What is Arthritis?

Arthritis is a common disease that affects the joints. Arthritis causes inflammation, and degeneration of the joints, making it hard to move or stand for a long time. Arthritis is just a word used to describe the hundreds of conditions that affect the areas where the bone meets and moves (joints).

There are different types of arthritis, and osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common among others. Others include Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). You may begin to notice the symptoms of arthritis before it finally overwhelms you, and sometimes it just comes all of a sudden. The popularly accepted age range to start experiencing rheumatoid arthritis is between the ages of 30-50. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect children and teens too.

On the other hand, osteoarthritis (OA) usually appears in adults over 50 years of age. Plus-sized individuals tend to suffer from osteoarthritis.

Arthritis is commonly found in these particular parts of the body:

• Feet
• Hand
• Hips
• Knees
• Lower back

What are the symptoms of arthritis?

The most common symptoms of arthritis are joint pain, stiffness, and swelling. You may feel these symptoms more early in the morning as you try to stand up from your bed after a long night’s rest. Other symptoms of osteoarthritis include:

• You’ll experience weakness around your joints.
• Your fingers start to get bony.
• You’ll get an itching or grating feeling in your knees.
• You’ll sometimes hear clicking or popping sounds as you try to bend those joints.
• Your movement will be restricted occasionally; you may need to pause for a minute before you continue moving.

Other symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include:

• Your joints get stiff for more than 30 minutes or more when you wake up in the morning.
• You’ll experience pain in more than one joint.
• Both joints in your arms and knees will be affected.
• You’ll experience undue fatigue.
• You experience a low-grade fever
• You’ll experience inflammation in your eyes and mouth.
• You’ll experience inflammation in your heart muscle and blood vessels.
• You’ll experience a low red blood cell count.

Causes of arthritis

There’s no specific cause for all the types of arthritis that we have. The cause of arthritis depends on the specific type of arthritis. But the most common causes of arthritis include:

• You may have had an injury that later deteriorated into arthritis.
• Arthritis can be inherited from your parents or grandparents, and it can lead to osteoarthritis.
• When you contract an infection like Lyme disease, it can cause you to start experiencing arthritis symptoms.
• When you have an immune system malfunction, it can cause you to start experiencing arthritis symptoms.

Sometimes you don’t experience any symptoms, you just start experiencing arthritis. Sometimes it happens that way because of its unpredictable nature.

Is Prevention for Arthritis?

There are many things you can do to prevent arthritis because prevention is better than cure:

1. Manage your weight and watch your food intake. If you become too big, your knees may not be able to bear the weight of your body. People who are obese or too fat are more likely to have arthritis.                                                                                                                                            
2. Engage in exercises regularly.                                                                                                           
3. Try to be careful at all times too, not to sustain any injury, especially to the knees and back.                                                                                                                                                 
4. Protect your joints at all costs.                                                                                                             
5. Quit smoking.