And all it takes is just 10 minutes. Your shared experiences will help: - Lead to more effective treatments and outcomes - Develop programs to meet the needs of you and your community - Shape a powerful agenda that fights for you Now is the time to make your voice count, for yourself and the entire arthritis community.
Currently this program is for the adult arthritis community. Since the needs of the juvenile arthritis JA community are unique, we are currently working with experts to develop a customized experience for JA families.
Get Started. As a partner, you will help the Arthritis Foundation provide life-changing resources, science, advocacy and community connections for people with arthritis, the nations leading cause of disability. Join us today and help lead the way as a Champion of Yes. Our Trailblazers are committed partners ready to lead the way, take action and fight for everyday victories. Our Visionary partners help us plan for a future that includes a cure for arthritis.
Our Pioneers are always ready to explore and find new weapons in the fight against arthritis. Our Pacesetters ensure that we can chart the course for a cure for those who live with arthritis. Our Signature partners make their mark by helping us identify new and meaningful resources for people with arthritis.
Our Supporting partners are active champions who provide encouragement and assistance to the arthritis community. Causes of Fatigue in Arthritis Inflammation, pain, inactivity and lifestyle factors can cause extreme tiredness when living with arthritis. Disease Activity and Fatigue Fatigue and arthritis go hand in hand for many people with arthritis.
If you have an autoimmune disease, your immune system attacks your body and inflammation is the result. The body undergoes stress as it tries to cope with the release of inflammatory cytokines proteins in the blood. That can cause fatigue, especially when disease activity is high or low-grade inflammation remains for a long time.
Chronic Pain. The pain-fatigue connection can be a vicious circle. Dealing with arthritis pain for months at a time over many years can wear you down. It can affect your sleep habits, which adds to your exhaustion. Being fatigued, in turn, can worsen pain and make it more difficult to manage.
Other Sources of Fatigue Your fatigue is not always directly related to your arthritis disease activity, inflammation or pain. Medication side effects. Several medications , including some you may take for arthritis, can cause drowsiness or fatigue.
Common culprits include certain antidepressants; blood pressure medication; narcotic pain relievers; some prescription NSAIDs; and certain DMARDs, such as azathioprine and methotrexate. Corticosteroids may cause daytime tiredness by keeping you awake at night.
The more you lie around, the more exhausted you feel. Unused muscles — including the heart muscle — can weaken, and you get tired more easily. Fatigue in arthritis may be caused by anemia — a shortage of red blood cells.
Osteoarthritis Symptoms and Signs Save. Arthritis Care Res Hoboken. Exercise interventions and patient beliefs for people with hip, knee or hip and knee osteoarthritis: a mixed methods review. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Published Apr Therapeutic exercise for people with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. A systematic review.
The Journal of rheumatology. Effect on health-related quality of life of a multimodal physiotherapy program in patients with chronic musculoskeletal disorders. Health Qual Life Outcomes. Published Feb Night eating syndrome and its association with weight status, physical activity, eating habits, smoking status, and sleep patterns among college students. Eat Weight Disord. Epub Jun 2. Circadian eating and sleeping patterns in the night eating syndrome.
Obes Res. Association between dinner-to-bed time and gas-tro-esophageal reflux disease. Because it is made from rooster combs, people with sensitivity to birds, feathers or eggs should not receive viscosupplements.
Since the data on its effectiveness is mixed, hyaluronic acid is not recommended in most treatment guidelines. Physical or occupational therapy. The goals of occupational and physical therapy are to preserve the use of your joints, restore lost abilities, maintain your fitness, help you adapt to new levels of activity and help you maintain the ability to partake in the activities you enjoy. Occupational therapy can teach you how to reduce the strain on your joints during daily activity, and physical therapy can teach you exercises designed to preserve and strengthen your joints.
Some of the therapeutic methods available include rest during flare-ups; applying heat or cold; exercise, including water exercises, strength exercises and recreational exercise; specific exercise to help you prepare for or recover from surgery if surgery is prescribed; joint protection activities and exercises; and assistive devices, such as a bath stool in your shower or a shoe horn.
A variety of surgical procedures are used to treat osteoarthritis including joint realignment, joint fusion, cartilage grafting and joint replacement. Surgeons may replace affected joints with artificial joints called prostheses, which can last about 20 years.
These joints can be made from metal alloys, high-density plastic and ceramic material and can be joined to bone surfaces by special cements. A small percentage of these artificial joints may need revision, especially after years of use. Surgeons choose the design and components of prostheses according to their patient's weight, sex, age, activity level and other medical conditions.
The decision to perform surgery depends on several factors: level of disability, intensity of pain, weight, interference with lifestyle, age, occupation and other medical conditions. Currently, the majority of osteoarthritis surgery cases involve replacing the hip or knee joint, but other joints can be replaced, including thumb joints, shoulder joints and elbow joints.
After surgery and rehabilitation, the patient usually feels less pain and swelling and can move more easily. When joint replacement isn't an option, other types of surgery for osteoarthritis may involve realigning or fusing bones to increase stability and help decrease pain. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of surgery with your health care professional before you make a decision about whether it's best for you.
Weight loss: Weight loss can reduce stress on weight-bearing joints, limit further injury and result in less pain and better function. A dietitian can help you develop healthy eating habits and a nutritional plan to promote weight loss.
Exercise is frequently used to treat osteoarthritis, whether or not a patient is overweight. Exercise can improve mood and outlook, decrease pain, increase flexibility, improve the heart and blood flow, maintain weight and promote general physical fitness. It is also inexpensive and, if done correctly, has few negative side effects. The amount and form of exercise you can do will depend on which joints are involved, how stable the joints are and whether a joint replacement has already been done.
Exercise can produce generalized improvement as well as specific effects. When it comes to osteoarthritis of the knee, the level of muscle strength in the thigh muscle quadriceps and perhaps in the muscles around the hips are important.
Strengthening these muscles can relieve symptoms. Walking can result in better functioning and increased walking distance. In addition, there is evidence that yoga and tai chi can help reduce osteoarthritis pain. These alternative forms of exercise combine gentle exercises, stretching and deep breathing.
Ask your health care professional or physical therapist what exercises are best for you. Ask for guidelines on exercising when a joint is sore or if swelling is present. Also, check if you should use drugs, such as analgesics or anti-inflammatories, to make exercising easier, or if you should use ice afterward.
An exercise plan should also include regularly scheduled rest. Learn to recognize your body's signals, and know when to stop or slow down to prevent pain caused by over-exercising. Supportive devices. Osteoarthritis pain can be so bad that you need a cane or splints to protect your joints and to take pressure off them. Splints or braces provide extra support for a weakened joint and keep the joint in proper position during sleep or activity.
An occupational therapist or a health care professional can help fit you properly with a splint. Braces have been shown to be effective for knee osteoarthritis. Stress reduction and relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, guided imagery and visualization where you focus on "seeing" pleasant pain-free scenes or activities in your mind , may provide some pain relief.
Acupuncture is an important component of traditional Chinese medicine. It involves the insertion of thin needles at specific points, which are mostly along the body's nerve pathways, to improve health.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative treatment option for arthritis pain, working to help release tightened muscles, regulate the body's nervous system to stimulate natural endorphins and alter the body's perception of pain. Indeed, a clinical trial showed that acupuncture, when used along with conventional therapy, improved function and reduced pain in osteoarthritis of the knee.
Individuals who want to use acupuncture should discuss their interest with their health care team and should receive treatment only from a licensed acupuncturist. Nutritional supplements. Many studies have carefully evaluated the role of nutritional supplements in osteoarthritis. Two supplements that have received a lot of attention regarding their potential benefits in people with osteoarthritis are glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate.
Both are substances naturally produced by the body. The supplements are derived from animal tissue, specifically from crab, lobster and shrimp shells glucosamine , and from animal shark cartilage chondroitin. So far, studies on these supplements—when used alone and together—have shown few, if any, benefits.
Therefore, the American College of Rheumatology does not recommend chondroitin or glucosamine for initial treatment of osteoarthritis. However, the College recommends that patients who are currently taking these supplements and experiencing improvements should not stop taking them.
If you are considering trying one or both of these supplements, check with your health care professional first. Side effects associated with these supplements include increased intestinal gas and softened stools. If you experience these problems, you might want to try another supplement brand before you stop using them altogether. Certain vitamins have been linked to joint health, particularly vitamins C, D and K.
There is no good evidence that vitamin C slows the progress of osteoarthritis, but more research is needed on vitamins D and K. In addition, some controversial studies show oils found in avocado and soybeans, called avocado-soybean unsaponifiables ASUs , may slow cartilage loss and actually help repair cartilage in hip and knee joints when taken orally.
Products and reports about nutritional supplements claiming to provide pain relief should be viewed with caution until more studies can be conducted. Discuss your interest or questions about such products and reports with your health care professional. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation TENS.
TENS is the application of electrical stimulation from a small device to the nerve endings that lie below the skin for pain relief. The use of TENS in people with osteoarthritis is controversial. Biofeedback is a way to enhance a body signal so that you are aware of something that usually occurs at a level below consciousness.
An electronic device provides information about a body function such as heart rate so that you can learn to control that function. If you have arthritis, biofeedback can help you learn to relax your muscles. In this case, an electronic device amplifies the sound of a muscle contracting, so the arthritis patient knows that the muscle is not relaxed. The therapy is typically learned with the help of a health care professional and then practiced at home, either with the use of a biofeedback machine once the patient has mastered the technique, or without one.
Prevention While many osteoarthritis risk factors—being female, older and having other diseases that affect the bones and joints—cannot be changed, you can work on several other risk factors to lower your risk of developing the condition: Obesity. Losing extra weight and exercising can help people with osteoarthritis. Most importantly, weight loss may reduce the risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee in overweight or obese people.
On-the-job injuries. Taking precautions to avoid repetitive joint use and resulting joint injury in the occupational setting can help prevent osteoarthritis. Sports injuries. Using recommended prevention strategies warm-ups, strengthening exercises and appropriate equipment helps to avoid joint injuries and damage to ligaments and cartilage, all of which can increase your risk of osteoarthritis.
Facts to Know There are more than kinds of arthritis, which literally means joint inflammation. About 5. As with most types of arthritis, women are at higher risk than men for the condition.
Osteoarthritis occurs when the surface layer of cartilage—the protective tissue between bones at joints—breaks down and wears away. This allows bones under the cartilage to rub together, causing pain, swelling and loss of motion of the joint. Its progression rate and symptom severity vary widely. Also, diet, weight and stresses on the joints from certain jobs affect the disease and how a person reacts to it.
Researchers suspect inheritance plays a role in some cases of osteoarthritis. Some genes may influence joint shape, with certain shapes being vulnerable to osteoarthritis.
Other genes may change the way tissues regenerate in the joint, making turnover of tissues less healthy. The warning warning signs of osteoarthritis include steady or intermittent pain in a joint, worsening of pain with activity, stiffness after getting out of bed, joint swelling or tenderness in one or more joints, a crunching feeling or sound of bone rubbing on bone.
By age 55, more than 80 percent of the population has X-ray evidence of osteoarthritis in at least one joint. However, not all people with evidence of osteoarthritis in their X-rays report pain or other symptoms. You can lower your risk of developing osteoarthritis by losing weight and taking precautions to avoid on-the-job and sports injuries. Consult your health care professional before embarking on a weight-loss program. If you have symptoms of arthritis, it is a good idea to see a health care professional.
Early intervention has proven to be a key to slowing progress of the disease. A variety of medical and nonmedical options are available to help you manage osteoarthritis, including pain relievers, surgery, hyaluronic acid injections and diet and exercise modifications. Acupuncture, transcutaneous electrical stimulation TENS , biofeedback and relaxation techniques are examples of alternative therapies that may provide some relief from arthritis pain.
Education is also an effective means of managing arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation Self-Help Program, sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation, may help reduce your pain, reduce disability, improve your quality-of-life and reduce your utilization of medical services.
Questions to Ask Review the following Questions to Ask about osteoarthritis so you're prepared to discuss this important health issue with your health care professional. Why am I having pain? Do I have osteoarthritis? Are you sure I don't have other disorders that might causemy pain? What drugs are available to help me?
What are their benefits and side effects? Will these drugs interact with any other medications that I am taking? Are there ways I can prevent my osteoarthritis from getting worse?
Besides taking drugs, what can I do to reduce my pain and make it easier to live with? What should I do if an X-ray shows I have osteoarthritis, but I don't feel any pain? What precautions should I take when exercising to protect affected joints?
What should I do if my joints start to hurt or hurt worse while I'm exercising? Can I benefit from changing my diet or losing weight? Will it lessen my joint pain? Are there any devices that can make it easier for me to stay active without damaging my joints or aggravating my pain? What can I do to cope with pain so I don't have to give up the activities that are important to me? Are there support groups or other programs for people with osteoarthritis in this area? Should I try a hyaluronic acid injection?
What are its risks and benefits? In osteoarthritis, the surface layer of cartilage breaks down and wears away.
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