Arthritis
Arth- means Joints and Itis- means Inflammation degenerative joint disease, known as Sandhi Vata in Ayurveda.
It is often caused by the wear and tear on a joints over a lifetime leads to pain, swelling and stiffness as bones rub together resulting in the process of gradual degeneration of the body. It is most often found in the hands, knees, hips and spine. The physical disability arising from pain and loss of functional capacity reduces quality of life and rises in further morbidity.
Symptoms of Arthritis
Common symptoms include:
- Pain: During joint movement.
- Joint Stiffness and crepitation: Joint Stiffness after a period of not moving, such as in the morning or after sitting for a long time followed by crepitus that is specific crackling and creaking sound during joint movement along with pain
- Muscle weakness: Surrounding to the arthritic joint, exclusively for arthritis in the knee
- Swelling
- Deformed joints: As rapid progress in osteoarthritis, joints may begin to look crooked or misshapen.
Reduced range of motion
Stages of Arthritis
Stage 1 – Minor
Stage 1 Patients will advance to very minor wear & tear and bone spur growths at the end of the knee joints. However, at this stage it is unlikely to feel pain or discomfort.
Stage 2 – Mild
In Stage 2, X-rays of knee joints will show more bone spur growth, though the gap between the bones appear normal, people will begin facing symptoms of joint pain. Normally, the area near to the knee joints will feel stiff and uncomfortable, particularly when sitting for long period, after rising in the morning or after a workout, even cartilage and soft tissues are in healthy condition.
Stage 3 – Moderate
Stage 3 is where there is obvious erosion to the cartilage surface between bones and fibrillation narrows the gap between the bones. Bones advances to develop spurs at the joints as it becomes rougher.
With the advancement of osteoarthritis of the knee there is obvious joint inflammation which causes frequent pain when walking, running, squatting, extending or kneeling. Along with joint stiffness after sitting for long or when waking up in the morning, there may be popping or snapping sounds when walking.
Stage 4 – Severe
During this stage the joint space between the bones are considerably reduced, causing the cartilage to wear off, leaving the joint stiff. The breakdown of cartilage destroys the soft tissue around the joint leads to a chronic inflammatory response, with decreased synovial fluid that causes friction, greater pain and discomfort when walking or moving the joint.
The progressive stage of the disease shows development of more spurs causing severe pain, which makes even everyday chores, including walking and descending stairs a challenge.
Ayurveda for Osteoarthritis Treatment
Ayurveda goal of Osteoarthritis treatment is not only controls symptoms but also prevent disease progression, minimize disability, improve the quality of life and also to set right the above said causative factors which lead to formation of OA.
For Osteoarthritis, Ayurveda has broad spread treatments based on severity and stages of the disease from mild to severe.
In general, the treatment can be classified into the following types-
Ayurveda has various treatment modalities in treating OA. Type of treatment and its duration depends purely on the basis of severity of the disease.