People in Asheboro NC who suffer from joint pain understand how it can limit every aspect of how well you can enjoy your life. Everyday movements, such as walking, sitting, bending, reaching, turning, affect the way in which you attack the most normal activities, such as getting out of bed, getting dressed, combing your hair, and performing daily chores. When your joints hurt, everything seems difficult. Just a normal part of aging, you say? Not necessarily so.
Aging does not have to hurt
Despite what many assume, we do not have to spend our later years suffering from joint pain. With so many treatment options available for joint pain, ranging from exercise and physical therapy to joint surgery, many Asheboro NC residents can now enjoy full and active lives well into their old age. Creaky, achy joints can be a thing of the past with proper treatment and certain changes in lifestyle.
Joint pain and osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of joint pain. It is due largely to aging and wear and tear on a joint. Cartilage is the firm, rubbery tissue that cushions your bones at the joints and allowing bones to glide over one another. When cartilage breaks down and wears away, the bones rub together. Pain, swelling, and stiffness follow. Bony spurs or extra bone may form around the joint. Ligaments and muscles around the joint become weaker and stiffer. This is the onset of osteoarthritis, and it usually appears in middle age. Almost everyone has at least some joint pain by age 70, but many times it is minor and requires no more than an occasional over the counter pain reliever to keep it under control.
Common causes of joint pain
Sports injuries are the most common cause of knee joint pain, but anyone can injure their knee badly, not just professional athletes. Knee injuries are very common and are often a result of a quick twist or a blow to the knee, or overuse of the knee joint. Knee injuries can persist for years and be disruptive to your way of life unless proper diagnosis and treatment is received. Recovery from many knee joint injuries can take a long time but proper healing is essential avoid joint pain later in life.
Shoulder joint pain is also very common, since the shoulder joint is used a lot in everyday activity. Normal range of motion to the shoulder joint is incredibly extensive, and when an injury or damage to the joint occurs from overuse, the joint becomes unstable. As with knee joints, pain, swelling and stiffness follow tissue damage. Unless treatment is undertaken before more serious damage is sustained, joint surgery is often necessary to relive shoulder joint pain.
Hip joint pain, also often caused by overuse damage which ultimately develops into osteoarthritis, is a common precursor to hip replacement surgery. The hip joint is designed to bear your body weight and propel you forward as you walk and bend. Because the hip joint has little healing capacity, joint pain can be severe.
Joint pain a common complaint
The human body does a great job of healing itself, so when joint pain occurs, most people simply take over-the-counter medications for their pain and wait for it to get better. With joint pain, however, it is important to be examined by orthopedic surgeons in Asheboro NC who can determine the cause of joint pain and prescribe effective treatment. Joint pain rarely goes away by itself.
While most orthopedic surgeons treat joint pain, at least initially, with medications and other non-surgical treatment such as physical therapy, cortisone treatments, or diet and exercise, the time may come when your joint pain becomes intolerable and orthopedic surgery is your only option. It may be time to consider joint replacement surgery.
If non-surgical treatment has not brought you relief from joint pain, your orthopedic surgeons may recommend that your damaged joint be replaced with an artificial joint. These artificial joints, fashioned out of metal and plastic, can be as good as the real thing, restoring movement and function.
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