Journal of Bone Research
Open Access

A Short Note on Osteoarthritis Treatment Processes

Richard Pastrello^{* *}Correspondence: Richard Pastrello, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, USA, Email:

Author info »

Description

The Bone disease arthritis is affected at the bone joints as swelling and tenderness of bone joints, it is a most common musculoskeletal diseases. Arthritis is two types one is osteoarthritis and another one is rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis is one of the most common arthritis, millions of people are suffering with this disease. The most common symptoms in disease are joint pain and stiffness. The symptoms become worse with increase in age. The symptoms develop slowly with time are tenderness, loss of flexibility, grating sensation, bone spurs and swelling. This disease occurs when cartilage that cushions at the ends of bone joints are deteriorates. The cartilage helps to frictionless joint motion and act as a shock absorber, when the cartilage tears completely then it tends to create friction between bones while joints movement, that is bone rub and the bone causes pain. That’s why osteoarthritis is called as wear and tear disease. The friction between bones causes to change in bone and deterioration of the connective tissues that hold the joint together and attach muscle to bone. Injuries, such as those that occur from an accident or when playing sports, can increase the risk of osteoarthritis. For also injuries that happen many years ago and seemingly healed can increase risk of osteoarthritis. Increase in weight adds stress to weight-bearing joints, such as hips and knees. Obesity is a risk factor for osteoarthritis, so manage weight can help to prevent and improve osteoarthritis. Reduce in weight will reduce stress on joints.

Osteoarthritis is a multifactorial, complex disorder, the most commonly possible risk factors in osteoarthritis are joint injuries, harmful inflammation around the joints and obesity etc. The management processes in osteoarthritis are many they are yoga, tai chi, kinesio taping, pulsed electromagnetic field, inferential current, whole body vibration, acupuncture, ultrasound, moxibustion, manual therapy, electro acupuncture and aquatic exercise etc. This type of non-pharmaceutical management methods can significantly reduce pain and improve the physical function of patient. Most of all physicians’ first recommendation treatment for arthritics is exercise. Physical therapy deals with heating and cooling which gives relaxing and calming effect on patients and reducing inflammation. Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) will work on moderate to severe osteoarthritis. When the pharmacology fails then the Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) procedure is used. The TENS process is used to treat as a pain relieving in wide range medical problems. Low Level Laser (LLL) therapy and exercise can improve the patient’s mobility condition. For relaxation massage is widely used process in osteoarthritis. When it is hard to move individually for osteoarthritis patients then they use canes or crutches as a supporting to mobility. Braces and insoles also use to move, braces and insoles are act as lateral support to mobility.

When the medical treatments cannot control the osteoarthritis pain, then it leads to surgery. Surgery is recommended for rare cases such as joint replacement and lot of pain, in joint replacement surgery the damaged joint is replaced with the artificial one. Mostly joint replacement treatments are for knee and hip. But the artificial joints do not have all the motions line natural joints. Now artificial joint treatment is also available for fingers, elbows, shoulders and ankles. The supplements glucosamine and chondroitin may relieve the pain in suffered people with osteoarthritis, especially in the knee. The most preferred surgery process in OA is arthroscopy to clean out the damaged cartilage or repair tissues. To alleviate the symptoms of osteoarthritis pharmacology treatment is used generally. Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) and analgesics are the most commonly used pharmacological treatments for osteoarthritis. Types of pharmacological treatments are NSAIDs and analgesics, topical agent, Intra-articular therapy, hyaluronic acid therapy, anti-cytokine therapy, omega-3 fatty acids as dietary supplement and herbs and ayurvedic formulations. Homeopathy and ayurvedic are alternative therapies. Taking vitamins, omega-3, glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate are comes under food supplements and nutraceuticals.

Ayurveda use from many years from ancient texts, people follows Ayurveda remedies in their common life because of assuming it is completely safe. For pain and inflammatory Ayurveda remedies are works but give slow results. Some of those ancient formulations are Triphala churna and Triphaghula this formualtions are used along with Balaraja and Dashmoolasa. These ancient formulations are scientifically proved. These formulations have antioxidant, cytoprotective, anti-inflammatory and rejuvenating effect properties.

Osteoarthritis acts as a curse in senior citizens life for their daily activity life. Patients with OA are regularly seeking medical assistance because of their suffering. It is better to choose nonpharmacological treatments for their own good. Better nutrition and exercise always gives good health.