What is the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis?

What is the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis?

Many people get names confused because they don't know the difference.

These diseases are characterized by joint damage, 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 inappropriate and untimely treatment of osteoarthritis.

For a more precise 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 injury affects the cartilage tissue.

The mechanism of the course of 2 diseases

Arthritis: variety classification

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 ultimately 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 get rid of this feeling, 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 in which the 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 cartilage, but to connective tissue. Inflammation occurs in the internal space of the joint capsule.

Divide it into the following types:

• Caused by an infection;
• rheumatic;
• Reactive plan;
• Drop.

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

Stages of progression of osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis, but more precisely and more correctly it will be called osteoarthritis, this is a chronic injury 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 cartilaginous tissues, followed by a violation of their integrity.

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

The disease is chronic and long-lasting.

There are 2 stages of its development:

• Primary, detected in 42% of patients. It does not occur due to a joint injury, but due to excessive physical exertion or hard work. Men who have been engaged in manual labor for a long period are sick.
• Secondary, 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 triggered.

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;
• Alterations in metabolism;
• Lack of vitamins;
• Immune system disorders;
• post-traumatic syndrome;
• hereditary predisposition.

Root causes and main signs of osteoarthritis

The history 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 her must be treated. If this does not happen, after a few years signs of osteoarthritis damage appear.

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 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, which allows the symptoms to increase and the disease to progress.The pain begins to appear even with slight exertion. It decreases if a person adopts a comfortable posture.

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

Pain is sometimes felt after a long period of rest of 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 sunrise. Severe pain occurs between 3 and 5 am.

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

Demonstrates motion stiffness. Arthritis strongly restricts the movement of the joint affected by it and there is a decrease in the general mobility of the entire skeleton.

Disorder in 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. The deformation is also called cold. Swelling can be expressed at the time of exacerbation of the disease, accompanied by pain. Arthritis changes the joint, it becomes warm, redness and swelling appear. The pain is acute, it occurs on palpation of the affected area, nodular formations can be palpated.

What the blood test will tell you. Blood counts for osteoarthritis do not change. An increase in the number of white blood cells and a strong increase in ESR are signs of inflammation seen in arthritis. Increased leukocytosis indicates that the body is susceptible to infection and inflammation occurs within.

In the biochemical blood test for arthritis, there are a higher number of inflammation markers, and 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 (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 area of ​​the hands. The wrist joints are affected one at a time and both at the same time. With rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis, there may be signs of inflammation in the finger joints: swelling (swelling) and redness.

There are other signs by which arthritis can be recognized.

If a finger on an upper or lower limb becomes swollen and red, arthritis may be suspected. Arthritis manifests as severe pain in the knees and ankles. Pain can also occur in the big toes.

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

Inflammatory processes that affect 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 reabsorption of cartilage tissue, bones and the friction between them;
• Inflammatory processes in the tissue areas surrounding the painful joint.

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

Who is affected by arthritis

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

Women "35 to 50 years old" are more susceptible.

Small joints are most often affected.

Whom the disease takes hold

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

Different diseases, different methods

The specialists in charge of your treatment are called orthopedic trauma surgeons. Arthritis requires treatment from different specialists.

Osteoarthritis and how to treat 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 the treatment is the regeneration of the cartilage tissue. The main drugs that help to do this are chondoprotectors.

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

If conservative treatment does not give a positive dynamic, 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 should follow the doctor's recommendations on proper nutrition and corrective gymnastics; this is a mandatory stage of treatment. Gymnastics classes, drug treatment, therapeutic measures - all this leads to a positive effect.

What medications and prescriptions does the doctor give the patient?

For simple conditions, the prescriptions will be as follows:

• Hormone therapy;
• Medications intended to relieve inflammation;
• Analgesics;
• 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 services 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, both total and partial replacements are used.

Treatment for arthritis

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

Lifestyle Recommendations:

1. Proper nutrition,
2. Avoid alcoholic beverages
3. Decrease in physical activity.

Of the 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 the treatment is to eliminate the inflammatory process and improve the body's resistance. They use vitamin preparations, diet foods. Includes seafood, dairy, and poultry.

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

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

Expected disease outcomes

Diseases differ in their possible endings.

Arthritis is completely curable if its cause is eliminated.

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

Simple Folk Remedies

In addition to medication, it is useful to use reliable recipes from traditional medicine. Often even doctors 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, if organized correctly, can significantly influence the healing process.

Here 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 vegetables and fruits, and it is better to completely exclude salty foods or use little salt during cooking.
3. Avoid hot spices in ready-to-eat foods and in home cooking.
4. Refuse the use of foods of which, in a particular case, a certain person is rapidly gaining weight. These foods include foods that are high in carbohydrates.
5. It is important to adjust 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 large load.
6. Avoid alcohol consumption because it is negative for the body and helps the rapid development of drug rejection.

Among the home remedies, recipes are especially effective:

1. The use of birch buds is helpful in treating arthritis. They are poured with boiling water and the resulting mixture is brought to a boil, wrapped in a warm cloth and allowed to stand. 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 nutritional habits

In case of osteoarthritis, it is advisable to saturate the daily menu with blue fish. Omega 3 acids contained in it quickly eliminate the inflammatory process and relieve pain. As an alternative, we recommend using fish oil, which is no less effective than oily fish.

Milk and dairy products are good for you, but low-fat foods are best. Cheese and cottage cheese must be sufficiently saturated with calcium. The daily diet should contain enough fresh fruits and vegetables.

In case of osteoarthritis, make sure the body receives enough vitamins. To do this, it is useful to drink a course of vitamins. Preference should be given to drugs whose action is complex. Some vitamins help in faster absorption of others. There are such complexes for sale in which this moment is taken into account. This helps ensure that vitamins are absorbed quickly and that no salt deposits form in the joints.

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

Traditional medicine offers ways to combat disease:

1. Exercise and exercise regularly. You do not need to try too hard, sports should be moderate and only bring pleasure to your performance.
2. It is useful for going swimming or just doing various exercises in the water.
3. Compresses 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. For them, medicinal plants such as eucalyptus, calendula, sandalwood oil, St. John's wort are suitable.

Recommended braces

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

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

Each of the models has its own specific purpose. If you make a mistake with the choice, then the device will not give results due to the fact that it will simply be impossible to use it.

A closed knee brace is a device that covers the lower limb around you. They are made of elastic material, in some models an additional layer of insulation is provided. The option is good when the pain occurs constantly in different places. They are intended for the integral anchorage of the knee part of the leg. Provides significant relief when walking.

Open models have a cup cut. They help to walk, relieve pain when bending the leg. They are useful for people who need to climb stairs. 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 maintain a healthy lifestyle. Regular moderate exercise is beneficial. Quitting smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages will significantly reduce your chance of developing these serious diseases.

It is much easier to prevent the development of any disease than to waste time, effort and money in its treatment. If we talk about arthritis and arthrosis, then for prevention it is useful to treat all kinds of infectious diseases in time and completely, premature treatment of these diseases can soon lead to the development of serious problems in the lower extremities.

Make sure the body receives sufficient amounts of the full range of vitamins. Avoid hypothermia, dress for the weather. Make sure gaskets are loaded to the allowable extent. It shouldn't be excessive. Overweight people. In general, it is better to get rid of extra pounds as soon as possible, as they have a negative effect on the state of the entire organism.

Diets should be planned so that enough nutrients are supplied to the body.