There’s no cure for arthritis, and your symptoms are likely to get worse as time goes by. Fortunately, Rafael Justiz, MD, and Alina Justiz, MD, at Oklahoma Pain Physicians have a range of treatments available that can help ease your pain and improve mobility. If you live in or near Oklahoma City or Norman, Oklahoma, you can benefit from their pain management expertise. Call today to schedule a consultation or request an appointment online.

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Arthritis Q & A

What is arthritis?

Arthritis affects your joints, causing chronic pain, inflammation, and stiffness. There are many different forms of arthritis – more than 100, in fact – but they all cause similar symptoms. The type of arthritis that affects most people is osteoarthritis, with rheumatoid arthritis as the second most common.

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Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a condition that mainly affects older people because it’s the result of years of wear-and-tear on your joints. Each of the bones in your joints has a protective substance covering it, called cartilage. Over time, cartilage can wear down, eventually exposing the bone beneath. The inflammation that leads to joint pain develops when the exposed bones start to catch and rub on one another.

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Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) usually affects younger people because wear and tear is not the cause; an autoimmune disease causes RA. With RA, your immune system attacks and destroys the joint linings.

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What are the symptoms of arthritis?

The pain from arthritis is a distinctive, throbbing ache radiating out from the affected joint. Your pain is likely to get worse at certain times, typically during wet, cold weather, when you’re feeling particularly stressed, and when you overexert yourself or do any kind of activity that’s different from your normal routine. Arthritis pain can become agonizingly intense during a flare-up and leave you barely able to move. Between flare-ups, you might be functioning almost normally, but never without at least a background aching in your joints.

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As arthritis worsens, your joints are likely to become increasingly stiff, while getting progressively weaker. This combination can start to make it hard to get up and down from your chair, kneeling becomes something to avoid, and eventually, joints can even begin to seize up. As well as being stiff, your joints can swell and might start to twist out of shape.

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What treatments are there for arthritis?

Treatment for your arthritis might depend to some extent on the type of arthritis you have. For example, DMARDs (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs) can be effective in treating inflammatory types of arthritis like RA but will not help if you have osteoarthritis. The Oklahoma Pain Physicians team creates a personalized treatment plan for your arthritis, which could include:

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• Physical therapy

• Menthol or capsaicin cream

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

• Prescription painkillers

• Steroid injections

• Hyaluronic acid injections

• Regenerative medicine

• DMARDs

• Biologic response modifiers

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It’s also important to help yourself by making changes like losing weight and quitting smoking, if applicable, or following a diet high in anti-inflammatory food, which can have positive benefits in relieving arthritis.

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If you have arthritis, call Oklahoma Pain Physicians today!