What is Arthritis ?

The term 'Arthritis' stands for 'inflammation of the joint'; which means that this is a disorder of the joint wherein the tissues that form the joints get inflamed. The ways in which this gets manifested are -

• Pain in the joints
• The joints become tender to touch
• The joint may become swollen (enlarged)
• 'Stiffness' in the joints – when you try to move the affected joint, you will feel resistance from within the joint. The joint would not move freely. This is especially so following periods of rest such as when you get up in the morning
• The affected joint may become 'Red'

All of the above may not necessarily be there in an individual and only one or few of these may be present. Apart from this, the patient may suffer from more generalized problems resulting from the affect of joint inflammation on the whole body system. These include fever, malaise (feeling unwell), fatigue (easy tiredness and loss of energy), loss of appetite, muscle pains etc.

Contrary to what is popularly felt, arthritis is not a disease entity in itself. It is a manifestation of several diseases. To understand this it would be apt to compare it to 'Fever'. Fever is not a disease in itself – it maybe due to malaria, typhoid, pneumonia, urine infection etc; And therefore to appropriately treat fever, one has to know and understand what causes fever rather than just trying to treat fever with medicines like paracetamol.

The causes of arthritis are many – one of the most common (apart form degenerative conditions) are the 'autoimmune diseases' that an individual may be suffering with and arthritis may be one of the overt manifestation. Several others may be so subtle that the patient may not think it might be of relevance. Apart form that, conditions such as gout, infections, trauma, internal derangements, blood in the joint etc may also cause and present as arthritis.

Arthritis may affect one joint, few joints or many joint. This involvement may happen all together or gradually over a period of time. Also, apart from the commonly noticeable joints such as the wrists, knees, ankles and finger joints (called as the peripheral joints), it may also affect joint that involve the spine (called as the axial joints). Arthritis of the axial joints do not manifest with swelling. Just pain and stiffness may be present which an individual may attribute to mechanical factors related to lifestyle.Why is it important to treat arthritis?

Inflammation within the joint (arthritis) means that the joint is constantly exposed to certain 'chemicals' or 'substances' releases by the cells which damage the joints irreversibly. And if this is not controlled early and appropriately, patients tend to develop deformities and disability that become permanent. Moreover, this constant inflammation also puts the entire body under stress resulting in unwell feeling, depresion, inability to work, loss of appetite, increased breakdown of body proteins and has also increases the risks to several other diseases such as those affecting heart, kidney, brain, bones and infections

In summary, the entire body works as an integrated system. If one system is affected, eventually the others get affected too