Nearly one-quarter of American adults have arthritis today. If pain, stiffness, and swelling restrict your lifestyle and diminish your quality of life, internal medicine physician Roberto Fernandez-Blay, MD, can help at Priority Health MD in Cooper City, Florida. Dr. Fernandez-Blay takes an integrative approach to arthritis pain, helping you improve your whole-person health while relieving your symptoms. Call the office or schedule an appointment online today to learn more about his treatment options for arthritis.
What is arthritis?
Arthritis is a family of more than 100 different joint diseases. The two most common forms of arthritis are:
Osteoarthritis (OA)
Osteoarthritis is sometimes called “wear-and-tear” arthritis. It usually occurs as you age. With this type of arthritis, cartilage — the tough, rubbery covering on your bones — breaks down. This causes the bones to rub together when you stand, walk, rise from sitting, or climb stairs.
Osteoarthritis affects other parts of your joint too, eventually triggering changes in the bones and weakening of the tendons and ligaments in the area.
This type of arthritis usually affects the hips, knees, neck, lower back, the ends of your fingers, and the base of the thumb. It can affect just one joint, so you could have it in your right hip but not your left.
While osteoarthritis is usually diagnosed in middle age or later, you can get it anytime. Very active adults may get it earlier in life. And, people who experience an injury that doesn’t heal properly may later develop a subtype of osteoarthritis, post-traumatic arthritis, at the injury site.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system attacks the synovial membrane, the lining of your joints. The attack causes inflammation and pronounced swelling.
Rheumatoid arthritis eventually warps joints, causing them to look misshapen and function poorly.
In most cases, rheumatoid arthritis is symmetrical, so if it’s in a joint on your right side, it usually mirrors on the left.
What are the symptoms of arthritis?
Arthritis symptoms commonly include:
Fortunately, you don’t need to live with arthritis symptoms. Priority Health MD offers innovative arthritis treatments without the need for surgery.
How is arthritis treated?
Priority Health MD focuses on whole-person wellness. They help you deal with the root causes of your arthritis symptoms, particularly the inflammation, to help you feel better.
Weight loss, regular exercise, and physical therapy can all be very helpful for arthritis. Additionally, the practice offers unique pain relief treatments such as shockwave therapy, which uses non-invasive shock waves to disrupt inflammatory cells and promote healing. This reduces swelling, stiffness, and pain.
To get expert help for arthritis pain management, call Priority Health MD or schedule an appointment online today.
