Throughout the month, we’ve been featuring an informative series on arthritis. So far, we’ve touched on the common types and causes that affect the more than 50 million Americans living with arthritis.
This week, we’ll be focusing on the symptoms of two common types of arthritis – osteoarthritis and rheumatic arthritis.
Symptoms of osteoarthritis
As a reminder of what we covered in Part 2, osteoarthritis is actually the most common arthritis, with nearly 33 million Americans experiencing symptoms.
Most often, it affects weight-bearing joints like the hips or knees that have been damaged by repetitive motion, disease, injury, infection or being overweight.
But it doesn’t always affect just those large joints. Osteoarthritis can affect any joint, especially smaller joints like fingers and shoulders. If you’re experiencing symptoms like these below, you might consider scheduling an appointment with your doctor:
- Difficulty griping objects
- Morning joint stiffness for less than one hour
- Pain when walking
- Joint stiffness after resting
- Difficulty sitting or bending over
- Loss of joint motion
Symptoms of rheumatic arthritis
In Part 2, we discovered that rheumatic arthritis is caused by inflammation. Affecting more than 1.5 million Americans, rheumatic arthritis is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body turns on itself after having dealt with an infection.
People with rheumatic arthritis often develop rheumatic nodules over their knuckles, elbows or heels, which cause them a great deal of pain.
If you feel that you are experiencing the following symptoms, you might want to schedule a visit with your doctor:
- Pain, fatigue and loss of appetite
- Joint swelling in the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, feet, jaw or neck
- Symmetrical joint swelling – such as, right and left hand or right and left elbow
- Can’t open jars anymore or turn doorknobs
- Difficulty performing daily functions like walking or getting dressed
- Fever, rash or organ inflammation
Now that you know all about arthritis – the most common types, causes and symptoms of arthritis – next week we’ll finish off the series with tips to keep joints healthy, along with state-of-the-art treatments.
Related Article
Monthly Series – All About Arthritis Part 4 – Keeping Joints Healthy
Join the Discussion
0 Comments