Understanding arthritis - intro

Doctors sometimes terrify patients by remarking "Oh, it is just a bit of arthritis" sending the patient reeling with vivid images of being crippled in every joint with rheumatoid arthritis. Given this prospect, many patients head home to 'suffer their arthritis', not understanding that there are many types of arthritis, many causes, several grades of severity and many highly effective treatments - but the earlier it is graded and the causation understood the more likely one is to slow or halt its progression.

Being told you have knee arthritis does not mean that you will inevitably end up with a knee replacement. These days it is often possible to slow this progression and have many more years of use of your knee. The sooner you understand the arthritic process and the stage at which you are with your own knee, the more you will be proactive and seek treatment which will delay or even arrest damage. In fact, this is probably one of the most up-and-coming areas of orthopaedics these days.