

Arthritis, simply put, is an inflammation of the joints. The two most commonly known forms of arthritis that you may be diagnosed with consist of a mechanical form and a systemic form. The mechanical type, Osteoarthritis, is known as normal wear and tear of the joints and affects everyone after a certain age.
One of the most commonly known forms of a systemic form of arthritis is Rheumatoid arthritis, or inflammatory arthritis, and is an autoimmune disorder.
There are over 100 specific kinds of arthritis that can affect your body. Some other forms of arthritis that may affect you are:
Signs of an arthritic condition in the body are:
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune condition. This means that your immune system does not function properly and mistakenly thinks there is an infection happening in your body when there is not. In the case of Rheumatoid Arthritis, the malfunctioning immune system most commonly attacks the joints but it can affect other parts of the body. This condition affects younger people as well as the older population. With this condition, smaller joints are generally affected first including the fingers and toes. But in more advanced cases, it can affect the shoulders, neck, back, ankles, hips, and knees.
Rheumatoid Arthritis will usually present bilaterally, meaning that it affects both sides of the body, as opposed to Osteoarthritis which generally only affects a joint or joints on one side of the body. Some signs and symptoms of RA may be:
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degeneration of the joints. If you are over the age of about 50 years-old, you most likely have some degree of osteoarthritis affecting one or multiple joints. The severity of this condition will be dependent on how you have lived your life, how much activity you engaged in causing a wearing down of the cushioning between bones of the joints. Most often, osteoarthritis will affect the knees, hips, spine, and hands. However, osteoarthritis may affect any joint in the body.
Some signs and symptoms of OA may involve any or all of the following:
The intervention methods depend on how much pain and dysfunction your condition is causing. They may range from no treatment at all to a total joint replacement in the most advanced cases. Treatment options include: