Osteoarthritis

The present day life style is one of the reasons for people suffering from certain problems unknown for the earlier generations. A person who works sitting for whole of his carrier finds himself unable to move due to diseases like Osteoarthritis one of the most painful diseases related to joints of bones of knees, which makes the person suffering from it feel absolutely dejected, disappointed and having no interest left for rest of his life. However, the good news is that the modern science has perfect solutions for this dreaded disease that solves almost every problem related to Osteoarthritis.  

Common reasons for osteoarthritis

The sad fact is that almost ten percent population of our country is in the age group of sixty plus and seventy percent people out of this group are affected with Osteoarthritis. To top it all, this is not the age factor alone but several other reasons combined those make a person vulnerable to this painful disease, the modern way of living being one on top of the list. Have a look at other reasons- 

1. The junk food has done the most damage for most of the people suffering from osteoarthritis.
2. The obesity is another big reason that adds to number of patients as it makes extra pressure on the knee joints
3. The way we sit on the ground for our natural calls in the morning, most people in our country use open spaces in most uncomfortable way.
4. The old building having multiple stories with old style stairs and no lifts
5. It may sound weird but a major reason for knee injuries is the bad road conditions in most part of our country especially in rural and semi-urban areas.
6. People participating in sports have a faster wear and tear. Sportsmen suffer from osteoarthritis in an earlier age compared to others if not extra precautious. Injuries during playing days also take a serious shape in later stages. This reason is truer in cases of athletes and players involved in lots of running around.
7. Heredity is another reason that may cause arthritis as it carries forward the genetic disorders even the hips maybe badly affected in some cases along with knees as well.

Symptoms of osteoarthritis

• Most people face severe problems while climbing the stairs that is one of the main symptoms, which should make one aware and have a proper check-up
• Getting up from sitting position becomes painful and a difficult task that needs an immediate attention  
• The knees of the person suffering from the disease become painful and stiffed. The knees also look slightly different from the normal position, locked and bent in a particular direction according to weight of the patient.

The treatment and diagnosis

Diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritis is no more a big issue these days and can be determined with ordinary digital X-ray. Please look at the following points to be more careful of this extremely painful disease if proper care not taken at a right time:

- The physiotherapist is one of the best help and has an important role to play. One should consult an orthopedic as soon as the symptoms detected. One must be particular about the dos and don’ts in a very strict manner.

- Never take painkillers without consulting an expert of this field as these painkillers put your kidneys on a serious risk. There are safe medicines available for this particular disease known best to your orthopedic surgeon. Act according to his advice.

- The food supplements as per the doctor and dietician are big help to the patients suffering from osteoarthritis. The Viscosupplement in form of an injection administered into hips provides a very good result if given to the patient at the right time.

- If a patient is not getting proper response to treatments and physiotherapy there is no need to feel disappointed as the transplantation of the knees has brought the new hopes to the life of people suffering from osteoarthritis. The transplantation of the knees is a simple technology available in India and getting popular by the day, as the medical science has provided the implant new techniques and the facilities at almost every corner of the country at an affordable cost. 

Inflammatory Arthritis

Inflammatory arthritis is another form of the joints problem that causes pain and inflammation to the joints of the patient. This particular problem is not limited to any particular part of the body but reaches to any joint without any particular reason. We can relate this disease to heredity particularly although people with no such history may fall prey to it for their lifestyle or careless posters etc.

The symptoms 

One feels tired and a fever in the range of 99-100F persists regularly to make you feel more tired. The people in the beginning stages feel pain and inflammation in different body joints those get no relief with ordinary painkillers people take without consulting a physician in initial stages. Most people feel such pains in the morning hours while they get up from the bed. In case any of you is having such symptoms, they should reach to their doctor immediately before the situation worsens further.

The reasons for inflammatory arthritis

You shall be surprised to read the reason of this disease as in this case the immune system of our own body goes against our own body and attacks the joints of the body. This results in shape of damaged and weaker joints, which become weaker and not able to perform their work properly. The medical science has not yet reached to establish a proper reason behind the causes of our own immune system acting this way. However, most experts feel that the reasons should be hidden behind the environmental changes, polluted life style, and excessive use of chemicals in agricultural sector could be the main reasons behind such problems in most of the case. This particular disease needs only Complete Blood Count (CBC) test to determine the reasons and set the treatment.

Precautions 

When you are suffering from arthritis, you should always intake low calcium diets.  Red meat with uric acid, Coffee, should be avoided as much as possible, soft drinks are big source of sugar and phosphorus, harmful for arthritis patients so sugar should be limited although, some doctors suggest to give up sugary diet but this is neither practical nor possible therefore consuming these within a safe limit is suggested. One should stop eating curd, pickles, particular pulses like split black lentil, brinjal, jackfruit, as these are considered source of phosphorus. 

The treatment

As usual with long-term patients, most medical advice exercise with proper medicines and physiotherapy to keep body moving properly help the body parts in motion and working. The medicines may differ on case basis advised by the orthopedic surgeon.

Most orthopedic surgeon advice replacement or operation of the effected joints mainly hips and knees because of the damaged cartilage and patients not able to walk or move properly. Since the artificial implants available easily, which work for 25-30 years easily once replaced with damaged ones. The availability of High flex knee has made the life of arthritis patients a lot more comfortable as the knees once replaced with this particular brand, the patient can sit in a position of his choice and can walk for kilometers.

Treatment with medicines only

Yes that’s right, with the advent of new technologies and developments coming up every day the treatment of certain kind of arthritis patients is possible without any surgery or transplantation. They have found out a new formula called Bifosfonatos (this is not a brand name of a medicine please) to treat hip joints, which are supposed to be the main parts of our body. Hip joints, surrounded by a shiny, fine looking cartilage giving the hip joints a proper cushioning  

The person with a damaged cartilage faces problems of pain and stresses and unable to walk even a few steps without proper support. For patients of damaged hip cartilage climbing stairs is almost an impossible task therefore, this is advised to persons having problems in this particular area to contact their doctors immediately because delay beginning in treatment leaves them with no alternate but a hip transplantation.  

The new discoveries in this particular field

Now, if the problem of the hip joint is related to avascular necrosis, which is a painful problem that increases with the time but people suffering from disorder of femoral head of the hip, have a ray of hope if they begin the treatment in time. People should begin the treatment in time and not reach the stage where no options but replacement is the remedy as it converts into hip arthritis at a later stage. Now patients can be treated with medicines in cases of avascular necrosis if the problem has not exaggerated and reached to the stage where Arthroplasty is the only option left. The medicines prescribed are fully tested and prescribed for three years’ duration and effective in getting rid of this painful disease.

Be careful with Spinal arthritis

The modern life style has spoiled many things in our life and body and the worst hit part is our spine. The spinal arthritis is disorders are related to backbone at the lower and joint level with the neck. The problem once begins, gets worse with passing time. The treatment related to spinal arthritis is probably one of the most complicated compared to others as this need to take a lot more attention to cure but again the new techniques have made it within the range of correcting the problem with various treatments available in different forms.

The reasons

There are different reasons, which may cause you the problem of spinal related problems but we can easily sort our some of them to take a proper step to save ourselves from these-  

• People those sitting in the same posture for longer duration of time especially without taking a proper break and exercise. The people whom you can include in this category are mostly computer professionals, software engineers, media persons, doctors, scientists, and yours truly, the writers
• You can see number of people driving vehicles with their cell phones glued to their ears and a very particular angle (almost matching to a bike rider in circus) of posture can lead to spinal arthritis in long run.
• Not keeping the laptop or screen of the TV in right position to give you a right kind of posture 
• Reading habit while lying in the bed or not keeping backbone in straight position is a certain way to invite the dreadful disease.
• People with diabetes, high blood pressure, uric acid and thyroid problems are more prone to spinal problems.

Symptoms

1. Pain in back and neck
2. Pain in feet while walking
3. Numbness in neck, feet and back

Treatments

In the beginning stages of the spinal related problems, the problem is curable with the help of a trained physiotherapist who guides you to exercises according to your problem and its intensity. Your doctor may prescribe you with safe painkillers and ointments, which relieve the pain of the joints and muscles. You may also be prescribed with stress reliving drugs to let you have a better rest helpful in getting rid of pain and recover fast. In case of no surgery treatment, the latest technologies of Neucleoplasty and Facet Joint technology can also be applied.

In serious cases

If the problem becomes serious and patient feels difficulty going through his routine life in normal way despite the physiotherapy applied and oral and local medicines administered with no results then there is no alternative but to go for surgery, which is normally known as keyhole surgery with pretty good and effective results in quick time. Normally the surgery takes a few minutes and the patient needs to stay in hospital care for one or two days and then sent to home for further rest. Patient returns to normal life in a week or so to carry on his work in normal course.

Let us discuss about arthritis

Arthritis a disease related to joints of the bones with so many misconceptions, which need to be discussed properly to make people aware in a proper way as most people take it as an ordinary problem that can be cured without many efforts. The fact is that although the remedy of arthritis is available but this need to be diagnosed properly since there are more than hundred different reasons for this problem. A proper and timely diagnosis helps the doctor treat the patient more accurately and bring the patient back to normal.  

There is a common believe that once the patent reach to a critical stage there is no treatment for him and he is confined to the wheelchair, even that is not entirely true. There is a treatment for every patient at every stage but if the treatment begins at right time, there are better chances for the patient to get better results. The misunderstanding about arthritis that associates it with aged people, which is not true even the children can suffer from this disease even before reaching the age of two.

And finally people considering arthritis an ordinary problem related to pain in the particular part of the body are most mislead people, the fact is that some of the arthritis related problems can damage nervous system, lungs, kidney and heart permanently and can cause death ultimately. 

Another misunderstanding related to arthritis among the people makes them think that operations or transplantations are not successful however, this is a misconception and most patients going for implant or surgery lead a normal life after the surgery if they act timely and systematically. Even the surgeries at an advanced stage of arthritis have carried out successfully with modern day robotic and 3D reconstruction technologies available. 

The MIS technology    

This is the most advanced technology known as Minimum Invasive Surgery where a surgery related to implant is carried out through a small hole enabling the patient to come back to work and normal position in a short period. The technology is being tried at other body parts like shoulder, elbow and wrist after carrying it out successfully at knee and hips.