arthritis Essay

During my junior year of high school, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Arthritis walk in Philadelphia. Volunteering at the event allowed me to gain deeper intellectual engagement and also influenced my future career. At the event, I had the opportunity to meet several people who suffered with Arthritis. When observing the many effects that Arthritis had on people it widened my eyes to the lack of healthcare in society. By the end of the day a lightbulb went off in my head and I knew for sure that I wanted a career in medicine. I was certain that a career in health services was for me because each person with arthritis warmed my heart and my mind began wondering about endless ways to better their situation. Since I was a young girl I was sensitive, caring, and always trying to find a way to help someone out of a bad situation. There are

As I began my sophomore year of high school, I envisioned another year full of sports and normal high school activities. I was looking forward to playing basketball as I had done in my freshman year. A few weeks into the new school year I slowly realized that vision would not play out how I thought it would. When I began to notice a nagging pain in my hands and fingers that would not go away, I knew something was wrong. Basketball, a sport that I had once loved to play became almost impossible for my swollen hands to handle. The pain progressively got worse and eventually spread throughout my body, making it difficult to walk and carry out simple tasks. After two long months of tests and several doctors, I was finally diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

As we grow older our bodies begin to degenerate, and stop working. There are many different kinds of diseases that we are subject to as we age, cancers, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, and many others. All have a negative affect on our lives, making it difficult to function. Arthritis is the second leading chronic disease in the United States.

Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, is most prevalent in older patients. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative bone disease due to the gradual loss of cartilage. A primary type of osteoarthritis is hip arthritis where it is caused by joint injury, increasing age, and being overweight (“Hip Osteoarthritis,” n.d.). However, osteoarthritis can also be caused by immature joints, inherited defects in cartilage, and extra stress on a patient’s joints (Hip Osteoarthritis,” n.d.). As a result, hip arthritis becomes a huge detriment in patient’s social, emotional, physical lifestyles. In order to treat hip arthritis, doctors choose from a variety of non-drug treatments, medications, and surgeries. Uniquely, I was inspired to research about the treatments of hip arthritis because my very own brother was pronounced with hip arthritis a few years back. Therefore, his determination to battle this disease encouraged me to investigate about the treatment of hip arthritis.

Psoriatic arthritis is a form of arthritis that affects certain people. It is normally characterized by red patches on skin and scale like features. This disease develops differently, with some people contracting the psoriatic arthritis first before the joint pains and vice versa. As per now, there is no known cure for this disease. Obesity is acondition were the health of an individual is put at risk because of body fat that accumulates in the body. Over the years doctors have discovered growing cases of people with both diseases. The major difference was that psoriatic arthritis was worse in people that are overweight or obese they have a harder time because of how much they weigh. Recent research also proves that unlike their counterparts that weigh normally, obese people are less likely to reach minimal disease activity in a year. This can be explained in a variety of ways.

In general, arthritis is a group of more than one hundred inflammatory diseases that damage joints and their surrounding structures, resulting in symptomatic pain, disability, and system wide inflammation (Rogers). Out of the one hundred plus types of arthritis, the two most common are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Most of the time when we think about this disease we immediately think about the joint damage but this disease can affect multiple areas within the body. Pericarditis can occur during a severe flare which can interfere with the hearts ability to work well. Also, a decrease in red blood cells can occur which leads to anemia. Thrombocytosis is another complication in which the inflammation leads to increased levels of platelets within the blood. This can cause clotting and lead to strokes. Within the lungs another possible complication is that of pleurisy which causes breathing to be a painful process. Rheumatoid arthritis can cause nodules to form on the lungs and the heart as well which can lead to a variety of complications. Susceptibility to infection is a great concern, not only because of the disease itself but usually the immune suppressing medicines that treat it. This disease also causes many problems within the eyes. Inflammation of the sclera and Sjogren’s Sydrome can occur which can lead to dry, red, irritated and painful eyes. In the skin, nodules and vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessels) can

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the joints, most often in the hands and feet. It results in swelling, stiffness, pain, and sometimes joint, bone, and cartilage destruction. Rheumatoid arthritis usually affects joints on both sides of the body equally, meaning if a joint on one side is affected, the same joint on the opposite side is affected as well. Rheumatoid arthritis belongs to a group of diseases called autoimmune disorders that affects joints. In rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system produces antibodies that attack the soft tissues lining of the joints. Eventually the cartilage, bone, and ligaments of the joint deteriorate, causing deformity, instability, and scarring within the joint

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system protects the body’s health by attacking unknown substances like bacteria and viruses, and mistakenly attacks the body’s joints. This creates inflammation causing the tissue that lines the inside of joints to thicken, which results in swelling and pain in and around the joints. The tissue makes a fluid that lubricates joints and helps them move smoothly. If inflammation goes unchecked, it can damage cartilage, the elastic tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint, as well as the bones themselves. Over time, there is loss of cartilage, and the joint spacing between bones may become smaller. Joints can become

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a systemic autoimmune disorder. There are more than 100 different types of Arthritis, yet it is estimated that it affects approximately 1% of the population in the Western World. The disease is generally diagnosed in middle aged adults and the elderly. In rarer cases, children can also develop the disease and it is called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Women are three times more likely to have rheumatoid arthritis than men. (Stevens) Many people living with Rheumatoid Arthritis appear to be healthy individuals, but suffer internally. Today, I will discuss what rheumatoid arthritis is, how it is diagnosed, and how it affects the body.

The traits of this autoimmune situation are recognized to have an effect on the joints via making them swollen, infected, and particularly painful.

My patient is near and dear to my heart; she is my grandma and her name is Jolene. She grew up on a farm in Clear Lake, Washington with her parents, sister, and brother. She married her high school sweetheart and they had two children, a boy and girl. They were a very poor family and life got even harder when her husband, Dave, passed away from a heart attack. Suddenly she was a widow with two children and no money. She worked many jobs to support her children for many years until another great man came along, Dennis. He was an established chiropractor with three kids and he was also recently divorced. It wasn’t long until he swept my grandma off her feet and into her new life. He helped her establish many boutiques of her own and provided a great life for all their children. Now almost forty years later, they are still together. Once their children were out on their own and making a life for themselves, Dennis and Jolene decided to pack up and move to Europe. They lived in Italy for almost ten years before returning to Washington because of Jolene’s newly onset rheumatoid arthritis. Although she loved Italy, her body wasn’t okay with the cobble stones and all the walking she had to do. Today, Jolene enjoys spending time at her self-owned boutique in Walla Walla, Washington, walking her pug, Ping, and spending time with her

An autoimmune disease is a bacteria or virus attacking the body itself. “This attack causes fluid to accumulate within the joint. The fluid buildup causes swelling, pain, stiffness, and inflammation around your joints,”(healthline.com). A degenerative disease is “the wearing down of cartilage causes your bones to rub against each other exposing small nerves, which causes pain,” (healthline.com)

Laminitis is also known as Founder. The composition of a horse’s foot has two tissue layers. Sensitive laminae have to do with pedal bone tissue attached to it. Insensitive laminae have to do with the hoof’s hard exterior tissue layers. In order to get laminitis, there has to be inflammation of the laminae. There are two types of laminitis, one is acute and the other is chronic. Acute is when there is a lack of circulation to the laminae. This causes both laminae to fuse together causing pain and breakdown of tissue layers. Blood may seep from the hoof with severe laminitis. The pedal bone can rotate within three days from the onset of the disease and the foot’s sole will develop a hole when there is unsuccessful treatment of laminitis. When treatment is unsuccessful, other infections can develop. Acute can turn into chronic due to the disease occurring often. Chronic will change the shape of the hoof and the hoof will have unnormal growth, and porous bone development. Equine who are in poor condition and overweight have a greater risk of developing this disease. This disease can attack four hooves, just the front or just the back hooves.

The most common symptom of arthritis is joint pain. However, joint pain may result from other illnesses, and this means that people experiencing joint pain have to consult a medical professional for differential diagnosis. Joint stiffness and swelling are also common in people with the disease. The most common symptom reported is a constant pain that occurs around a given joint. Moreover, other types of arthritis such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis that can also affect other body organs and cause other symptoms