October 12 is World Arthritis Day, a global awareness day to acknowledge those suffering from rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. It’s estimated more than 670,000 New Zealanders have arthritis. If you’re one of them, or supporting a loved one who is, these stories are full of expert advice on how to
World Arthritis Day: Expert advice and top tips on how to manage arthritis – and prevent it in the first place
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Joint pain and stiffness may signal arthritis, but early action can help manage the condition and improve quality of life. Photo / 123rf
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In a recent survey of more than 2200 people between ages 50 and 80 in the United States, 60% said they had been told by a healthcare provider that they had some form of arthritis. And about three-quarters considered joint pain and arthritis a normal part of ageing.
But arthritis is not inevitable as we age, says Kelli Dominick Allen, an exercise physiologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
“Sometimes people will start to get aches and pains in their joints and not do anything about it because they think everyone gets arthritis as they get older,” Allen says. “We shouldn’t think about arthritis as something that we just have to deal with passively.”
Arthritis is a catch-all term for the more than 100 kinds of inflammatory joint conditions, each of which can arise for different reasons. Many of those causes have little to do with age, Allen says.
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Osteoarthritis can damage joints long before it’s detected
It may start as a twinge in your knee or hip when you get out of bed.
Over time, that twinge may turn into persistent pain, swelling or reduced range of motion – signs of a condition called osteoarthritis.
But as with many other chronic conditions, doctors are unable to diagnose osteoarthritis until it has already progressed significantly and has interfered with everyday activities.
Scientists are racing to find ways to diagnose osteoarthritis earlier and stave off or slow damage from the disease, which affects more than 32.5 million adults in the United States and more than 500 million people worldwide.
Research has started to show that osteoarthritis is not caused solely by everyday wear and tear on joints, like the deterioration of rubber treads on a tyre over time.
In some patients, persistent, low-grade inflammation might accelerate the progression of the disease or even cause it. And scientists now believe the damage can start long before symptoms appear.
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Arthritis and joint pain – the symptoms to know about and how to treat it
For many of us, aches and pains, sore joints and stiffness are an everyday fact of life. But how can we tell whether they are signs of something more serious, such as arthritis?
About half of us by the age of 70 will have a form of arthritis, while some are affected much younger. Osteoarthritis is the most common type of the condition, mainly affecting the joints, with 73 per cent of people with the condition older than 55. Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, is the second most prevalent disease, affecting nearly half a million in Britain.
“I often hear people saying, ‘it’s just a bit of arthritis’,” says Dr Benjamin Ellis, a consultant rheumatologist and senior clinical policy adviser to charity Versus Arthritis. “But if you have any joint pain or stiffness that’s interfering with your quality of life then it’s important to talk to your GP. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to treat.”
‘Use it or lose it’: The eight exercises to tackle arthritis at home
New research suggests that one in every five people views joint pain as a normal part of ageing – that jolt in the knees halfway up the stairs, the ache in the back after hours at a desk. In fact, back and neck pain, as well as pains in the legs and feet, are now a leading cause of sick leave among the over 50s.
Yet ageing doesn’t have to be so painful – and the concern among health professionals is this resignation leads us to slow down and do less while reaching for painkillers instead. This is the worst action to take – or not to take – says David Vaux, therapies manager and exercise lead for Arthritis Action, whose book Stronger will be published by Hachette next year.
“Exercise is the most effective medicine we have for prevention and management of joint pain,” he says. “Think of the body as a human machine. Rust sets in and the engine starts to fail if it isn’t used. If you’re not in the habit of consistent training or regular activity by middle age, then that is really the time to start.”
Rheumatoid arthritis forced Karen Roberts to change her diet – now she’s pain-free
British woman Karen Roberts explains what it was like to live with rheumatoid arthritis and how changes to the way she eats helped change her life
I can’t remember a time in my life when there hasn’t been pain somewhere in my body. It came to dominate much of my adult life. If somebody hasn’t been in constant pain, it’s hard to describe it to them. You’re masking the whole time, and everything is so much more difficult. The mornings were the worst for me as the throbbing and aching sensations would set in when I was lying still. The day it took me 45 minutes just to get out of bed because of the agony I was in, I knew something had to change.
At work one day, the laces on one of my trainers came undone and I couldn’t even bend down to tie them and had to get a colleague to help. As an older person in a very young organisation, I never wanted to draw attention to what was considered an older person’s illness. But the pain of getting myself up and into the office every day was hard to ignore.
When I heard a podcast episode about the connection between autoimmune disease, inflammation and diet, I knew what I had to do. For three months I went on the autoimmune protocol (AIP), an extreme diet that means eliminating everything that could cause inflammation, like sugar, refined grains and refined carbohydrates, then gradually reintroducing foods and drinks to see what triggered pain in me.
The diet had an almost immediate response. Within two weeks I’d gone from severe pain, taking Ibuprofen every day, to a slight ache that I could manage without painkillers. I have lived without wheat, sugar, and alcohol ever since and now focus on eating fresh, unprocessed foods – meat, fish, vegetables, pulses and dairy.
The foods that fight inflammation
Chronic inflammation can be a silent killer, but your diet can play a role in tamping it down.
Experts sometimes describe inflammation as a necessary evil. On one hand, this essential immune system response helps you stay safe and heal from illnesses, though it isn’t always pleasant: often causing symptoms such as redness, swelling and soreness.
But when inflammation levels in your body remain high for months or years at a time – even in the absence of a threat – it can create health risks of its own. Untreated, chronic inflammation can increase the risk of serious health issues like cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and metabolic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes.
The condition, which some surveys estimate affects about one-third of US adults, is hard to diagnose. This is in part because chronic inflammation symptoms can vary widely and there isn’t a test that can reliably diagnose it.
Diets high in highly processed and sugary foods are connected to chronic inflammation, while consuming certain healthy foods – fresh fruits, vegetables, fibre and certain fats – have been shown to help tamp it down.
Five ways to tackle the joint pain of arthritis
For Tom Roberts, it began with difficulty walking. “The big toes on both my feet felt like rusty hinges which either didn’t want to move at all, or suddenly gave way completely,” he says. As a busy secondary school teacher in Coventry, just 48 at the time, he did his best to ignore it until scans finally revealed severe osteoarthritis in both joints. That same year, he was given an operation to break both his toes and reset them at a raised angle to make walking easier.
Roberts has since had a joint replacement in one knee and is heading towards replacing the joint in the other. “It’s like walking with a sharp stone in your shoe, except it’s in your knee,” he says. There’s osteoarthritis in his hands and the base of his spine. “Sometimes it’s a dull persistent discomfort or ache,” he says, “other times, it’s a stabbing pain so sharp you feel you might faint.”
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting an estimated 10% of men and 18% of women over 60 years of age and occurs when the cartilage that cushions the ends of bones gradually thins.
Although the past 20 years have brought big breakthroughs in treatments for inflammatory arthritis (including rheumatoid), osteoarthritis has seen much slower progress. There are still no disease-modifying treatments, only symptom control, and the latest draft of guidelines has recently downgraded long-term use of painkillers in favour of exercise, weight-management and behaviour change.
