Arthritis is a painful disease of the joints that can affect a person's fingers, elbows, knees, and ankles - as well as the various internal organs of the body. Besides feeling acute pain the patient may have swelling and stiffness also. In fact the pain is so acute at times that movement too becomes restricted; a person may find it almost impossible to make any movement at all. Sometimes, a person with arthritis may find it difficult to even bathe, walk, dress or even stand properly. There are numerous forms of arthritis and millions of people the world over are afflicted with the malady. In terms of number of cases, arthritis is second only to heart disease. Whatever the type of arthritis, the common symptom is persistent pain. Arthritis like quite a number of other diseases has no definite; the result is that no cure of the disease has been found. Generally speaking, a person may have inherited the disease from the parents or may have contracted it due to a particular life style also. If you are unfortunate enough to suffer form joint pains for more than a fortnight or so, you must not ignore it or try to cure it yourself by buying over-the-counter medicines. The best course therefore is to immediately consult your doctor to have your problem diagnosed and go by his advice. If you suffer from arthritis, ask your doctor its type. This alone can ensure the right treatment of the disease. Although there is nothing you can do to completely eradicate it, still you can manage to reduce the severity of the pain and manage to live more comfortably than many others. It is therefore in your best interest to take arthritis seriously in the beginning of the disease and take the treatment in earnest. There is however a ray of hope for people suffering from arthritis. Practicing Yoga, the Oriental system of exercises discovered by the sages hundreds of years ago, can certainly go a long way in mitigating the pain and in some cases completely alleviating it. |
