Arthritis is a condition which affects the joints. It causes inflammation which, in the close confines of joints is responsible for chronic pain, progressive loss of mobility and potentially deformity. It’s a condition which you’re unlikely to ever get rid of but which can be managed with the right balance of diet, exercise and specialist medications. There have been a lot of advances into the treatment of arthritis and more and more potent drugs and therapies are on offer all the time.
Without the proper set of treatments, arthritis has the potential to really affect the way you’re able to live your life. Loss of mobility can be crippling and depending on where your arthritis is centred, you can lose out on a lot of the things which you may have once taken for granted. Hand arthritis for example can leave you unable to complete the simplest of tasks, things like doing up the buttons of a shirt or typing a shoe lace. Knee arthritis will damage your ability to walk and if left untreated can restrict you to a wheel chair.
One of the most common forms of arthritis is confined to the knee joints which, not surprisingly is one of our most used joints. It’s traditionally treated with an injection of a gel like substance directly into the knee joint, helping to increase the lubrication and lessen the friction. This in turn lessens the swelling and subsequent symptoms. Scientists have just started testing an all-natural solution to this invasive treatment.
By injecting the patient’s own platelets, the liquid part of their blood, into their knees a high dose of growth factors are delivered directly into the knee cartilage, increasing the body’s natural healing rate. This is called PRP or platelet-rich plasma and it’s shown a startling success rate at trials. Around 73% of the patients treated showed a delayed progression of their arthritis. The treatment needs more testing but with such positive results I think it’s only a matter of time until we see this catch on!
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