How Is Arthritis Of The Knee Treated
Healthcare providers can’t cure knee arthritis. But they have some tips that might reduce the severity of your symptoms and possibly stop the arthritis from getting worse, including:
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Exercise using low-impact activities instead of high-impact activities . Aim for about 150 minutes of exercise per week.
- Wear shock-absorbing inserts in your shoes.
- Apply heat or ice to the area.
- Wear a knee sleeve or brace.
- Physical therapy exercises that help with flexibility, strength and motion.
Most people have stage 4 arthritis when they get surgery.
Take A Daily Supplement To Reduce Inflammation
Exercise: Rx For Overcoming Osteoarthritis
Exercising may be the last thing you want to do when your joints are stiff and achy. But exercise is a crucial part of osteoarthritis treatment in order to ease pain and stay active.
Osteoarthritis is a chronic and progressive disease characterized by loss of the cartilage that covers and protects the ends of the bones where they meet at a joint. Without this protective coating, bone rubs against bone, causing irritation and inflammation. The result is pain and stiffness in the joint and often pain in the muscles and ligaments that surround it.
Osteoarthritis is the leading cause of disability in the United States. Nearly equal numbers of women and men have the condition, but women tend to develop symptoms after age 55, about 10 years later than men do. It most often affects the hips, knees, spine, and hands.
Because most people diagnosed with osteoarthritis are older about half of those over 65 have it to some degree it’s long been considered a normal part of aging that reflects a lifetime of wear and tear on cartilage. But experts now know that many factors besides age are involved. Osteoarthritis risk can be inherited. An injury or disease may also kick off the deterioration. The rate of progression depends on genetics, biomechanical forces, and biological and chemical processes, all of which vary from person to person.
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Stop Withholding Info From Your Healthcare Provider
It’s tempting not to tell your healthcare provider everything, especially if you’re afraid you’ll have to go through unpleasant testing or have to change the treatment regimen you’re comfortable with.
But in order for your healthcare provider to have the best chance of helping you, he needs to know everything. Talk openly about what makes your condition better or worse, what concerns you have, and what you don’t understand.
Home Remedies And Medical Options
Options
- physical activity, including tai chi, walking, cycling, and water exercise
- nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , such as ibuprofen or aspirin, to reduce pain and inflammation
- tramadol, available on prescription for more severe pain
- corticosteroid injections to reduce inflammation
- other medications, such as disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for RA but not OA
- applying heat and cold pads to relieve pain and swelling
- topical creams, such as capsaicin
- using a cane or walker to help you balance
- attending cognitive behavioral therapy
Experts say that people who play an active role in managing OA, for example, are likely to see a more positive outcome. Learning about arthritis, becoming aware of what makes symptoms better or worse, and making decisions with your doctor are ways of doing this.
Discover exercises to strengthen the knee muscles.
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Nonsurgical Treatments For Hip Arthritis
- Activity modifications may help reduce painful flare-ups. Avoid activities that aggravate hip arthritis, such as running, jumping and other high-impact exercises.
- Lifestyle modifications, such as weight loss, can help reduce stress on the hip joint.
- Physical therapy exercises can help improve strength in the hip. Engaging in low-impact exercises and activities, such as swimming and cycling, and remaining physically active are key to managing hip arthritis symptoms.
- Heating pads can help soothe inflammation in the hip.
- Medications and injections, such as corticosteroid injections, hyaluronic acid injections, platelet-rich plasma injections, vitamin and mineral supplements, and immunosuppressive or biologic medicines can help control pain and inflammation. Which medications will work best depends on the type of arthritis.
- Walking aids such as a cane or walker provide support when walking.
Why Your Knee Pain Will Not Go Away
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Using Exercise To Help Knee Arthritis
Exercises for arthritis including aerobics and strength exercises can reduce symptoms, increase balance, add joint motion and function, and aid in weight control. Your body relies on muscles to help motor joints, stated Dr. Johnson. For the knee, thats the quadriceps in the front of the thigh and hamstrings in the back. You cant cure arthritis or make it go away, but if you strengthen the muscles that support and stabilize the knee, you can take some of the stress load of weight-bearing or walking off a joint thats worn out and weakened from arthritis, and place it on the stronger muscle.
Talk To Your Doctor About A Knee Brace
Often a knee brace can help. Theres evidence to show that even a simple compression sleeve can decrease pain, says Dr. Day. These are a good way to start because you can get one at the drugstore.
You can also talk to your doctor about a more customized unloader brace. These take pressure off a portion of the joint. The brace thats right for you will depend on the severity and location of arthritis, whether primarily in the inner or outer side of the joint or in the kneecap.
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Injections Are Another Low
If other strategies dont provide enough relief, injection therapy is an option with low risk.
A corticosteroid injection involves delivering this anti-inflammatory drug directly to the knee. The benefits are typically short lived. But it varies from person to person. I tell my patients the pain relief can last anywhere from a week to a year, says Dr. Day. One cautionary note with corticosteroids is the potential to increase blood sugar, which is a concern for people with uncontrolled diabetes.
For a possibly longer lasting effect, an injection of hyaluronic acid can be tried. Hyaluronic acid is a substance that healthy joints have a lot of and arthritic knees dont, says Dr. Day. It takes longer to start working than a corticosteroid injection, but the effect often lasts six months to a year.
Two other injection therapies are platelet-rich plasma and stem cells, neither of which is covered by insurance. PRP involves drawing some blood, spinning it in a centrifuge, and injecting part of it into the knee. Theres currently more science backing up the effect of PRP than stem cells, says Dr. Day.
If youre not able to get your symptoms under control with a combination of these measures, she says, it could be time to talk to your doctor about surgery.
This article originally appeared in Cleveland Clinic Arthritis Advisor.
See Your Doctor For Arthritis In The Feet
If you have arthritis in your feet, have your feet checked by a rheumatologist or podiatrist at least once a year, Dr. Frisch says.
We recommend yearly visits to be sure there arent any changes in your feet and to see whether any devices you may have been given, such as braces or orthotics, are working appropriately, says Frisch. And if youre having pain, dont wait for your yearly visit. See your doctor right away.
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Diagnosis And Treatment For Arthritis Flares
If you think youre going through a flare that hasnt improved after a couple of days, call your rheumatologist or primary care doctor. They will want to monitor how you feel and may want to order imaging and blood tests to see whats going on. They can also prescribe medications to get the flare under control.
Soak In An Epsom Salt Bath
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What Are The Stages Of Arthritis Of The Knee
There are five stages of osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis that affects your knees:
- Stage 0 . If youre at stage 0, your knees are healthy. You dont have arthritis of the knee.
- Stage 1 . Stage 1 means that youve got some wear and tear in your knee joint. You probably wont notice pain.
- Stage 2 . The mild stage is when you might start to feel pain and stiffness, but theres still enough cartilage to keep the bones from actually touching.
- Stage 3 . If youre at the moderate stage, youll have more pain, especially when running, walking, squatting, and kneeling. Youll likely notice it after long periods of rest . You’re probably in a great deal of pain because the cartilage has narrowed even further and there are many bone spurs.
- Stage 4 . Severe osteoarthritis means that the cartilage is almost gone. Your knee is stiff, painful and possibly immobile. You might need surgery.
Surgery For Hip Arthritis
The progression of hip arthritis and effectiveness of various nonsurgical treatments varies. If nonsurgical options dont provide the desired pain relief and your quality of life suffers, it may be time to consider surgical options, such as:
- Hip replacement surgery, or hip arthroplasty, is a procedure to replace one or both ends of a damaged hip joint with artificial implants.
- Hip fusion is a procedure to fuse the bones of the hip joint together. It used to be the standard surgical treatment for hip arthritis before replacement surgeries became available, but is now a last-resort treatment as it severely impacts mobility.
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Pain Pain Go Away The Chronic Pain Of Lupus
With lupus, pain can hit any part of the body and at any time, and chronic pain can make day-to-day life difficult. So, what can you do? Read on to learn more about the many kinds of pain associated with lupus, how they are diagnosed and what can be done to treat them.
Introduction
Chronic pain can feel like you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders . Your head may pound, your lower back may ache, or things may just hurt for what seems like no logical reason whatsoever. It often feels like you can never escape the pain. While you may want to retreat to a deserted island to lie on the sand and watch the waves roll in, you cant exactly escape yourself the pain is always there with you wherever you go.
But there is a logical reason, in fact, many logical reasons, why you may experience the chronic physical pain that comes with lupus. Knowing why the pain is there and being able to adequately express exactly how you feel to your healthcare practitioner or anyone you trust, can put you on the road to some relief.
This article serves as an overview of some of the common types of pain that often comes with lupus. It is not inclusive of all the types of pain an individual with lupus may experience. We have included links to a few of our other blog articles that provide more information about specific types of pain such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, and Raynauds Phenomenon.
Why do I hurt so much?
Types of Pain, Diagnostics, and Treatment
Tendonitis
What Is Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. Some people call it degenerative joint disease or wear and tear arthritis. It occurs most frequently in the hands, hips, and knees.
With OA, the cartilage within a joint begins to break down and the underlying bone begins to change. These changes usually develop slowly and get worse over time. OA can cause pain, stiffness, and swelling. In some cases it also causes reduced function and disability some people are no longer able to do daily tasks or work.
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What You Need To Know
- Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis to affect the spine.
- Arthritis can occur anywhere along the spine but is more frequent in the lower back and neck.
- Pain and stiffness are the most common symptoms of spinal arthritis.
- Causes of spinal arthritis are still largely unknown except for osteoarthritis, which is typically a result of wear and tear.
- Spinal arthritis treatment may include pain medications, steroid injections, physical therapy and surgery in severe cases.
What Do Doctors Do
Its not always easy for doctors to diagnose JIA right away. JIA itself can have lots of different symptoms, and some infections, like Lyme disease, have similar symptoms to JIA. So doctors will want to rule out any other possibilities before deciding something is JIA.
If a doctor suspects a patient has JIA, he or she will ask about the persons symptoms, find out if others in the family have had arthritis, and do a complete physical examination to look for joint swelling, eye problems, and rashes. A doctor may do blood tests and X-rays. In some cases, doctors may use a needle to take a sample of synovial fluid from a persons joint.
Sometimes, a doctor might need to see a patient for several months to determine the particular type of JIA the person has.
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Dealing With Depression And Anger
Feeling depressed or angry when change occurs is normal especially if the change is unexpected and unwanted. You may feel frustrated about not being able to do a favorite activity or you may feel angry if you can’t keep up with your friends housework or job.
Depression often results when a person is unable to express angry feelings and keeps them buried inside. It also can be a side effect of certain medications. In addition depressed feelings can be triggered by chronic pain fatigue too much stress fear of losing the interest and affection of a loved one a sense of loss about changes in one’s body or lifestyle or fear of possible future body or lifestyle changes. But in spite of these many “reasons not all people with arthritis get depressed or angry, and many learn to overcome such feelings.
If you are depressed, how does this condition affect your life? Are you irritable with family or friends? Have you stopped taking care of your arthritis? Are you withdrawing from activities and friends? Are you sleeping less or more, eating less or more, or feeling more pain and fatigue than usual? Are you paying less attention to your personal appearance? Do you find that life has no value and that your thoughts tend to be gloomy and negative? These behaviors are possible symptoms of depression and may require treatment from a professional.
What Causes High Mortality Rates In Juvenile Arthritis
Although juvenile arthritis does not directly lead to death, individuals with JA are often more prone to substance abuse and drug overdose due to chronic pain.
JA is often self-limiting, and about 60% of individuals reach adulthood with no active synovitis or functional restriction. However, many patients experience side effects such as joint deformity and destruction, growth anomalies, retardation, osteoporosis, poor psychological health and problems with daily functioning.
Disease progression is variable. Exacerbations are distinguished by the reappearance of synovitis in previously affected joints and an increase in the number of joints implicated. Continued active arthritis into adulthood increases the degree of functional restriction and joint deterioration.
Generalized growth failure is observed in JA as a result of persistent severe illness exacerbated by corticosteroid therapy. Active illness can induce early epiphyseal closure and low height, as well as micrognathia and shortening of the fingers, hands, forearms, toes, or feet. Localized overgrowth can develop at the knee, causing a leg length mismatch.
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