Arthritis

What is it?

Arthritis is a latin words formed from two words: Arthros (of joint) and itis (inflammation). It simply means inflammation of the joint.

Unfortunately when this word was coined, there was a limited understanding of what the disease was. Arthritis was believed and defined as inflammatory disease of the joints. This limited knowledge seems to have persisted till date as most doctors and patients use drugs and treatments that are anti-inflammatory without a lasting positive result. Therefore, the long held believe that arthritis has no cure.

Arthritis is not just the inflammation of the joint. It is actually a degenerative disease of the joint. A disease is a disorder of structure or function in a human producing specific symptom or that affects a specific location and is not a direct result of physical injury. In this case, there is degeneration (destruction) of the joint and its structures. Therefore, the major component of arthritis pathologically is degeneration. It has been postulated that degeneration makes up over 80% of the disease, while inflammation contributes less than 20%.

Going by the erroneous believe, that arthritis is majorly inflammatory disease of the joint, one would suppose that the treatment is the use of anti-inflammatory agents. But nothing could be farther from the truth. This is very evident in people who have used painkillers for years but instead of getting better, the keep getting worse.

Inflammation is the means through which the body heals itself.

The more the degeneration (damage), the more the inflammation in an attempt to heal the damage.

Unfortunately, the inflammatory reaction also produces cytokines which cause more destruction of the joint structures. This is the vicious cycle that goes on in arthritis aiming at the total destruction of the joint.

Arthritis occurs in all the mobile joints in our body including the spine (from neck to low back)

Arthritis is an umbrella name for over 120 diseases that affect the joint with the common symptoms of pain, swelling, loss of function and deformity. These diseases include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (rheumatism), fibromyalgia, gouty arthritis, enthesopathy, tendinosis, psoriatic arthritis, etc.t

What is the treatment for arthritis?

The ideal treatment for arthritis is therefore that which to a great extent should be able to stop and even reverse the degeneration in the joints. Since degeneration is the common pathology in all forms of arthritis, this treatment should be used in all forms of arthritis. This ideal treatment is known as Regenerative Injection Therapy (RIT) and other forms of therapies that regenerate the ligaments, tendons and cartilages. Notably are the Prolotherapy, Prolozone therapy, Platelet Rich Plasma therapy, stem cell injection therapy, cold laser therapy etc.

Advice

If you are therefore looking to have a lasting solution to your chronic joint pains or arthritis, request for RIT or cold laser therapy