Osteoarthritis Symptoms

First of all before knowing the ever-dreaded osteoarthritis symptoms, you have to be aware of the definition of osteoarthritis. For your information, osteoarthritis is one of the most, if not the definite most, common form of arthritis that exists, that usually affects older people. Unfortunately, it wears down your cartilage by overusing and injuring it. However, there are other causes, which are, sad to say, quite common to start with.

What does it cause?

Osteoarthritis is a dreaded form of arthritis since it causes your cartilage to easily break down like sand, and your bones to rub strongly against each other. The ugly and ultimately painful results are deformity and swelling, which will occur once knobs of hardened parts of cartilage develop in your joints.

These knobs specifically form if a particular joint has been injured lots of times already. Usually, osteoarthritis symptoms occur within your neck, hands, spine, hips, lower back and knuckles. Once these joints have been affected, the disease spreads all over your body as it damages your other organs and their connective tissues.

Osteoarthritis cannot be cured

Doctors would only relieve the pain you suffer from, and probably prevent you from ending up disabled. Surgeons would replace overly damaged joints with either metal or plastic. These treatments would not really be considered as “cure”.

However, though it may not be cured, it can be prevented and treated so that the condition will not worsen to an uncontrollable status. For example, you can make use of exercise programs to prevent having yourself crippled because of your ill-functioning joints.

Osteoarthritis affects women more than men

Yes, there have been countless research studies that came up with this result. It attacks people of different ages from all walks of life, but when it comes to gender, the one mostly affected is the female gender.

The osteoarthritis symptoms felt will persist and will most likely cause you to gradually malfunction in your own way. It is because of its inconsistency that most osteoarthritis victims believe that they have already been blessed and cured from this disease, when, actually, it just left for a short while, for a several months or years, and then suddenly attacks again.

Gout

Gout, one of the major symptoms of osteoarthritis, is a hereditary disorder, which, sadly, occurs more in men as compared to women. It is an excess of uric acid in your blood system and also in your tissues. The pain felt during a gout attack is caused by the crystals that are made of acid, which are then formed under your skin and also inside your joints.

This symptom occurs when your body contains too little uric acid or your kidney has excreted too much of it. An attack is defined when it suddenly happens with severe pain and also with a sudden swelling in a particular joint. The overlaying skin of that joint will, of course, swell as well, and will also become shiny.

If gout is left untreated, it can last for up to seven unfortunate days. When symptoms disappear, this does not mean that your body has already bid its goodbye to osteoarthritis. Attacks will still occur even if symptoms have already disappeared. Its causes are still unknown, for now anyway, but some reports have stated that specific drugs and some minor injuries can catalyze a painful attack.

You can treat gout by making use of specific drugs such as ibuprofen, sulindac, indomethacin, and naproxen. These drugs are prescribed for more aged people who are unfortunately suffering from this dreaded disease. Now, if you do not treat osteoarthritis while it is still in its early and young age, it may worsen and would thus become chronic.

-- by NessDr.

Understanding Osteoarthritis Symptoms Recommended Resources:

University of Michigan Health System

Healthful Life