{"id":199,"date":"2017-05-04T01:34:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T05:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/?p=199"},"modified":"2017-06-09T13:17:58","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T17:17:58","slug":"arthritis-awareness-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/04\/arthritis-awareness-month\/","title":{"rendered":"A&L is Going BLUE for Arthritis in May!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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May is Arthritis Awareness Month!<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

From our Health Watch newsletter:<\/p>\n

May is recognized each year as National Arthritis Awareness Month. Nearly 53 million adults have doctor-diagnosed arthritis; that number is expected to grow to 67 million by 2030. Almost 300,000 babies, kids and\u00a0teens have arthritis or a rheumatic condition. Arthritis is the nation’s No. 1 cause of disability.<\/p>\n

Osteoarthritis<\/h3>\n

Osteoarthritis is a joint disease that mostly effects cartilage. Cartilage is the slippery tissue that covers the ends\u00a0of bones in a joint. It also help absorb shock of movement. In osteoarthritis, the top layer of cartilage breaks\u00a0down and wears away. This allows bones under the cartilage to rub together. The rubbing causes pain,\u00a0swelling, and loss of motion of the joint. Over time, the joint may lose its normal shape. Also, bone spurs may\u00a0grow on the edges of the joint. Bits of bone or cartilage can break off and float inside the joint space, which\u00a0causes more pain and damage.<\/p>\n

People with osteoarthritis often have joint pain and reduced motion. Unlike some other forms of arthritis,\u00a0osteoarthritis affects only joints and not internal organs. Rheumatoid arthritis–the second most common form\u00a0of arthritis–affects other parts of the body besides the joints. Osteoarthritis is the most common type of\u00a0arthritis.<\/p>\n

Osteoarthritis occurs most often in older people. Younger people sometimes get osteoarthritis primarily from\u00a0joint injuries. The cause of osteoarthritis is unknown. Factors that might cause it include: being overweight,\u00a0getting older, joint injury, joints are are not properly formed, a genetic defect in joint cartilage, and stress on\u00a0the joints from certain jobs and playing sports.<\/p>\n

Osteoarthritis can occur in any joint. It occurs most often in the hands, knees, hips, and spine. Warning signs\u00a0of osteoarthritis are: stiffness in a joint after getting out of bed or sitting for a long time, swelling or tenderness\u00a0in one or more joints, a crunching feeling or the sound of bone rubbing on bone.<\/p>\n

Doctors often combine treatments to fit patient’s needs, lifestyle, and health. Osteoarthritis treatment has four\u00a0main goals: improve joint function, keep a health body weight, control pain, achieve health lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Rheumatoid Arthritis<\/h3>\n

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease that affects the joints. It causes pain, swelling and stiffness. If one knee or\u00a0hand has rheumatoid arthritis, usually the other does too. This disease often occurs in more than one joint and\u00a0can affect any joint in the body. People with this disease may feel sick and tired, and they sometimes get\u00a0fevers.<\/p>\n

Some people have this disease for only a few months or a year or two. Then it goes away without causing\u00a0damage. Other people have times when the symptoms get worse (flares), and times when they get better\u00a0(remissions). Others have a severe form of the disease that can last for many years or a lifetime. This form of\u00a0the disease can cause serious joint damage.<\/p>\n

Anyone can get this disease, though it occurs more often in women. Rheumatoid arthritis often starts in\u00a0middle age and is most common in older people. But children and young adult can also get it.<\/p>\n

Doctor’s don’t know the exact cause of rheumatoid arthritis. They know that with this arthritis, a person’s\u00a0immune system attacks his or her own body tissues. Researchers are learning many things about why and how\u00a0this happens. Things that may cause rheumatoid arthritis are: genes (passed from parent to child),\u00a0environment, and hormones.<\/p>\n

Doctors have many ways to treat this disease. The goals of treatment are to: take away pain, reduce swelling,\u00a0slow down or stop joint damage, help people feel better, and stay active. Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis\u00a0may involve lifestyle changes, medicine, surgery, regular doctor visits and alternative therapies. Lifestyle\u00a0changes include keep a good balance between rest and exercise, take care of your joints, lower your stress and\u00a0eat a healthy diet.<\/p>\n

Most people with rheumatoid arthritis take medicine. Drugs can be used for pain relief, to reduce swelling,\u00a0and to stop the disease from getting worse. What a doctor prescribes depends on: the person’s general health,\u00a0how serious the rheumatoid arthritis is, how serious the rheumatoid arthritis may become, how long the person\u00a0will take the drug, how well the drug works, and the possible side effects.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”blue”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For more information, download the PDF files below. You will need a PDF reader, such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader<\/a>, in order to pull these files up on your computer.<\/p>\n

Osteoarthritis: page 1<\/a>, page 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Rheumatoid Arthritis: page 1<\/a>, page 2<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”blue”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

A&L Employees, please take the quiz by May 20th. Thank you!<\/h3><\/i>Take the quiz!<\/a><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May is recognized each year as National Arthritis Awareness Month. Nearly 53 million adults have doctor-diagnosed arthritis; that number is expected to grow to 67 million by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arthritis","category-education","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions\/423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aandlhomecare.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}