Arthritis: The Different Types And Symptoms

The following information has been gathered and compiled over a period of years, through personal experience, while traveling, teaching classes that include T'ai Chi, Qi Gong, herbal information, martial arts and other health related subjects. The article also contains feedback from students and anecdotal information from readers of my columns. The following are my opinions and deductions from those sources.

Arthritis is an inflammation of one or more joints characterized by swelling heat, pain, discomfort and restriction of movement. There are over eighty diseases that can contribute to arthritis symptoms including a cluster of disorders involving similar and overlapping disease manifestations. Trauma, as in wrenching, twisting or a direct blow to a joint, can also trigger an arthritis type flare-up. When the immune system is compromised, any of the contributing factors can cause arthritis or arthritic type symptoms.

There are various types of arthritis with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and gout being the most common. Mono or oglio arthritis refers to the one joint being affected, pauciarthritis involves a few joints and polyarthritis is the involvement of many joints, either in sequence or simultaneously.

All forms of arthritis involve the synovial (moveable) joints and synovial fluids, which are secreted by thin membranes called the synovial membranes. The moving parts are covered with cartilage, a thin, smooth, rubbery, blue white substance. If the cartilage becomes worn, or the fluid is depleted, pain and/or other symptoms flare up.

On a personal note: I experienced a blow to the side of my knee from the end of a large pipe I was working with. Normally, there would have been some swelling and local discomfort but my immune system was low due to indiscretion on my part, where sugar and other pseudo-foods food were concerned, while visiting relatives. The swelling took on all the look and feel of an arthritic joint and lasted for over a week.

Osteoarthritis is generally a disease of people over forty usually comes on gradually over a period of years and doesn’t normally involve inflammation in the early stages. As the disease progresses, inflammation, enlargement of the joint, mobility of the joint and, sometimes, a grating of the joint upon movement, can occur. Lyme disease can cause arthritis, coronary problems and other diseases.

Gout , a form of arthritis, is generally caused, or triggered, by an excess of purines in the blood. The toes, big toe in particular, are the joints most often affected, although other joints may be involved.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms are most often apparent in the morning upon awakening and can last an hour or longer. RA is usually accompanied by swelling of a finger, the wrist or the soft tissue of the surrounding area of the affected joint. Pain may or may not accompany the swelling and the disease may take years to progress.

Other arthritis conditions include the following:

Spondyloarthritis is another form of arthritis that affects the spine and causes pain, inflammation, stiffness and can result in changes of posture.

Systemic lupus erythematosus causes upper body, facial and joint pain, weakness and fever.

Juvenile arthritis which affects those under eighteen and Kawasaki Syndrome which affects children from six months to eleven years.

There is also a form of infectious arthritis that involves body aches, fever, chills, confusion, low blood pressure, joint pain, swelling of the joint(s), dizziness and can cause systemic shock pneumonia.