Arthritis isn’t a condition which you’d wish on your worst enemy. It’s a slow and steady march towards a loss of mobility and though there’s a lot that can be done to slow the process there’s little which can be done to stop it. Of course for every patient who sees the chronic symptoms worsen there’s one lucky person who sees them vanish altogether. Those symptoms are an inflammation of the joints which lead to chronic pain and a subsequent loss of mobility. In the past this loss of mobility and swelling could morph into a contorted deformity but this is rarely seen in the developed world today.
The joints in which you get your arthritis will reflect on how the disease will affect you. There are those who have arthritis of the hands or thumbs and as such lose the ability to perform the simplest tasks for themselves but are still fairly mobile. There are others who get arthritis of the knees and lose that mobility but can still dress themselves or prepare a meal. Of course there are other varieties too and each comes with its own unique set of trials and tribulations.
There are a broad range of treatments open to arthritis patients. These involve pharmaceutical approaches to the problem which focus on treating the inflammation but not the conditions themselves. More alternative methods are also used, these generally revolve around diet and exercise, and though these are not as effective on their own they can be really useful when used in combination with the drugs. The final solution is surgical and often involves the implanting of prosthetic joints. The procedure for this is a major surgery and comes with its own set of unique risks. The advantage is that, providing everything goes to plan, the arthritis will be gone.
If you’ve suffered from arthritis for a long time them consider asking your doctor about the surgery and have them run through the risks with you. It might be worth it.
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