May is Arthritis Awareness Month: What is Osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common diagnosed pathology that affects people throughout the world. Most likely, you know many people diagnosed with it. If you have recently been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, or are trying to get answers, hopefully I can assist you in this blog! There are several things that you can do to help alleviate pain (hint: one of them is physical therapy) but first let us learn what osteoarthritis is.

What is Osteoarthritis?

There are several types of arthritis, the most common form is osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is often called the "wear-and-tear" arthritis because it happens at the major joints with a breakdown of cartilage. Cartilage is a protective cushion around the joint. When this breaks down, it can lead to inflammation and pain in the joint. 

Symptoms of Osteoarthritis

OA is often associated with multiple symptoms. You may be experiencing one or more of these:

• Stiffness in joints in the morning or after sitting for an extended period of time
• Locking or catching in the joint
• Pain during activity and then relief when you rest
• Decreased range of motion in the joint
• Inflammation, swelling, and redness around the joint
• Increase bone growth around the joints, also called bone spurs
• Cracking, creaking, or crunching noises in the joint and associated with pain
• Tenderness with pressure around the joint

Factors that increase your risk for Osteoarthritis

There are many factors that lead to an increased risk in getting OA:

• Naturally, as we age, cartilage tends to break down due to wear-and-tear
• If we have a past injury to that specific joint, it may lead to an increase chance of OA at that joint
• Your genetics can play a role. Some people have more difficulty forming cartilage. Your family history can tell you if you may have higher chances of getting OA
• Obesity leads to increased stress on weight-bearing joints
• Occupations that are stressful to the body, such as construction, mining, landscaping, etc.
• Sports with repetitive stress on the joints
• Not moving around: decreased movements lead to poor nutrients for the joint and increased breakdown in the cartilage

Ways to help manage Osteoarthritis symptoms

Here are several ways to help manage your OA symptoms to decrease pain, inflammation, and flare ups:

• Healthy food and nutrition: to help with weight management and inflammation
• Quit/avoid smoking
• Speak with your general practitioner about pain management
• Assistance devices to help decrease weightbearing through those affected joints
• Lifestyle modifications: switch out activities that could be aggravating your symptoms with new ones. Physical therapists are super helpful with this topic!
• Physical Therapy!

How can Physical Therapy help Osteoarthritis symptoms?

Physical Therapist are movement experts. Our job is to help patients manage pain, improve their function, move safely, and slow down the progression of the disease. Unfortunately, we cannot get rid of Osteoarthritis, but we can help eliminate symptoms or keep them from progressing!

Treatments may include: 

• Education on lifestyle modifications and how to manage the symptoms with your everyday life. This could include modifying activities, learning how to activate muscles to help with stair climbing, ergonomic postures, and many other suggestions
• Low-impact aerobic exercises
• Targeted strengthening of muscles to support the joints
• Manual therapy
• Education on aquatic therapy and what exercises or activities to perform
• Pain management modalities

No matter what you may be experiencing, if you have just been diagnosed with osteoarthritis or have been noticing these symptoms for years, you may benefit from seeing your local physical therapist. They can help you through these symptoms and empower you to be able to still enjoy the activities that you love to do without letting OA limit you. If you are looking for more information on how physical therapy can help, here is a link to one of our other blog posts. If you are in the Falls Church or Arlington, VA area, reach out to us and schedule an appointment today to get you active and enjoying the spring weather without pain!

Author

Alana Hamilton Alana Hamilton is a physical therapist at Advantage Physical Therapy in Falls Church, Virginia. She is a proud Hokie from Virginia Tech with a major in Biology and a minor in psychology and sociology. Following graduation, she immediately got her doctorate in Physical Therapy from Radford University. She is an avid fan of Pilates, running, and hiking. On the weekends, she can be found hanging out with her family and babies as well as doing Spartan races with her old physical therapy classmates and friends. She is a big believer that during rehabilitation, "Motion is the Lotion" and that staying active is key to remaining healthy.