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The mornings are the worst when joint and bone pain prevents you from getting out of bed, and every body movement becomes torture. You feel tired, helpless, and the thought of having to do even the simplest of life activities fills you with fear. Because each of them causes unbearable suffering. This is how a complex of about 200 diseases of bones and joints manifests itself, collectively known as rheumatism.
All over Europe suffer fromrheumatismaround 100 million people, in our country - 9 million. that is, every 5th Pole, and for this reason he receives a pension of one and a half million. The diseases, although they differ in symptoms or course, unexpectedly attack everyone: women, men, children, regardless of age. According to scientists from Harvard University in Boston, the number of deaths caused by rheumatic diseases may increase by up to 40 percent over the next two decades. Already now, patients live on average 10 years shorter than others.
Motor rehabilitation stops the development of rheumatism
The therapy of rheumatism is comprehensive and includes individual, depending on the degree of disease development, the selection of pharmacological agents, diet and the entire range of rehabilitation methods. Medicines reduce the body's production of inflammatory mediators, the substances that cause the disease, and stop their release. It is also necessaryrehabilitation motor, and therefore a system of exercises, without whichjointsbecome more and more deformed. It sounds like a paradox, but it is movement, painful as it is, that prevents the disease from progressing. Its absence adversely affects the nutrition of the articular cartilage and the production of a special fluid through the synovium, the task of which is to reduce friction between the elements that make up the joint. Proper rehabilitation is very important for the efficiency of the joints: massages, heat and cold treatment, electrotherapy, ultrasound therapy, magnetotherapy and physical activity. But in order to be able to rehabilitate yourself, it is necessary to get rid of the paralyzing pain.
ImportantSubstances produced by the body, called inflammatory mediators, are responsible for the painful and long-lasting symptoms of inflammation of the joints and surrounding tissues. prostaglandin and histamine. They are produced and released by inflammation cells: granulocytes and lymphocytes (white blood cells), platelets, macrophages and mast cells.
Remedies for joint pain
The approach to the disease and the methods of its treatment have changed. It used to be about fighting symptoms: pain, inflammation and restriction of movement in the affected joints. Prescribed pharmacological agents had many side effects dangerous to the gastrointestinal tract. The so-called therapeutic pyramid, i.e. the weakest but the least harmful drugs were administered first, and only as the disease progresses, stronger and stronger. Today, for example in rheumatoid arthritis, powerful cytostatic drugs blocking cell division are introduced at the very beginning, for example methotrest or cyclosporine, which in many patients can completely inhibit the progress of the disease. In severe cases, only the latest generation medications, the so-called biological drugs. They bind uncontrolled white blood cells that develop and damage the joints. Thanks to these measures, white blood cells become biologically inactive and the development of the disease is inhibited
According to an expertprof. dr hab. med. Jacek Szechiński, national consultant in the field of rheumatologyEarly and correct diagnosis gives a great chance to stop the development of the disease. Treatment can be very effective because many disease-modifying drugs have been introduced. In many cases, biological treatments offer a chance of success. If the diagnosis is made too late, the changes become irreversible. However, treatment with biological drugs is very expensive, their monthly value for the patient is about PLN 5,000, which means that the availability is very limited. Last year, only 200 patients could benefit from this boon.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
It is a disease of the immune system which, instead of defending the body against harmful bacteria, viruses and other harmful factors, produces substances called inflammation mediators, and they begin to destroy the body's own tissues. They attack the synovium that lines the joints, destroying it and starting inflammation. First, there is pain and swelling in one joint - the knee, hand, or foot. The number of damaging cells increases uncontrollably and the disease spreads to other joints and organs. No one has yet answered the question of what causes the immune system to turn against its body. It is known, however, that the probability of developing the disease may be increased by certain genetic defects in the family. Previous viral infections, stress and endocrine disorders may be the triggering factors. RA occurs completely unexpectedly,it attacks people between 30 and 50 years of age, and the victims are three times more often women than men (presumed to be related to the cessation of the production of certain hormones). In most cases, it damages or destroys joints and damages internal organs, leading to permanent disability. The sick person feels tired, has no appetite, has difficulty moving, is affected by deformation and stiffening of the joints, and most of all suffers constantly. Pain makes it impossible for him to move and perform simple life activities, disturbs sleep. All this means that every third patient suffering from RA loses the ability to work within two years from the diagnosis of the disease. Mental changes are also dangerous. The feeling of helplessness in the face of illness, fear of suffering makes the patient withdraw into himself, isolate himself from the environment and often become depressed.