Fighting Arthritis
New Techniques Are Providing Relief For Women
If you’re a woman suffering from arthritis, you’re not alone. More than 70 million Americans, most of them women, suffer from one of the more than 100 forms of arthritis.
“The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis,” says Dr. (name, title). “Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. The cartilage that separates the bones in the joint deteriorates. The resulting movement of bone-on-bone causes pain, which can be excruciating, as well as loss of movement. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. It occurs when the lining surrounding a joint becomes inflamed. In addition to joint pain, its symptoms include loss of appetite, fever and loss of energy.”
Fortunately, there have been a number of new technologies developed to help relieve the pain of arthritis and improve the quality of life. In recent years, the use of a group of drugs called biologics for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has shown great promise. Biologics are genetically engineered proteins. They have been specifically designed to affect a specific part of the body’s immune system called cytokines, which play a major role in controlling inflammation.
When the pain is chronic and severe and loss of function is interfering with quality of life, then joint replacement is a common procedure performed by orthopedic surgeons. The hip and knee are the two most commonly replaced joints. More and more hospitals are offering this hi-tech procedure in which a surgeon removes the damaged joint and replaces it with an artificial joint called a prostheses or implant. For more information, talk to your personal physician.
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