Women– especially older women– often have to deal with stiff and painful joints. A doctor may diagnose them with rheumatoid arthritis and/or osteoarthritis. What should you know about these two types of arthritis?
Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis Differences
Rheumatoid arthritis can happen at any age and it’s an autoimmune disease where your body’s immune system attacks your joints. Osteoarthritis, on the other hand, tends to happen in a woman’s senior years, and is a result of mechanical wear and tear on the cartilage lining and cushioning of her joints. Eventually, bones start rubbing together– ouch!
Generally, rheumatoid arthritis takes a few weeks or months to develop, whereas osteoarthritis takes years before a person notices signs of it. Did you know, though, that osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis and that some 27 million Americans deal with it? That’s in contrast with rheumatoid arthritis, which only affects about one-tenth as many people.
Timeline Differences
If you’ve got stiffness and pain from either of these types of arthritis, one of the ways you could tell the difference is how long it takes to feel a little better. For instance, with osteoarthritis, you might have pain in the morning or after sitting around for an hour. However, once you’re up and moving, after just a couple minutes you feel better. That’s a good thing! With rheumatoid arthritis, you can feel that morning pain but it doesn’t go away quickly– it can take well over an hour to feel some relief.
Arthritis can make daily life hard– it’s harder to wash dishes, to go up and down stairs, to grasp things, etc. Is there any hope of true relief?
The Helen Foundation recommends Microdose Therapy™ to help eliminate pain, fatigue and related inflammation symptoms in days from cortisone-responding diseases such as arthritis, asthma, dementia, fibromyalgia, MS, osteoarthritis, and Parkinson’s disease. For more information, call 480-734-8525.