As promised: Notes on osteoarthritis - do you have it?

The Osteoarthritis checklist:

1. age > 40  ____

2. female     ____

3. overweight to obese ____

4. pain in knees on standing and prolonged walking ____

5. hand most peripheral joints painful and growing knobs ____

6. neck and lowback pain ____
7. experienced pain in the above joints for more than 3 months _____


Two sets of hands of 2 females
first degree cousins

8. a close relative positive for the checklist? _____

There it is. Check, check, check, check for 4 or 5 items?

Osteaorthritis is the most common joint disease that affects man (dinosaurs were shown to have this arthritis!). From the above check list, one sees that it is an arthritis of the middle aged to the elderly, mostly women (men, too), and causes pain during use, in specific sites. It can be inherited, and is shown to affect the hip joints less in Asians than in Caucasians.

Good news!

Come in for consult early. The rheumatologist and physiatrist can be the best starting points (surgery can be avoided, you know):

1. There are safe ways to control pain:

                physical therapy consisting of appropriate exercises and muscle strengthening
                occupational therapy with appropriate foot wear prescription
                weight loss
                low doses of paracetamol

    2.   There are ways to control deformities:
              
                occupational therapy consisting of
                     lifestype adaptation techniques, for example 
                        special ways to   open doors, carry objects etc
                splints if deformities have set in