Arthritis is a general term used for conditions affecting the joints and tissues that surround them. Joints are the places of the body where bones come together, like the knees, wrists, fingers and feet and hips. The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis:
Arthritis literally means inflammation of the joints (artron = articulation, ITIS = inflammation). Inflammation or swelling that occurs as a result of arthritis damage healthy tissues. This damage can affect the shape of bones and tissues of the joints, making movement difficult and painful.
Many people with arthritis tend to keep their joints in a bent position because it is less painful. If your joints are kept in one position for too long, it may be difficult to stretch and can gradually immobilized. Exercise can help keep your joints flexible and less rigid and painful. Since the muscles supporting the joints, it is important to do exercises that maintain the strongest possible. Strong muscles can help protect your joints from additional stress
Causes, incidence and risk factors:
Inflammation of the joint is the body’s reaction to different processes of disease, among which include mechanical injury to a joint (including fracture), presence of an infection (usually caused by bacteria or viruses), an attack on the joints by the body (an autoimmune disease) or the cumulative deterioration of the joints. Often the inflammation goes away after the injury has healed, the disease has been treated or after the infection was eliminated by the immune system, sometimes with the help of antibiotics.
With some injuries and illnesses, inflammation does not go away or destruction produces prolonged pain and deformity, which is arthritis. There are over 100 types of arthritis with many different possible causes. In the United States, osteoarthritis is the most common variety of the disease that is usually accumulated from years of wear and tear on the joints and tends to appear in the elderly in the joints of the hips, knees and toes.
Gout is often in men over 40 years and is caused by the formation of crystals in the joints with subsequent inflammation. Gonorrhea is a bacterial infection that causes is known as infectious arthritis.
Autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and lupus can also cause arthritis. In these diseases is something wrong in the immune system and it attacks healthy parts of the body (like joints).
Arthritis can occur in men and women of any age, around 37 million people in the United States have some form of arthritis, ie nearly 1 in 7 people. In people older than 55 years of age women have a greater chance of suffering from osteoarthritis. Other risk factors for osteoarthritis are obesity, a history of trauma and various genetic and metabolic diseases.
Some of the diseases that cause arthritis are:
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
ostoartritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (in adults)
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (in children)
drop
scleroderma
psoriasis (psoriatic arthritis)
fungal infections such as blastomycosis
ankylosing spondylitis
Reiter’s syndrome / reactive arthritis
arthritis
adult Still’s disease
Lyme disease-Tertiary (status late)
Tuberculosis (tuberculous arthritis)
viral infections (viral arthritis)
Gonorrhea (gonococcal arthritis)
other bacterial infections (non-gonococcal bacterial arthritis).
Most frequent symptoms
Pain, swelling and redness of the affected area.
Increased temperature and stiffness of the joint (infectious arthritis may cause fever to 40 degrees by inflammation and accumulation of pus).
Rheumatoid arthritis is often manifest slowly and diffusely. It may begin with loss of color, lack of appetite, and mild muscle aches. The article concludes by presenting a red, swollen and become painful to touch. The stiffness will disappear as the daily activity is desentumeciendo body.
Tags: Arthritis, Inflammation, Muscle Ache