All Arthritis Articles

GolfersMD.com is releasing a new series of premium quality videos featuring the top doctors, trainers and physical therapists in the country to help the millions of golfers suffering from pain and injuries. The new videos focus on the 50 most common golf-related injuries. With the start of the golf off season for much of the U.S. coming up, now is an ideal time for golfers to address nagging Read more...

QUESTION: I'm a 65-year-old woman. Last August, my right knee began hurting, and I could not bend it. I don't remember injuring it. After an X-ray that was negative, my doctor gave my knee a cortisone shot, and I followed up with physical therapy for eight sessions. That helped until I wrenched my right foot while going down a step. After nine visits to the physical therapist for my foot, I was Read more...

People who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis may see an improvement in their condition if they quit smoking, a new study has found. The study, described as preliminary, appears to offer the first evidence that giving up cigarettes may help arthritis patients, the researchers say. The study was presented at a recent conference of the American College of Rheumatology. "That's just one Read more...

Oct. 29 -- WASHINGTON -- Medical science has learned a great deal about the causes of pain and ways to relieve it, pain experts say, but for a host of reasons, the treatment of pain and suffering has improved hardly at all in recent years. John Seffrin, the president of the American Cancer Society, calls this "a national health-care crisis of under-treated pain." "Nearly Read more...

Are you taking your back for granted? As sufferers will tell you, back pain can be excruciating -- but at worst it can also be debilitating. Last week was Back Care Awareness Week, when people were asked to think about how to keep their backs in tip-top shape. Here is our guide to keeping your spine healthy. As a chartered physiotherapist, more than half of Paul Nicholls's workload Read more...

More than 40 percent of those afflicted with arthritis in the United States now use complementary and alternative medicine to ease pain and swelling. These include dietary supplements. The use of alternative remedies has increased since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued health warnings about anti-inflammatory drugs. These drugs were linked to cardiovascular events that even Read more...

Oct. 13 -- During the course of a life, knees take a lot of punishment. Besides the strain placed on the cartilage pads while walking, athletes can accelerate damage by overusing the joints that carry tremendous stress. This wear and tear damage is called osteoarthritis, as opposed to rheumatoid arthritis, a joint-destroying auto-immune disorder. Whether young or old, Read more...

Gout is a painful form of arthritis that has long been associated with a rich diet, and a change in that department is just one thing that can make a difference. Gout afflicts as many as 3 million Americans, mostly men, postmenopausal women and people with kidney disease, according to the American College of Rheumatology. Gout attacks are caused by a buildup of a waste product called uric Read more...

Dear Dr. Gott: Please discuss the difference between bursitis and arthritis. Dear Reader: Arthritis and bursitis can be difficult to differentiate. Arthritis is joint inflammation with associated degeneration of connective tissue and bone. Bursitis is inflammation of the bursa, a sac-like cavity surrounding joints that is filled with fluid that reduces friction caused by movement. Read more...

Sep. 7, 2008 -- In November, Ken Cohen was invited to give two lectures on qigong, the ancient Chinese therapeutic movement discipline, at that hallowed hall of Western medicine -- the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Sensing he might face a crowd of skeptics, the qigong master from Colorado surveyed the room and immediately knew what to say and what to leave out. "If you go in Read more...

Rheumatoid arthritis is often more painful for women than it is for men, even though the visible symptoms are the same, Swedish researchers said. For reasons unknown, rheumatoid arthritis is roughly three times more common amongst women than men. Moreover, several studies also suggest that rheumatoid arthritis eventually impairs the life quality of female suffers more than it does that of Read more...

Here are ways to protect your joints from osteoarthritis or slow its progression: Lose weight. Excess weight stresses hips, knees and other joints; every pound lost reduces the load exerted on the knee for each step by 4 pounds. Get active. Exercise strengthens the muscles around joints, which can prevent cartilage from wearing down. Stay straight. Good posture protects the neck, Read more...

A study has found that surgery is no better than more conservative treatment to relieve knee pain caused by arthritis. In the study, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, 86 patients who had the operation fared no better over two years than 86 who had physical therapy and took medications to dampen inflammation. The results of the study are in line with Read more...

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration ordered stronger warnings Thursday on four medications widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other serious illnesses, saying they can raise the risk of possibly fatal fungal infections. The drugs - Enbrel, Remicade, Humira and Cimzia - work by suppressing the immune system to keep it from attacking the body. For patients with rheumatoid Read more...

Sep. 8, 2008 - CHAPEL HILL- Almost half of all U.S. adults and nearly two-thirds of obese adults will develop painful osteoarthritis of the knee by age 85, a study based at UNC suggests. The study also found that a person's lifetime risk rose as body mass index or BMI increased, with the greatest risk found in those whose weight was normal at age 18 but were overweight or obese at 45 or Read more...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2008 (Xinhua) -- Loss of sleep, even for a few short hours during the night, can prompt one's immune system to turn against healthy tissue and organs, according to a recent study. Researchers from the University of California reported on the Sept. 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry that losing sleep for even part of one night can trigger the key cellular pathway that Read more...

Artificial joints have changed incrementally in recent years. But techniques have changed drastically, and people who receive knee or hip replacements are healing faster than ever. Those changes include use of regional rather than general anesthesia, along with nerve blocks, rehab efforts that begin within hours of surgery, and less-invasive surgical techniques, according to Dr. Josh Hickman Read more...

(Bacterial Arthritis, Infectious Arthritis, Pyogenic Arthritis) by Sid KirchheimerDefinitionSeptic arthritis is a serious infection of the joints caused by bacteria. This infection causes the joint to be filled with pus cells, which in turn release substances directed against the bacteria. However, this action can damage the bone and surrounding cartilage. This condition is considered a medical Read more...

As told to Jennifer Hellwig, MS, RD Lisa, a 35-year-old dietitian from Ohio, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) eight years ago. She has found support and information through the Arthritis Foundation and is now teaching a self-help class for the foundation. What was your first sign that something was wrong? What symptoms did you experience? I would wake up in the morning and my Read more...

As told to Debra Wood, RN Anne, 73, is a registered nurse with her own home-care services business in Georgia. She was diagnosed with osteoarthritis 42 years ago. She maintains a healthy, active lifestyle, competing in equestrian events, horseback riding in foreign lands, walking, and doing aerobics. This year, she walked more than 26 miles, in 7 hours, 17 minutes, during the Arthritis Read more...