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 damage to the joints, but there is a significant difference between them.

What is 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 and untimely treatment of osteoarthritis.

For a more accurate understanding of both diseases, the differences are specific to each:

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

The mechanism of the course of 2 diseases

Arthritis - classification of varieties

Arthritis is the name of a specific group of joint diseases.

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

This is pain at rest and can be relieved with exercise. Getting out of bed in the morning, a person feels inflexible, to remove this feeling that he must disperse. Most often, the disease 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 in which articular cartilage is affected 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 internal space of the joint capsule.

Divide it into the following types:

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

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

Phases of the progression of osteoarthritis

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

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

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

The disease is chronic in the long term.

There are 2 stages of its development:

• Primary, detected in 42% of patients. It does not occur due to joint injuries, but as a result of unbearable physical exertion or hard work. Men who have been engaged in manual labor for a long time are sick with it.
• Secondary, it develops in more patients than in 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 prerequisites of the disease can be classified:

• Excessive exercise or work;
• Various infectious processes, including hidden ones;
• Any type of allergic reaction;
• Permanent damage to the same joint;
• Metabolism disorders;
• Lack of vitamins;
• Immune system disorders;
• Post-traumatic syndrome;
• Hereditary predisposition.

Root causes and main signs of osteoarthritis

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

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

Clinical presentation and differences in symptoms

Let's move on to a more detailed examination of the symptoms that accompany joint diseases.

Painful symptom. Osteoarthritis in the initial stage is not characterized by constant severe pain. It appears only with intense effort or joint movement. When the load decreases or the movement stops, the pain disappears.

A person does not attach importance to such manifestations, allowing the symptoms to increase and the disease to progress.Pain begins to appear even with light effort. It decreases if a person assumes a comfortable posture.

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

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

This disease plagues a person in the hours before dawn. Severe pain occurs between 3 and 5 in the morning.

Crisp sound. Dry crunch is associated with osteoarthritis. When cartilage tissue breaks down, bone friction begins. The sound swells and intensifies, manifesting itself at the slightest movement of the diseased joint.

Demonstrate stiffness of motion. Arthritis severely restricts the movement of both affected joints and there is a decrease in the overall mobility of the entire skeleton.

Disorder of the shape of the diseased joint. Both arthritis and osteoarthritis can deform a joint. But the deformation process itself occurs in different ways. With osteoarthritis, there is no redness or inflammation. The joint is not hot to the touch. Deformation is also called cold. Swelling can be expressed at the time of exacerbation of the disease, accompanied by aching 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 about. The blood count 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. The increase in leukocytosis indicates that the body is susceptible to infection and inflammation occurs inside.

In the biochemical blood test for arthritis, there are a greater number of markers of inflammation, while in osteoarthritis they do not change significantly.

Location of the pathology. Osteoarthritis affects the large joints of the body. These will be the knees, the hip joints and the spine. From this derive the names of the disease: gonarthrosis (damage to the knee joint), coxarthrosis (the hip joint is affected), spondyloarthrosis (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 hand area. The wrist joints are affected both one at a time and both simultaneously. With rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, there may be signs of inflammation in the joints of the fingers - swelling (swelling) and redness.

There are a number of other signs by which arthritis can be recognized.

If a finger on an upper or lower limb swells and turns red, arthritis may be suspected. Arthritis is manifested by severe pain in the knees and ankles. Pain can also occur in the big toes.

It accompanies swelling and redness of the joint. Pain symptoms occur regularly, suddenly increase and then disappear. Arthritis of infectious origin is accompanied by an increase in body temperature, general fatigue, a person emits sweat, chills, pain and pain in all bones.

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

Additional signs of osteoarthritis:

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

Influence of the patient's gender and age on the presence of joint disease

People with arthritis

The percentage of arthritis cases is low and amounts to 2% of the entire world population.

"35-50 years old" women are more susceptible to it.

Small joints are affected more often.

Who affects the disease

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

Different diseases - different methods

The specialists in charge of the treatment are called orthopedic trauma surgeons. Arthritis requires treatment from several specialists.

Arthrosis and how to deal with it

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

The main goal of the treatment is the regeneration of cartilage tissue. The main drugs that help to do this are condoprotectors.

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

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

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

The patient must follow the doctor's recommendations on proper nutrition and corrective gymnastics - this is an obligatory stage of treatment. Gymnastics courses, drug treatment, therapeutic measures - all this leads to a positive effect.

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

For simple conditions, the requirements will be as follows:

• Hormone therapy;
• Medicines to relieve inflammation;
• Painkillers;
• Manual therapy, massage sessions;
• Set of exercises;
• Physiotherapy: use of ultrasonic waves and use of thermal methods.

The complicated course of the disease will require additional medications. Sometimes doctors insist that the problem be surgically removed.

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

Treatment for Arthritis

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

Lifestyle advice:

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

Between drugs, antibiotics are prescribed, and anti-inflammatory drugs are injected into the joint.

Moderate gymnastics and physical therapy are helpful in treatment.

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

Arthritis is a direct contraindication to sun exposure. Wearing shoes with wide heels can aggravate the course of the disease, exclude it from your wardrobe.

Illness imposes its prohibitions: alcohol, hard physical work must become a thing of the past. Health is too expensive to ignore doctors' recommendations!

Expected disease outcomes

Diseases differ in their possible endings.

Arthritis is completely curable if its cause is eliminated.

Osteoarthritis is a slow chronic disease that does not give the possibility of a complete recovery.

Simple folk remedies

In addition to drug treatment, it is useful to use reliable recipes of traditional medicine. Doctors also often 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 essential lifestyle pillars, when properly organized, can significantly influence the healing process.

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

1. Observe the correct diet. Review 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 fruit and vegetables, and it is better to exclude salty foods altogether, or to use a little salt during cooking.
3. Avoid hot spices in ready-made products and home cooking.
4. Refuse to use foods from which in a particular case a certain person is rapidly gaining excess weight. These foods include meals that are high in carbohydrates.
5. It is important to regulate the weight. If there are extra pounds, it is useful to get rid of them as quickly as possible, because this has a negative effect on the lower limbs due to the heavy load.
6. Avoid alcohol consumption because it is bad for the body and helps the rapid development of drug rejection.

Among the 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 brought to a boil, wrapped in a warm cloth and left to infuse. Take half a glass three times a day before meals.
2. The burdock root is chopped, placed in a jar and poured with vodka. Insist in a dark place, regularly shaking the contents of the container. The resulting solution is smeared with the place where the pain is most intense.

Home remedies and eating habits

In case of arthrosis it is useful to saturate the menu of the day with blue fish. Omega 3 acids contained in it quickly eliminate the inflammatory process, relieve pain. Alternatively, we recommend using fish oil, which is no less effective than oily fish.

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

If you have 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 you absorb others faster. There are such complexes on sale where this moment is taken into account. This helps ensure that vitamins are absorbed quickly and that salt deposition does not occur in the joints.

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

Traditional medicine offers ways to fight the disease:

1. Exercise and exercise regularly. You don't have to try too hard, sports should be moderate and bring only pleasure from their performance.
2. It is useful to swim or simply do various exercises in the water.
3. The tablets are effective. With the development of the inflammatory process, warm options are useful, and cold, for example, ice, is suitable for pain relief.
4. Healing baths with an 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 insoles

Knee pads are used to combat these diseases. Patients who used them noted that they really helped cope with painful sensations, along with other methods of coping with the disease.

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

Each of the templates has its own specific purpose. If you make a mistake with the choice, the device will not bring results due to the fact that it will simply be impossible to wear 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 pain constantly occurs in different places. They are intended to anchor the knee part of the leg in the round. Provides significant relief when walking.

Open models have a cup cutout. They help with walking, relieve pain when bending the leg. They are useful for people who need to climb stairs. Models have a rigid structure, are made of elastic material. These devices help maintain the shape and position of the leg.

Disease prevention

As a preventive measure, it is useful to take care of a healthy lifestyle. Moderate exercise is helpful. Quitting smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages 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 kinds of infectious diseases in time, and the complete and untimely treatment of these diseases can in the near future provoke the development of serious problems in the lower extremities.

Make sure your body receives sufficient amounts of all varieties of vitamins. Avoid hypothermia, dress for the weather. Make sure that the joints are loaded to the extent permitted. It shouldn't be excessive. Overweight people. It is generally better to get rid of extra pounds as soon as possible, because they have a negative effect on the state of the whole body.

Diets should be planned in such a way as to provide the body with sufficient nutrients.