Arthritis, commonly called “Gathiya” in India, is an inflammatory disorder that affects the joints. In older times, this problem was seen in aged people such as 60 or 70+ years of people. But these days, it has nothing to do with age. Apart from old people, youngsters and even kids are experiencing it and fighting a silent battle daily.
Understanding Mechanism
Both Ayurveda and medical science have their own perspectives regarding what is arthritis, and what causes it. Let’s understand it from the viewpoint of both:
Medical Science says → Arthritis is a joint disorder that usually arises due to poor joint health, reduced joint cartilage, old age, poor diet, alcohol intake, excessive smoking, stress, or injuries.
Whereas sometimes the presence of any viral, bacterial infection, or auto-immune condition can also adversely affect your joint health and mobility, and make them inflamed, sore, and painful- normally saying arthritis.
Ayurveda says → Doubtlessly, Arthritis damages your joint health, but the exact cause of such damage or disorder lies inside your system. When the “ama” harmful toxins inside your body do not get eliminated properly or timely, it starts to make your joints weak, brittle, inflamed, and painful.
Furthermore, the imbalance of Tridoshas, namely Vata Dosha, Pitta Dosha, and Kapha Dosha along with poor agni (weak digestive fire) is also believed a strong causative factor for arthritis.
Types of Arthritis
What if we say- “There are more than 100 types of arthritis?”
Seems quite shocking and unbelievable, right?
But it's a fact!
In today’s blog, we will discuss the most common types of arthritis seen among patients. Not confined to the meaning, you will also get to know what are arthritis symptoms, causes, risk factors, and Ayurvedic tips for pain management and relief.
1. Rheumatoid arthritis: It is a type of arthritis that mainly affects your small joints such as fingers, wrists, hands, feet, ankles, and toes. It is an auto-immune condition where out of malfunctioning your immune system starts to harm the healthy cells instead of harmful substances.
Types of Rheumatoid arthritis disease can be further classified into 2 sub-types, namely: Seropositive rheumatoid arthritis and Seronegative rheumatoid arthritis.
Read more about Types rheumatoid arthritis
Symptoms: Painful joints, swelling, redness, reduced mobility, nodules, fatigue, stiffness, red eye, and in severe cases even deformity.
Causes: Genetics, compromised immune system, smoking, poor diet, alcohol intake, smoking, stress, and sedentary lifestyle.
2. Osteoarthritis: This type of arthritis is mainly seen in aged and old people. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis does not affect the small joints. The major joints such as knees, hips, and spine.
It is not an auto-immune condition. It mainly arises when the articular cartilage which is necessary for the rubbing and easy movement of joints, is reduced. Although, we can not stop aging. But yes! We can take steps and prevent such cartilage loss and so thus the risk of OA.
Symptoms: Pain, stiffness, swelling, difficulty while walking or sitting, tenderness, bone spurs, grating sensation, and a cracking sound while using or bending joints such as bending knees while sitting or sleeping.
Causes: Aging, obesity, previous injury or trauma, overuse, or family history.
3. Psoriatic Arthritis: Well, this type of arthritis is linked to a skin disorder called psoriasis. Psoriasis is an auto-immune condition, which is why psoriatic arthritis, which is an extended version of psoriasis is also an auto-immune disorder.
Instead of being confined to joint health, it also affects the skin and makes it red, inflamed, itchy, and painful. Those who have encountered psoriasis likely experience psoriatic arthritis later in his/her life, mainly after 7-10 years after psoriasis.
Symptoms: Joint swelling, stiffness, and pain, the skin may become red, scaly, and dry, nail discoloration and pitting, eye inflammation, tenderness, and fatigue.
Causes: Skin disease known as Psoriasis, genetics, overactive immune system, or presence of any auto-immune disorder.
4. Reactive Arthritis: What makes reactive arthritis different from other types of arthritis is that it is mainly caused by an infection in any part of the body, mainly the genitals, intestines, bowel, or urinary tract.
It is profound in young males or those individuals who are more sexually active. The studies have also found that people who have HLA-B27 are prone to such infections and eventually reactive arthritis.
Symptoms: Joint pain, swelling, redness, conjunctivitis, painful urination, mouth ulcers, sausage-like fingers, and sometimes even diarrhea.
Causes: Sexually transmitted or food-borne infections including Chlamydia, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Clostridioides difficile, Shigella, etc.
5. Gout: Gout is often mistaken as RA because these 2 types of arthritis often exhibit identical symptoms. It mainly arises when the uric acid levels in the blood are increased beyond a satisfactory level.
The major complication involved in gout is a big sore toe. It is more found in men as compared to women. For patients with gout, it is specifically advised to avoid purine-rich food and alcohol intake.
Symptoms: Big toe, pain in feet, ankles, wrists, and knees, restricted body movement, redness, tenderness, fever, kidney stones, and nodules.
Causes: Purine-rich diet intake, excessive smoking, alcohol, existing kidney conditions, or medication adverse effects.
6. Ankylosing spondylitis: This is also called the “arthritis of the spine” as it mainly affects your back. During this condition, the vertebrae, and the bones in your spine, start to fuse and eventually cause inflammation, pain, and deformity.
If not treated timely, it is also possible that patients with this type of arthritis may experience a hunched back or permanent joint deformity. In medical terminologies, it is also known as “Axial spondylarthritis”.
Symptoms: Lower back pain, stiffness, redness, stiffness, difficulty bending, trouble breathing, chest pain, or buttocks numbness.
Causes: Presence of HLA-B27, old age, incorrect posture, excessive work or overuse of the spine, and calcium or other necessary nutrient deficiency.
7. Juvenile arthritis: JIA (Juvenile idiopathic arthritis) is one of the common kinds of arthritis. What makes it different from others is that it mainly affects children up to the age of 16.
Sometimes the symptoms of juvenile arthritis are quite visible. But it is possible that your kid may have it but show no significant signs of it. Starting in early childhood the complications of JIA may persist lifelong or may come back again in adulthood.
Symptoms: Painful, red, and inflamed joints, stiffness after waking up in the morning, limping, eye inflammation, rashes, and fever.
Causes: Genetics, infections, and other environmental factors that trigger an auto-immune response in the body.
Well, these types are the simple answer to the question “What are the 7 types of arthritis that are most common”. There are still multiple kinds of arthritis that are seen among patients worldwide but comparatively uncommon.
Risk Factors for Arthritis
Besides the exact causes, there is a long list of factors that make a person more prone to different kinds of arthritis. Let’s have a quick view about them:
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Non-nutritious diet: If the food you consume lacks the necessary nutrients such as calcium, iron, Vitamin- D, etc, then your joints may become weak.
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Sedentary lifestyle: Joints require frequent movement to stay flexible and mobile. But if you often stay inactive, then you may experience joint inflexibility or restricted movement.
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Alcohol intake: The intake of alcohol directly affects the health of your bones and makes them brittle. Such joints easily break down during a sudden fall or accident.
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Smoking: Studies found a positive relationship between smoking and arthritis development. Smoking first causes irritation and inflammation inside the body, and also it adversely affects your immune system.
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Other health conditions: The presence of existing disorders such as psoriasis, diabetes, sciatica, viral infections, etc makes your body weak from the inside and the risk of arthritis eventually increases.
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Stress: Your mental and physical health share a common knot. However, stress does not cause arthritis directly. But yes, it can make the symptoms of several kinds of arthritis much worse.
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Medications: Very commonly certain Western medications show adverse effects when consumed for prolonged periods. The steroids contained in them weaken your immune system and arthritis can arise with ease.
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Family History: Sometimes, the condition of arthritis may run in families and the individual whose parents had experienced any type of arthritis, may experience the same problem.
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Age: As you get older, your body starts to become weak, and joint cartilage starts to reduce. The absence of such joint cartilage results in painful movement of the joints. Osteoarthritis is a great example of it.
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Accident, trauma, or injury: There could be a possible cartilage damage or permanent joint damage which may contribute to arthritis complications in the long run.
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Obesity: If you are obese or overweight, then eventually your joints, especially your knees, have to bear extra pressure. Due to such excessive burden, the joint cartilage may decrease way quickly and joint problems may take birth.
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Occupation: If your work type involves strenuous activities or excessive movement of the joints, then there are high chance of you having arthritis. Example: worker working in a mine.
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HLA-B27: This is a specific type of gene that is linked with the development of auto-immune conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, and so on.
Ayurvedic tips for managing Arthritis
The vaidya’s of Dr. Sharda Ayurveda through integrating their years of experience and knowledge with ancient healing practices, have provided the below-mentioned easy and effective tips for the management of arthritis of various kinds:
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Use Herbs: Several herbs have been suggested by experts that can help patients with arthritis. The best part about this measure is that it is one side easy, and second, it always works marvellously.
For arthritis management, haldi, neem, gudduchi, ginger, garlic, tulsi, ajwain, ashwagandha, dashamoola, cinnamon, and aloe-vera are considered the best. You can simply add them to your meals, make their herbal teas, or take them in extract form with some lukewarm water. -
Watch your diet: The food you consume can also impact your joint health. Try eating healthy and avoiding all the junk, fried, processed, oily, and stale food.
Eat: Fresh Fruits, juicy vegetables, herbal teas, warm soups, vegetable juices, and soaked dry fruits.
Avoid: Excessive dairy products, non-vegetarian food, wheat, packed, frozen, or market-based products such as pizza, burgers, noodles, momos, etc. -
Stay Active: Try to keep your body active in any way possible. For this purpose, you can either opt for routine walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, or mild exercises.
Remember, your aim is to keep your joints flexible, and in motion and not to harm them in any way through excessive burden. Perform all these activities as per your comfort level only and if you experience any pain while doing it, just stop immediately. -
Work on weight management: Also, keep an eye on the extra kilos you are putting on. Almost all kinds of arthritis are highly influenced by weight.
If your weight is under control, then your joints will not have to bear any kind of extra pressure and eventually, your joint cartilage will also be prevented. -
Quit alcohol & smoking: The patients are also highly advised to say a big no to smoking and alcohol. Not just these, but all types of soda-based drinks, cold drinks, beer, wine, carbonated beverages, tea, and coffee should also be avoided.
Once get inside your system, these start to generate an inflammatory response and worsen the existing condition of arthritis. To satisfy your cravings, you may drink herbal teas, vegetable soups, or juices. -
Practice yoga and meditation: For the management of arthritis, the adoption of yoga and meditation is complementary. The experts have suggested several yoga poses that are best for arthritis and similar joint problems.
Meditation, on the other hand, will provide you with mental clarity and inner peace, a crucial component for asthma relief. Besides just helping you with joint health, it will also make your skin glowing, digestion strong, and cardiovascular health better. -
Avoid steroids: Last | Not Least | highly significant- Avoid steroids and chemicals in all forms whether it is your current medications, any ointment, or product.
You have to understand that this problem lies inside your body and these steroids are only capable of suppressing symptoms externally for a confined period. In fact, when such steroids are used for extended periods, they can deliver adverse effects on your immune system.
During such conditions, not just arthritis but similar serious diseases may arise quite easily.
Takeaway
Now you know what are the types of arthritis that can affect you or your loved ones. Take care of the possible causes, risk factors, and symptoms so that you can take early prevention.
Ayurveda, the ancient Indian healing approach holds huge potential through which one can get relief from all these kinds of arthritis in a natural way. All that it demands is the consumption of Ayurvedic medicines on time and commitment to the doctor’s prescribed lifestyle and dietary precautions.
Choose Ayurveda and start your journey towards a healthy future today!
