World Arthritis Day - Protect joint health and cherish your knees

October 12, 2024 is the 28th World Arthritis Day. Currently, there are 355 million arthritis patients in the world. In Asia, one in six people suffer from arthritis at some stage in their lives. The purpose of "World Arthritis Day" is to remind people to prevent, diagnose and treat arthritis early to prevent disability. It is also to remind people to pay attention to the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis. Therefore, the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis is a task that the whole society needs to pay attention to.

What is arthritis?

Arthritis, one of the most common chronic diseases, is defined as the number one disabling disease. As the average life expectancy of humans increases, the incidence of arthritis is getting higher and higher. It seriously hinders work and becomes the second most common cause of loss of labor after the age of 50, second only to heart disease. There are currently 355 million arthritis patients in the world. In Asia, one in six people suffers from arthritis at some stage in their lives. It is estimated that there are more than 100 million arthritis patients in my country, and the number is still increasing. There are more than 100 types of arthritis, among which osteoarthritis is the most common. It is reported that the total incidence of osteoarthritis in the Chinese population is about 3%, and the incidence increases with age. According to statistics, 50% to 60% of people over 50 years old in my country suffer from osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis can affect all tissues of a joint, causing muscle pain, inflammation or inconvenience in movement.
Five major dangers of arthritis

1. It causes obvious pain. 2. Most cases are disabling. 3. Rheumatoid arthritis may lead to death. 4. It causes obvious financial pressure during treatment. 5. Arthritis drugs have side effects. There are three main types of common arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatism.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a joint degenerative disease that mostly occurs in people over 50 years old, more often in women than in men. The older you are, the more likely you are to get sick, often accompanied by bone hyperplasia. All joints in the body may be affected, but the knees and finger joints are more common. Symptoms: In the early stages, patients often feel knee pain and discomfort when going up and down stairs or squatting, and their knees feel stiff after getting up early or sitting for a long time. As the disease worsens, patients may experience pain when walking on flat ground, or even joint deformities (mostly "bow legs" deformities).

Rheumatoid arthritis

This is an autoimmune disease, more common in middle-aged women. Symptoms: It generally manifests as multiple, symmetrical joint inflammation in the small joints of the hands and feet. Long-term synovial inflammation and swelling can lead to joint deformity and loss of function. Blood tests are mostly accompanied by positive rheumatoid factor, anti-cyclic citrullinated factor, etc.

Rheumatism

"Rheumatism" is a disease that is often mentioned in life. In fact, "rheumatism" and rheumatoid arthritis are not the same thing, but a name for joint diseases in traditional Chinese medicine. Rheumatism is also called "bi" in traditional Chinese medicine, and its causes include wind, cold, dampness, heat, dryness, etc. Although there is also "rheumatoid arthritis" in Western medicine, it is completely different from rheumatoid arthritis. Symptoms: Rheumatoid arthritis generally occurs in adolescents, mostly due to streptococcal infection, often involving large joints (such as knee joints, elbow joints, etc.), but generally does not cause joint deformities. Some patients may also be accompanied by annular erythema, chorea, carditis, etc.

How to determine if you have arthritis?

You can identify it by five criteria, namely redness, swelling, heat, pain, and functional impairment.

Red: Acute infectious arthritis will cause redness and swelling of the joints.

Swelling: A common symptom of arthritis, which is not necessarily related to the degree of joint pain.

Heat: Since joints have very little blood supply, they should normally feel cool to the touch, lower than other parts of the body temperature. This is normal. If the joints are hot or even blazing, it means that the joints are inflamed and need treatment.

Pain: The most important symptom of arthritis. The pain site of arthritis should be very clear, with pain in one joint but not in other parts.

Dysfunction: Arthritis attacks cause pain and inflammation, causing edema of the tissues around the joints and limiting joint movement. Chronic arthritis patients may suffer from permanent loss of joint function due to long-term limited joint movement.

Three common misconceptions about arthritis

Myth 1: "Use it or lose it" The more you use your joints, the more active they become.

Exercise is good for health, but for people with arthritis, osteoarthritis is characterized by the wear and degeneration of joint cartilage. Exercise should be moderate and avoid weight bearing on joints to avoid accelerating joint wear. Once the joint cartilage is damaged, it is difficult to restore, so early prevention is important.

Myth 2: Arthritis requires a lot of calcium supplementation

The essence of osteoarthritis is joint degeneration and excessive wear of articular cartilage. The long-term loss of calcium and collagen can easily lead to increased bone brittleness, easy fractures and difficulty in healing. Osteoarthritis is caused by the degeneration, wear and peeling of cartilage on the surface of the joint, which causes hyperplasia, sclerosis, osteophyte formation and cystic changes in the bones around the joint and under the cartilage. To keep bones healthy, comprehensive nutrition is required. Simply supplementing calcium is not enough. If there are problems with the joints, cartilage nutrients need to be supplemented.

Myth 3: Drugs can quickly cure arthritis

Arthritis is a serious chronic disease with a slow onset and its treatment process is not achieved overnight. Anti-inflammatory drugs designed to treat pain can only treat pain symptomatically, but cannot delay the progression of arthritis and are also prone to complications. To prevent and treat arthritis, it is necessary to develop good living habits, repair joint cartilage, and reduce wear. Glucosamine is a basic component of cartilage matrix. After the age of 30, glucosamine is continuously lost in the human body and needs to be supplemented exogenously.

Three groups of people should be alert to arthritis

Sedentary people: Due to long-term sitting at desks, using computers, and driving, some "sedentary people" are gradually becoming susceptible to arthritis. Orthopedic experts from Qingyuan Chinese Medicine Hospital remind office workers to pay attention to protecting the shoulder, wrist, knee, ankle and other joints. Driving gradually causes joints to atrophy and degenerate due to "disuse", and holding the steering wheel for a long time will also increase the incidence of wrist joint syndrome.

Women who love to wear high heels are also a common group of people who suffer from arthritis. Scientists have studied the effects of walking in high heels on the forces acting on the joints of the lower limbs and found that wearing high heels, especially shoes that are 2 inches high or higher, will change the body posture by changing the joint positions of the ankles, knees, hips and torso. In other words, these beautiful shoes will transmit shock waves from the heels to the body, forming huge pressure inside the knees. Wearing high heels for a long time may cause joint degeneration. Therefore, doctors remind women who love beauty not to wear high heels for a long time and to massage the acupuncture points on the feet appropriately.

Fashionable people: Many young women wear skirts regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter. Although skirts are beautiful, they expose muscles and joints to the outdoors for a long time, and are constantly affected by rheumatism, cold, etc., which can easily lead to limb numbness and joint pain. In the long run, it will cause chronic rheumatoid arthritis.
Prevention of arthritis starts with these

1. Keep warm

It's a good autumn with cool weather. In autumn and winter, the cold gets worse, so you should pay more attention to keeping your joints warm, wear thicker clothes and socks, and don't blindly pursue "beauty and freezing". But at the same time, you should also be careful of "over-warming", such as not blindly using knee pads for warmth, because knee pads are very elastic and tighten the knees, which will hinder blood circulation around the knee joints and make knee movements difficult.

2. Start walking

Whether it is to prevent or treat arthritis, you need to exercise. Moderate exercise can strengthen your body. However, you must choose the right physical exercise and avoid weight-bearing exercises such as mountain climbing and stair climbing. When a normal person climbs stairs, the pressure on the knee joint will increase four times in an instant. This type of exercise will further aggravate the wear of the joints for middle-aged and elderly people who already have hidden joint injuries. It is best to choose some low-intensity exercise methods, such as walking, outdoor dancing, etc. And you must warm up the joints before exercising to aggravate the wear of the joint cartilage.

3. Rest

If you have already found signs of arthritis, you should pay more attention to rest, do not keep your joints in motion for a long time, and avoid excessive exercise that may cause joint damage.

4. Eat right

In China, people generally believe that calcium supplementation is the only solution to restore joint health. However, calcium supplementation alone cannot repair joint nutrients and joint cartilage tissue. Arthritis pain is in the joints, the root is in the cartilage, and the source is glucosamine. To relieve joint discomfort and improve knee arthritis, the key is to supplement cartilage protectors.