What is the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis

What is the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis?

Many people confuse names because they don't know the difference.

These diseases are characterized by joint damage, but there is a significant difference between them.

What's the difference

Arthritis can affect any joint. In many cases, this disease is a consequence of arthritic lesions. This is one of the consequences of improper, untimely treatment of osteoarthritis.

To better understand the two diseases, the differences are specific to each:

• Arthritis refers to various inflammatory changes in the joints;
• The more correct name for the second disease is osteoarthritis. It differs in that the lesion affects the cartilage tissue.

The mechanism of 2 diseases

Arthritis - classification of varieties

Arthritis is the name of a group of joint diseases.

Characterized by swelling, inflammation. The inflammatory process leads to the production of enzymes that have a detrimental effect on the joint and ultimately destroy it. In addition to the inflammation, an adhesive substance appears in the joint itself - fibrin.

This is a pain at rest and can be relieved through exercise. Getting out of bed in the morning, one feels adamant to eliminate this feeling, which must dissipate. The disease most often affects the upper and lower limbs.

There is a division of the disease: degenerative or inflammatory. This classification is based on the nature of the disease.

A disease that affects the articular cartilage is called degenerative arthritis. Cartilage is used to connect and move bones.

There are several types:

• Osteoarthritis;
• Traumatic arthritis.

The inflammatory course of the disease is characterized by damage not to the cartilage but to the connective tissue. Inflammation occurs in the inner space of the joint capsule.

Divide it into the following types:

• Caused by infection;
• Rheumatic;
• Reactive plan;
• Gout.

To understand the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis, it is necessary to understand how osteoarthritis is not similar to other diseases included in the concept of arthritis.

Stages of osteoarthritis progression

Osteoarthritis, but more accurately and more correctly will be called osteoarthritis, it is a chronic lesion of the joints, which deforms it over time. The main cause of deformity is irreversible damage to cartilage tissue.

The specificity of the disease is that destructive processes affect the cartilage tissues, followed by disruption of their integrity.

Osteoarthritis is a disease in which there is mechanical wear of the cartilage in the joint until it completely disappears. The bones are exposed and their friction is already occurring.

The disease is long-term, chronic.

There are 2 stages of its development:

• Primary, found in 42% of patients. This does not happen due to an injury to the joints, but due to excessive physical exertion or hard work. Men who have long been involved in manual labor are sick of it.
• Secondary, develops in more patients from the primary stage and is associated with the consequences of trauma, on the basis of which the mechanism of destructive processes is activated.

Causes and differences

Causes of Arthritis

The main preconditions of the disease can be classified:

• Excessive exercise or work;
• Various infectious processes, including latent;
• Any kind of allergic reaction;
• Permanent damage to the same joint;
• Metabolic disorders;
• Lack of vitamins;
• Immune system disorders;
• Post-traumatic stress disorder;
• Hereditary predisposition.

Main causes and main signs of osteoarthritis

The background of this disease is not well understood. Only people of retirement age are sick. The disease is influenced by age characteristics.

Trauma is considered another version of osteoarthritis. The joint should be treated with it. If this does not happen, after a few years there are signs of osteoarthritis damage.

Clinical presentation and differences in symptoms

Let's look at a more detailed study of the symptoms that accompany joint disease.

Symptom of pain. Osteoarthritis in the initial stage is not characterized by a constant strong manifestation of pain. It occurs only during intense loading or movement of the joints. When the load is reduced or the movement stops, the pain disappears.

One does not pay attention to such manifestations, allowing the symptoms to increase and the disease to progress. Pain begins to appear even with light exertion. Decreases if a person takes a comfortable position.

Systemic pain occurs in the affected joints. This can be associated with long walks, exercise or physical activity.

Sometimes pain is felt after a long period of rest of the affected joint. If it is arthritis, then the pain manifests itself both at rest and during physical activity.

This disease torments a person in the pre-dawn hours. Severe pain occurs between 3 and 5 in the morning.

Crispy sound. Dry crunch is associated with osteoarthritis. As the cartilage tissue breaks down, bone friction begins. The sound becomes louder and louder, appearing at the slightest movement of the diseased joint.

Demonstrate stiffness in movements. Arthritis severely restricts the movement of the two affected joints and there is a reduction in the overall mobility of the entire skeleton.

Disorder of the shape of the diseased joint. Both arthritis and osteoarthritis can deform the joint. But the deformation process itself takes place in different ways. In osteoarthritis there is no redness or inflammation. The joint is not hot to the touch. The deformation is also called cold. Swelling can be expressed during an exacerbation of the disease, accompanied by excruciating pain.Arthritis changes the joint, it becomes hot, redness and swelling appear. The pain is acute, occurs on palpation of the affected area, nodular formations can be palpated.

What the blood test will tell you. The blood picture for osteoarthritis does not change. An increase in the number of leukocytes and a sharp increase in ESR are signs of inflammation that are observed in arthritis. Increased leukocytosis indicates that the body is susceptible to infection and inflammation occurs inside.

The biochemical blood test for arthritis has an increased number of markers of inflammation and in osteoarthritis they do not change significantly.

Location of the pathology. Osteoarthritis affects the large joints of the body. These will be the knees, hips and spine. The names of the disease come from this: gonarthrosis (damage to the knee joint), coxarthrosis (the hip joint is affected), spondyloarthritis (the pathology is localized in the spine).

Arthritis, called rheumatoid arthritis, lack of (poor) mobility in the morning - one of the signs of rheumatoid arthritis. After waking up, a person feels stiffness in the hands. The wrist joints are affected one by one or both at a time. In rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, signs of inflammation in the joints of the fingers may appear - swelling (swelling) and redness.

There are a number of other signs that you can recognize arthritis.

If a finger on the upper or lower limb swells and becomes red, arthritis may be suspected. Arthritis manifests as severe pain in the knees and ankles. Pain can also occur in the big toe.

Combines with swelling and redness of the joint. The symptoms of pain appear regularly, suddenly increase and then disappear. Arthritis of infectious origin is accompanied by fever, general fatigue, sweating, chills, all the bones ache and ache.

Inflammatory processes affecting the joints have a negative effect on important internal organs, heart, kidneys and liver.

Additional signs of osteoarthritis:

• Aseptic necrotic areas;
• Strong muscle tension;
• Partial immobilization of the affected joints;
• Slow resorption of cartilage, bone and friction between them;
• Inflammatory processes in the areas of tissue surrounding the painful joint.

Influence of gender and age of the patient on the presence of joint diseases

Who is affected by arthritis

The incidence of arthritis is low at 2% of the world's population.

Women aged 35-50 are more susceptible to it.

Small joints are more commonly affected.

Whom the disease overtakes

Osteoarthritis does not spare the elderly, whether it is a woman or a man. Retirees suffer from illness after retirement. The total number of cases is about 20% of all inhabitants of the Earth.

Different diseases - different methods

The specialists in charge of treatment are called orthopedic trauma surgeons. Arthritis requires treatment by various specialists.

Osteoarthritis and how to deal with it

Painful sensations are relieved briefly with the help of anti-inflammatory drugs. But they have no effect on the course of the disease.

The main goal of treatment is the regeneration of cartilage tissue. The main drugs that help with this are chondroprotectors.

With the help of these drugs it is possible to deal with inflammation of the joints, to regulate the metabolism in the muscles and to restore the damaged areas.

If conservative treatment does not give positive dynamics, arthroplasty can be used.

Its essence is that surgery is performed to replace a diseased joint. Osteoarthritis is a serious and incurable disease, as the ongoing processes are irreversible.

The patient should follow the doctor's recommendations for proper nutrition and therapeutic gymnastics - this is a mandatory stage of treatment. Gymnastics, medication, therapeutic measures - all this leads to a positive effect.

What medications and prescriptions does the doctor give to the patient?

For uncomplicated conditions, the prescriptions will be as follows:

• Hormone therapy;
• Medicines aimed at relieving inflammation;
• painkillers;
• Manual therapy, massage sessions;
• Exercise set;
• Physiotherapy - with the help of ultrasound waves and the use of thermal methods.

In case of a complicated course of the disease, additional medications will be needed. Sometimes doctors insist on removing the problem surgically.

Who needs the services of a surgeon? Patients with a completely destroyed joint that cannot be repaired need a complete replacement. Depending on the degree of destruction of the joints, both complete and partial replacement are used.

Arthritis treatment

It all depends on the form under the disease. The methods of therapy will be different, they can be combined, changed, choosing what will give the desired result of treatment.

Lifestyle recommendations:

1. Adequate nutrition,
2. Avoid alcoholic beverages
3. Decreased physical activity.

The drugs prescribe antibiotics and inject anti-inflammatory drugs into the joint.

Moderate gymnastics and physical therapy are helpful in treatment.

The main thing in treatment is to eliminate the inflammatory process and improve the body's resistance. They use vitamin preparations, diet food. Includes seafood, dairy and poultry.

Arthritis is a direct contraindication to sunbathing. Wearing shoes with high heels can worsen the course of the disease, exclude it from your wardrobe.

The disease imposes its own prohibitions: alcohol, hard physical work must remain in the past. Health is too expensive to ignore doctors' recommendations!

Predicted disease outcomes

Diseases differ in their possible endings.

Arthritis is completely curable if its cause is removed.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic sluggish disease that does not give a chance for full recovery.

Simple folk remedies

In addition to medicines, it is useful to use reliable prescriptions of traditional medicine. Often even doctors advise their patients to combine traditional medicine with folk medicine. This will speed up the healing process.

When treating arthritis, it is important to rethink your daily routine and diet. These 2 main pillars of lifestyle, if properly organized, can significantly affect the healing process.

Below are 6 rules you can follow to help the patient:

1. Follow a proper diet. Redesign the menu so that it is possible to normalize the amount of nutrients, vitamins and microorganisms consumed per day.
2. To normalize the diet, it is useful to saturate the daily menu with fresh vegetables and fruits and it is better to exclude completely salty foods or use a little salt during cooking.
3. Avoid spicy spices in ready-made products and in the home kitchen.
4. Refuse to use foods that in some cases make a person gain weight quickly. These foods include foods high in carbohydrates.
5. It's important to adjust your weight. If you are overweight, then it is useful to get rid of them as soon as possible, because it has a negative effect on the lower extremities due to the heavy load.
6. Stop drinking alcohol because it is negative for the body and helps the rapid development of drug rejection.

Among folk remedies, recipes are especially effective:

1. The use of birch buds is useful in the treatment of arthritis. They are poured with boiling water and the resulting mixture is boiled, wrapped in a warm towel and allowed to steam. Take half a cup three times daily before meals.
2. Burdock root is crushed, placed in a jar and poured with vodka. Insist in a dark place, shaking the contents of the container regularly. The resulting solution is applied to the place where the pain is most intense.

Home remedies and eating habits

In case of osteoarthritis, it is useful to saturate the daily menu with oily fish. The omega 3 acids contained in it quickly eliminate the inflammatory process, relieve pain. Alternatively, we recommend the use of fish oil, which is no less effective than oily fish.

Milk and dairy products are good for you, but skim foods are best. Cheese and cottage cheese should be sufficiently saturated with calcium. The daily diet should contain enough fresh fruits and vegetables.

In case of osteoarthritis, make sure your body gets enough vitamins. For this it is useful to drink a course of vitamins. Preference should be given to drugs whose action is complex. Some vitamins help in the faster absorption of others. Such complexes are for sale, in which this moment is taken into account. This helps to ensure that the vitamins are absorbed quickly and no salt deposits appear in the joints.

Proper nutrition, weight management and constant monitoring of the condition of the skeletal system will allow you to cope with the disease, but will exclude cases of recurrence in the future.

Traditional medicine offers ways to fight the disease:

1. Exercise and exercise regularly. You do not need to strain too much, the sport should be moderate and only bring pleasure to their performance.
2. It's useful to swim or just do different exercises in the water.
3. Compresses are effective. With the development of the inflammatory process, warm options are useful, and cold ones, such as ice, are suitable for relieving pain.
4. Healing baths with anti-inflammatory process are especially useful in the fight against this disease. Medicinal plants such as eucalyptus, calendula, sandalwood oil, St. John's wort are suitable for them.

Recommended orthopedic appliances

Knee pads are used to fight these diseases. Patients who have used them note that they really help to cope with painful sensations, along with other methods of dealing with the disease.

The choice of devices is diverse, so choose a model that is suitable for a particular patient, taking into account the course of his disease.

Each of the models has its own specific purpose. If you make a mistake with the choice, then the device will not lead to results due to the fact that it will simply be impossible to carry it.

A closed knee brace is a device that covers the lower limb around it. They are made of elastic material, in some models an additional layer of insulation is provided. The option is good when the pain appears constantly in different places. They are aimed at comprehensive anchoring of the knee leg. Provides significant relief while walking.

Open models have a cup cutout. They help when walking, relieve pain when bending the legs. They are useful for people who need to move up the stairs. The models have a rigid frame and are made of elastic material. These devices help maintain the shape and position of the legs.

Disease prevention

As a preventative measure, it is helpful to take care of a healthy lifestyle. Moderate exercise is helpful. Quitting smoking, drinking alcohol will significantly reduce the likelihood of developing these serious diseases.

It is much easier to prevent the development of any disease than to waste time, effort and money on its treatment. If we talk about arthritis and osteoarthritis, then for prevention it is useful to treat all types of infectious diseases in a timely manner and completely, untimely treatment of these diseases can soon provoke the development of serious problems with the lower extremities.

Make sure your body is getting enough of the whole variety of vitamins. Avoid hypothermia, dress according to the weather. Make sure that the joints are loaded to the extent that is permissible. It should not be too much. Overweight people. In general, it is better to get rid of extra pounds as soon as possible, because they have a negative effect on the condition of the whole organism.

Diets should be planned so that they supply enough nutrients to the body.