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The most common types of arthritis are rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Arthritis may affect any one regardless of gender and age. It is mainly caused due to injury, stress, over weight, genetic or hereditary factors, nutritional deficiencies, metabolic abnormalities, immunological problems, bacterial or viral infections, hormonal imbalance and any abnormality in the function of cytokine. The diagnosis done for before the treatment for arthritis is started includes complete medical history, blood tests, x-rays, physical examinations.
The treatment of arthritis is mostly based on the severity and location of the patient. The medical history is also concerned before giving the treatment. The main aim of the treatment for arthritis is to relieve the pain, prevent work disability, minimize the risk of therapy, retard the disease progression, educate the patient about the disease, and enhance the life’s quality. As the first step of treatment, exercises are taught to the patients. This is very important in managing arthritis. Doing moderate exercises are very beneficial than doing any hard exercises. Consulting a physiotherapist is better to get a proper guidance. They would also teach the patients about the precautionary methods and techniques to relieve from pain.
The heat or cold therapy is the other treatment of arthritis. This is very effective in relieving the pain, swelling or stiffness in the joints due to arthritis. Hot water bottles, hot packs or damp warm towel are the heat therapy that can be followed. This treatment will give a soothing effect and relaxes the muscle. Cold therapy is done by applying the ice packs over the joints that are affected. But this should not be done for more than 15 minutes.
The treatment of arthritis also includes some medications. The acetaminophen or aspirin are prescribed for relieving the pain as the treatment option. Taking sufficient of acetaminophen is effective equally to anti inflammatory drugs. But acetaminophen results some gastrointestinal side effects. Applying cream for pain relief like menthol, salycin, methyl salicylate and capsaicin on the skin over joints that causes pain will be help full. The non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs will reduce the inflammation like ibuprofen, aspirin, nabumetone and indomethician. This will cause some side effects like stomach up set, abdominal pain or heart burn. The corticosteroids can be given by injection or orally. The steroids will work by decreasing the immune system activities, therefore low doses are recommended. But in case of acute high dose is recommended for some limited period. Steroids are mainly used for the rheumatoid arthritis treatment.
For those patients who do not get better relief from medication for severe arthritis surgery is suggested. The surgical treatment aims at reducing or relieving the pain and will correct the abnormal condition of the joints. The surgical types included are arthroscopy, osteonomy, arthoplasty and total joint replacement process. This will help the patient to get a better relief from arthritis.
