. Most people think this happens due to fatigue but that is not the case over here. The morning stiffness lasts for a couple of minutes. Suffering from it for a longer span of time can lead to inflammatory arthritis.
2. Joint Pain
Joint pain often develops from joint stiffness and tenderness. Finger joint pain and wrist pain are the common symptoms of it which can, later on, aggravate to arthritis. Other areas of joint pain are the knee, hip, shoulder, feet, ankle, and spine.
3. Minor Joint Swelling
Another early symptom of arthritis is minor joint inflammation which further leads to joint swelling. The joints look bigger than normal and cause trouble while changing posture. It often lasts for a couple of days or even for a week. Reappearing of such swelling is a sign of arthritis aggravating.
4. Numbness and Tingling
Unattended joint swelling leads to numbness and a tingling sensation in the joints. This condition can also lead to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Further, you will experience a cracking sound as movements in the joints occur.
5. Decreased range of Motion
As you age, the signs of arthritis are more prominent and your range of motion decreases due to this. It is arthritis which obstructs your body from using the full range of motion.
What are the Risk Factors related to Arthritis?
A variety of risk factors revolve around arthritis which are:
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Family health history
A lot of people are affected by arthritis due to hereditary. It runs in the family and anyone can be affected by it. For instance, your maternal grandmother had arthritis but your mom isn’t affected by it but your younger or older sibling is affected by it. More than the external factors, genes are a greater cause of arthritis.
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Age
As a person ages, the symptoms of arthritis are more prominent and severe. You might not feel that you can ever get affected by arthritis at any point of time in your life. Unfortunately, the moment you cross the age of 35 or forty, signs of arthritis starts developing. In some cases, people have experienced it in a much later age as well.
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Gender
As mentioned earlier, in the case of women the bones start losing density after the age of 30which makes them more susceptible to develop arthritis. On the contrary, men take a little more time to start losing bone density when compared to women. Further, it is not necessary that every woman or man will get affected by it. If you take necessary measures to keep your bones and joints healthy then you can live a healthy life.
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Joint Injury
Any type of joint injury which you may have suffered during your childhood, teenage or middle-age can lead to arthritis. In the case of a sportsperson, they are highly susceptible to arthritis.
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Obesity
One major reason for developing arthritis is obesity and you need to be aware of it. Fitness is the source of all goodness regarding health. Excess weight in the body can lead to joint pain as it puts a lot of pressure on your joints. Obese people often suffer from spine, knee and hip pain.
