Conditions and Causes of Common Arthritis Types
The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease characterized by joint pain, and comes about as the result of degeneration of the cartilage in a joint.
In contrast to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition that causes the immune system to attack and inflame the joints. Whereas osteoarthritis can be limited to a single, injured joint, or to a pair of joints (such as the knees or hips) in instances where the cartilage is worn out, rheumatoid arthritis usually affects multiple joints and can affect people at a much younger age.
Arthritis Pain and Symptoms
For people with osteoarthritis, arthritis pain typically increases over the course of the day, as the affected joints are used or overused. Unfortunately, as osteoarthritis worsens what it takes to “overuse” a joint becomes less and less.
On the other hand, people with rheumatoid arthritis typically experience the most arthritis pain in the morning (or after waking), with the pain lessening throughout the day.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, rheumatoid arthritis can be characterized by three stages, and over time progresses from one to the other: swelling, growth of cells, and the production of enzymes that can digest cartilage and bone.
Arthritis pain typically worsens over time for both those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and those with osteoarthritis. According to the CDC, 40 percent of adults with arthritis report that at least one out of nine daily functional activities is difficult or impossible to do. These activities include bending, standing, walking, carrying, and grasping. Studies have repeatedly proven that those with arthritis have a poorer quality of life and suffer both a physical and emotional toll from the condition.
Arthritis treatment can range from using topical creams to over-the-counter analgesics to prescription drugs to joint replacement surgery. To improve the quality of life and decrease the incidence of debilitating pain, the most effective treatments focus on arthritis pain relief. Many peer-reviewed medical journals have documented the efficacy of turmeric curcumin as a natural alternative to the much overused and side effect laden NSAIDs.1,2,3,4 There are many highly rated OTC arthitic pain relief topical treatments that works by penetrating the sub-epidermal level of the skin, thereby blocking out pain transmitters.
Turmeric Curcumin Efficacy Studies
- Efficacy of Turmeric Extracts and Curcumin for Alleviating the Symptoms of Joint Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.
- Curcumin inhibits osteoclastogenic potential in PBMCs from rheumatoid arthritis patients via the suppression of MAPK/RANK/c-Fos/NFATc1 signaling pathways.
- Curcumin slows osteoarthritis progression and relieves osteoarthritis-associated pain symptoms in a post-traumatic osteoarthritis mouse model.
- Amelioration of FCA induced arthritis on topical application of curcumin in combination with emu oil.