Osteoarthritis: symptoms and complex treatment of the disease

This disease in more or less pronounced formdiagnosed in 60-85% of patients older than 60 years. It affects even younger people - mostly athletes, often musicians. In the past ten years, the circle of people suffering from this ailment has expanded due to the fact that more and more people spend their free time not for sports, but for computers: one of the factors of the development of this disease is overweight. Perhaps you already guessed that this disease - arthrosis. Symptoms can be easily recognized: a specific crunch, aches, whining, responding to an early change in the weather ("joints break with rain").

The causes of this ailment may be different: hereditary predisposition, sedentary lifestyle or vice versa - heavy loads on the same joints, prolonged hypothermia or trauma. But most often arthrosis is a consequence of banal old age. After all, this is nothing more than the gradual wear of the interarticular cartilaginous layer. However, do not be frivolous to hope that this disease will not affect you until you are knocked sixty: in recent years, arthrosis is increasingly becoming a disease of the young.

Osteoarthritis affects various joints. The most common cases are the knees and hip joints, less often the hands (phalanxes of the fingers and the wrist) and the ankle joint. Often this disease manifests itself on the big toe. Musicians and people working at the computer complain the most about arthrosis of the fingers. Constant tension in the fingers leads to the development of arthrosis - the symptoms do not slow down to appear in the form of pain in the upper phalanges of the fingers, less mobility and, in especially neglected cases, swelling, deformation and total inability to flex the finger in the joint. In relation to which joint was affected by arthrosis, the symptoms of the disease can manifest themselves in different ways. However, there are some universal signs on which it can be determined that a person does not have synovitis (an inflammatory process in the joint tissues that lead to accumulation of fluid), not arthritis (inflammation of the joint), namely arthrosis.

The pain and crunch that causes the affectedjoint arthrosis, - the symptoms are universal. It should be said that, unlike arthritis, arthrosis pain excruciates a person during exercise: it is worth giving a leg or fingers a rest, as the pain subsides. At night, as a rule, she does not visit the patient, unless when the limb lies in an uncomfortable position. But the more neglected ailment, the more pain comes. First, at any load, and then from any movement. In neglected cases, people begin to suffer night pains, which can be reduced by dry heat.

A crunch in the knee does not always mean that you have -arthrosis of the knee joint. Symptoms of this disease are manifested in certain characteristics of snapping. If healthy people sometimes hear a slight cracking when squatting, not accompanied by painful sensations, then the crunch is dry and coarse, as if a thick branch breaks. With the progression of the disease, the sound becomes louder and accompanied by pain. The decrease in mobility and deformation is accompanied by arthrosis of the hip joint, the symptoms of which are determined by the fact that osteophytes begin to grow - spines, bony growths that do not fully move the limbs. These formations can eventually change the appearance of the limb, leading to its shortening, and may cause another disease - synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane), accompanied by swelling of the joint and severe pain.

With this disease, as with other, in no wayIn case you can not self-medicate. This can lead to a sharp progression of the disease and lead to disability. With the appointment of treatment, a full diagnosis of the patient's condition is important, and one can not do with one approach to a radiologist and the delivery of tests. After all, it is important to know why this important liquid dries up and cartilage tissues are destroyed: due to endocrine changes, cardiovascular diseases, and, perhaps, due to infection or trauma. Only a doctor can establish the real cause of the disease, determine the stage of its course and develop the most correct treatment tactics.

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