Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people around the world. Often called wear-and-tear arthritis, osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of your bones wears down over time. While osteoarthritis can damage any joint in your body, the disorder most commonly affects joints in your hands, neck, lower back, knees and hips. Osteoarthritis gradually worsens with time, and no cure exists. But osteoarthritis treatments can slow the progression of the disease, relieve pain and improve joint function.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that typically affects the small joints in your hands and feet. Unlike the wear-and-tear damage of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of your joints, causing a painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.
An autoimmune disorder, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks your own body's tissues. In addition to causing joint problems, rheumatoid arthritis sometimes can affect other organs of the body — such as the skin, eyes, lungs and blood vessels.
Although rheumatoid arthritis can occur at any age, it usually begins after age 40. The disorder is much more common in women than in men. Treatment focuses on controlling symptoms and preventing joint damage.
Septic arthritis
Septic arthritis is an intensely painful infection in a joint. The joint can become infected with germs that travel through your bloodstream from another part of your body. Septic arthritis can also occur when a penetrating injury brings germs directly into the joint.
Infants and older adults are most likely to develop septic arthritis. The most common joints affected are the knees and hips. Septic arthritis can quickly and severely damage the cartilage and bone within the joint, so prompt treatment is crucial.
Treatment involves draining the joint with a needle or via an operation. Intravenous antibiotics also may be necessary to stop the infection
Traumatic Arthritis
"Arthritis" is defined as inflammation of a joint. The most common cause is wearing out of joint surface cartilage (osteoarthritis). Post-traumatic arthritis is caused by the wearing out of a joint that has had any kind of physical injury. The injury could be from sports, a vehicle accident, a fall, a military injury, or any other source of physical trauma. Such injuries can damage the cartilage and/or the bone, changing the mechanics of the joint and making it wear out more quickly. The wearing-out process is accelerated by continued injury and excess body weight.
Lumbar Spondylitis
Lumbar spondylosis can be described as a degeneration of the lumbar vertebrae. This means that the disease is progressive and irreversible. It mostly occurs in older patients. The lumbar region is mostly affected because this region is most exposed to mechanical stress due to the loading of the spinal segments while standing and the spinal motion. When a patient suffers from lumbar spondylosis, osteophytes can be formed. These are bony overgrowths that occur due to the stripping of the periost from the vertebral body. The formation of these osteophytes can cause neural foramental stenosis, which will produce pain. The patient can also experience joint stiffness, which will limit the motion.
Disc prolapse
A prolapsed disc often causes severe lower back pain. The disc often presses on a nerve root which can cause pain and other symptoms in a leg. In most cases, the symptoms ease off gradually over several weeks. The usual advice is to do normal activities as much as possible. Painkillers may help. Physical treatments such as spinal manipulation may also help. Surgery may be an option if the symptoms persist. This leaflet is about prolapsed disc in the lumbar spine (lower back). There is a separate leaflet about disc problems in the neck, called Cervical Spondylosis.
Cervical spondylosis
Cervical spondylosis is a general term for age-related wear and tear affecting the spinal disks in your neck. As the disks dehydrate and shrink, bone spurs and other signs of osteoarthritis develop.
Cervical spondylosis is very common and worsens with age. There also appears to be a genetic component involved because some families will have more of these changes over time, while other families will develop less.
More than 90 percent of people older than age 65 have evidence of cervical spondylosis and osteoarthritis that can be seen on neck X-rays. Most of these people experience no symptoms from these problems. When symptoms do occur, nonsurgical treatments often are effective.
Gout Arthritis
Gout is characterized by sudden, severe attacks of pain, redness and tenderness in joints, often the joint at the base of the big toe.
Gout — a complex form of arthritis — can affect anyone. Men are more likely to get gout, but women become increasingly susceptible to gout after menopause.
An acute attack of gout can wake you up in the middle of the night with the sensation that your big toe is on fire. The affected joint is hot, swollen and so tender that even the weight of the sheet on it may seem intolerable.
Fortunately, gout is treatable, and there are ways to reduce the risk that gout will recur.
Asthma
Asthma is a condition in which your airways narrow and swell and produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.
For some people, asthma is a minor nuisance. For others, it can be a major problem that interferes with daily activities and may lead to a life-threatening asthma attack.
Asthma can't be cured, but its symptoms can be controlled. Because asthma often changes over time, it's important that you work with your doctor to track your signs and symptoms and adjust treatment as needed.
Sinus
A sinus infection is inflammation or swelling of your sinuses. Normally, your sinuses are filled with air. When the sinuses become blocked and filled with fluid, bacteria can grow there and cause infection. This infection is sinusitis.
Ulcer
Ulcers are crater-like sores (generally 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch in diameter, but sometimes 1 to 2 inches in diameter) which form in the lining of the stomach (called gastric ulcers), just below the stomach at the beginning of the small intestine in the duodenum (called duodenal ulcers) or less commonly in the esophagus (called esophageal ulcers).
In general, ulcers in the stomach and duodenum are referred to as peptic ulcers.
The stomach is a bag of muscle that crushes and mixes food with the digestive "juices" - hydrochloric acid and pepsin. If the lining of the stomach (or duodenum) is damaged in one place or another, the acid and pepsin go to work on the lining as they would on food, breaking it down as though to digest it.
An ulcer is the result of an imbalance between aggressive and defensive factors. On one hand, too much acid and pepsin can damage the stomach lining and cause ulcers. On the other hand (and more commonly), the damage comes first from some other causes, making the stomach lining susceptible to even an ordinary level of gastric acid.
If a person does not receive treatment for ulcers, it could lead to a bleeding ulcer (the ulcer has eaten into blood vessels and the blood has seeped into the digestive tract), a perforated ulcer (the ulcer has eaten a hole in the wall of the stomach or duodenum and bacteria and partially digested food has spilled into the hole, causing inflammation) or a narrowing and obstruction of the intestinal opening preventing food from leaving the stomach and entering the small intestine.