Arthritis

Dr. Chetan Chopra

Chronic arthritis is inflammation, stiffening, and calcification of the body's joints. Symptoms include limited range of motion and pain. The most common form of arthritis is chronic osteoarthritis. This can affect any of the joints of the body: joints in the hands, feet, hips, and spine.

Today, no effective means of prevention or cure are available. Treatment consists primarily of controling pain, lessening of inflammation, and mildly exercising the affected joints. More and more, joint-replacement strategies, such as hip joint,, knee joint, and increasingly shoulder joint replacement, should be considered when symptomatic treatments alone are insufficient. These parts replacement strategies are becoming progressively sipler, more elegant, and less fraught with complications than in the past.

Short of replacement therapies, anti-inflammatory medications are the principal treatment of arthritis. All of these medications carry a risk, as they can cause excessive bleeding of both the intestines and the skin.

Non-anti-inflammatory pain medications, such as Tylenol, can play an important role in pain control.

Much touted, but still of limited proven usefulness, are glucosamine and chondroitin pills.

Image (c) Gettyimages.com

25-Apr-2013

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Comments on this Blog

Dr. Chopra, The post is very informative. Thanks. I am also affected by arthritis in knee joints for more than fifteen years. Hereditory perhaps as my mother suffered for over last thirty years of her life. Of course mine is fortunately as sever as hers. I am managing and containing mainly through regular walks. Consistent with your observation I did not get much help from Glucosamine and Chondroitin tablets. These tablets used to make feel dull and somewhat depressed. I had to discontinue just after a month or so. .. raghavan

ksrblogs
26-Apr-2013 00:58 AM