Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment And Symptoms

Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment And Symptoms

If you have arthritis, or know someone who does, you know how painful and debilitating the disease can be. The best way to deal with arthritis varies depending on how bad the disease is, where it hurts and how much of an impact it has on your daily life.

People generally try to ignore a problem in the hope that it will go away and sometimes it does. If you have been experiencing joint pain and stiffness for some time you should give some thought to how long it has been hurting and what you were doing when it happened. Your doctor will ask you how long you have been experiencing the problem and what may have initiated the symptoms. If you can't think of some event that started your pain and stiffness, arthritis has to be considered as a possibility.

Usually your family doctor will be able to diagnose arthritis so at that stage a specialist isn't required. How arthritis is treated often depends on what kind of arthritis you have and how severe it is. If you have any other medical issues is another key factor in treating arthritis. There are many different ways of dealing with arthritis. Often, for patients who are overweight, losing weight is the first recommendation. Excess weight causes much more stress on the entire body and especially the bones and joints.

Sometimes the application of cold followed by hot is used to treat damage to bones, tendons and joints. Usually a hot soak in a whirlpool is followed with immersion in cold water. These two treatments each are known to reduce inflammation and using them together seems to enhance their effectiveness. Medications such as Tylenol are usually used to treat mild symptoms of arthritis for their effectiveness in reducing inflammation.

Fish oil supplements have been gaining in popularity recently as both a treatment and a preventative measure for fighting arthritis. Studies have shown that the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil have powerful inflammation fighting properties. Cold water fish such as tuna, salmon and sardines have a high concentration of oils that are rich in the fatty acids EPA and DHA. Fish oil has been shown to be effective at reducing what's known as silent inflammation, or inflammation that exists at such a low level that it's not consciously noticeable. Over the years, this silent inflammation can do serious damage to the brain, lungs, heart and joints. Highly filtered, pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplements are considered to be preferable to eating large quantities of fish because of the PCBs, mercury and dioxins that have been filtered out.

Unfortunately, arthritis is a condition that is both chronic and progressive. That is, it stays with you for years and generally continues to get worse. Some patients never experience pain that becomes debilitating and sometimes the symptoms can go away for months or even years. Making sure that you keep your weight down, continue maintaining a diet of fruits and vegetables and engage in regular low-impact exercise such as swimming can be of great help in staving off the progression of the disease.

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