What is the Difference Between Arthritis and Osteoarthritis

What is the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis?

A lot of people confuse the 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 incorrect and untimely treatment of osteoarthritis.

For a more precise understanding of the two 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 evolution of 2 diseases

Arthritis - classification of varieties

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

It is characterized by the manifestation of swelling, inflammation. The inflammatory process leads to the production of enzymes which 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 that can be relieved with exercise. Getting out of bed in the morning, a person feels inflexible, in order to eliminate this feeling which he needs to disperse. Most often the disease affects the upper and lower extremities.

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

A disease affecting the cartilage of the joints 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 cartilage, but to connective tissue. Inflammation occurs in the internal space of the joint capsule.

Divide it into the following types:

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

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

Stages of osteoarthritis progression

Osteoarthritis, but more precisely and correctly, it will be called arthritis, 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 a violation of their integrity.

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

The disease is chronic in the long term.

There are 2 stages of its development:

• Primary, detected in 42% of patients. This is not due to a joint injury, but to excessive physical exertion or hard work. Men who have been engaged in manual labor for a long time are sick of it.
• Secondary, develops in more patients than the primary stage and is associated with the consequences of trauma, on the basis of which the mechanism of destructive processes is triggered.

Causes and differences

Causes of arthritis

The main prerequisites of the disease can be classified:

• Exercise or excessive work;
• Various infectious processes, including hidden ones;
• Any type of allergic reaction;
• Permanent damage to the same joint;
• Disturbances in metabolism;
• Lack of vitamins;
• Immune system disorders;
• post-traumatic syndrome;
• Hereditary predisposition.

Root causes and main signs of osteoarthritis

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

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

Clinical presentation and differences in symptoms

Let's move on to a more detailed look at the symptoms that accompany joint disease.

Pain symptom. Osteoarthritis in the initial stage is not characterized by a constant strong manifestation of pain. It only appears with intense effort or joint movement. When the load decreases or movement stops, the pain goes away.

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 slight exertion. Decreases if a person adopts a comfortable posture.

Painful systemic pain occurs in the area of ​​the affected joints. It can be associated with a long walk, exercise, or physical activity.

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

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

Crispy sound. The dry crackle is associated with osteoarthritis. When the cartilage tissue breaks down, bone friction begins. The sound grows and intensifies, manifesting itself at the slightest movement of the diseased joint.

Demonstrate stiffness of movement. 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. Arthritis and osteoarthritis can deform a joint. But the deformation process itself occurs in different ways. With osteoarthritis, there is neither redness nor inflammation. The seal 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 sharp, occurs on palpation of the affected area, nodular formations can be felt.

What the blood test will tell you. The blood count for osteoarthritis does not change. An increase in the number of white blood cells and a sharp increase in ESR are signs of inflammation seen in arthritis. Increased leukocytosis indicates that the body is susceptible to infections and inflammation is occurring inside.

In the biochemical blood test for arthritis, the number of markers of inflammation increases, 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, hip joints, and spine. The names of the disease come from this: gonarthrosis (injury to the knee joint), coxarthrosis (the hip joint is affected), spondylarthrosis (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 area of ​​the hands. The wrist joints are affected both one at a time and both at the same time. 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 manifests as severe pain in the knees and ankles. Pain can also occur in the big toes.

This goes hand in hand with swelling and redness of the joint. Symptoms of pain occur regularly, increasing suddenly and then subsiding. Arthritis of infectious origin is accompanied by an increase in body temperature, general fatigue, a person sweats, chills, bone pain.

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 affected joints;
• Slow resorption of cartilage tissue, bones and friction between them;
• Inflammatory processes in the areas of tissue surrounding the painful joint.

Influence of patient sex and age on the presence of joint disease

Who has arthritis

The percentage of arthritis cases is low and represents 2% of the total world population.

Women “35-50 years old” are more sensitive to it.

Small joints are more often affected.

To whom the disease exceeds

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

Different diseases - different methods

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

Osteoarthritis 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 objective of treatment is the regeneration of cartilage tissue. The main drugs that help with this are chondoprotectors.

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

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

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

The patient should follow the doctor's recommendations on good nutrition and restorative gymnastics - this is a mandatory step in treatment. Gymnastics classes, drug treatment, therapeutic measures - all this leads to a positive effect.

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

For simple conditions, the requirements will be as follows:

• Hormone therapy;
• Medicines to relieve inflammation;
• pain relievers;
• Manual therapy, massage sessions;
• Set of exercises;
• Physiotherapy - with the help of ultrasonic waves and the use of thermal methods.

The complicated course of the disease will require additional medication. Sometimes doctors insist on removing the problem surgically.

Who needs the service 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 joint, a full and partial replacement is used.

Arthritis treatment

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

Lifestyle recommendations:

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

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

Moderate gymnastics and physiotherapy are helpful in the treatment.

The main thing in the treatment is to eliminate the inflammatory process and improve the resistance of the body. They use vitamin preparations, diet foods. It includes seafood, dairy products and poultry.

Arthritis is a direct contraindication to sunbathing. Wearing shoes with large heels can aggravate the course of the disease, exclude them from the wardrobe.

Illness imposes its own prohibitions: alcohol, hard physical labor must be a thing of the past. Health costs too much not to take into account the recommendations of doctors!

Expected course of the disease

Diseases differ in their possible endings.

Arthritis is completely curable if its cause is eliminated.

Osteoarthritis is a slow, chronic disease that gives no chance of complete recovery.

Simple folk remedies

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

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

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

1. Stick to the correct diet. Revise the menu so that it is possible to normalize the amount of nutrients, vitamins and microorganisms consumed per day.
2. In order to normalize the diet, it is useful to saturate the daily menu with fresh vegetables and fruits, and it is better to completely exclude salty foods or use little salt during cooking.
3. Avoid hot spices in prepared products and in home cooking.
4. Refuse to use foods from which, in a particular case, a certain person gains weight rapidly. These foods include meals that are high in carbohydrates.
5. It is important to adjust the weight. If there are extra pounds, then it is useful to get rid of them as soon as possible, as this 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 contributes to 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 brought to a boil, wrapped in a warm cloth and left to brew. Take half a glass three times a day before meals.
2. The burdock root is crushed, put in a jar and poured with vodka. Insist in a dark place, regularly shaking the contents of the container. The resulting solution is smeared from where the pain is most intense.

Home remedies and nutritional habits

In case of osteoarthritis, it is useful to saturate the daily menu with fatty fish. Omega 3 acids in it quickly eliminate the inflammatory process, relieve pain. As an alternative, we recommend that you use fish oil, which is no less effective than oily fish.

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

With osteoarthritis, make sure the body is getting enough vitamins. For this it is useful to drink a course of vitamins. Preference should be given to drugs with complex action. Some vitamins help in faster absorption than others. There are such complexes on sale in which this moment is taken into account. This ensures that the vitamins are absorbed quickly and that salt deposition does not occur in the joints.

Proper nutrition, weight regulation and constant monitoring of the condition 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 need to tire yourself too much, sports should be moderate and only bring pleasure to their performance.
2. It is useful to go for a swim or just do various exercises in the water.
3. compresses are effective. With the development of the inflammatory process, hot 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. For them, such medicinal plants as eucalyptus, calendula, sandalwood oil, St. John's wort are suitable.

Recommended orthopedic appliances

Knee pads are used to combat these diseases. Patients who used them noted that they really help cope with painful sensations, as well as other methods of treating the disease.

The choice of devices is varied, therefore a model is chosen that suits a particular patient, taking into account the course of his disease.

Each of the models has its own purpose. If you make a mistake in the choice, the device will not bring any results, because it will simply be impossible to wear.

A closed knee brace is a device that covers the lower limb that surrounds it. They are made of elastic material, in some models an additional layer of insulation is provided. The option is good when the pain constantly occurs in different places. They aim to anchor all around the knee part of the leg. Provides significant relief while walking.

Open models have a cup cutout. They help to walk, relieve pain when bending the leg. They are useful for people who have to climb stairs. The models have a rigid frame, they 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 ensure a healthy lifestyle. Moderate exercise is helpful. Quitting smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages will greatly reduce the likelihood of developing these serious diseases.

It is much easier to prevent the development of a disease than to waste time, effort and money on its treatment. If we are talking about arthritis and osteoarthritis, it is useful, as a preventive measure, to treat all types of infectious diseases on time and completely, untimely treatment of these diseases can soon provoke the development of serious problems with the lower extremities.

Make sure the body is supplied with sufficient amounts of all variety of vitamins. Avoid hypothermia, dress for the weather. Make sure the gaskets are loaded to the extent permitted. It shouldn't be too much. Overweight people. It is usually better to get rid of extra pounds as soon as possible, as they have a negative effect on the condition of the whole organism.

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