Is My Joint Pain Arthritis?

When should you be concerned that sore, achy joints are a sign of arthritis? Arthritis is a leading cause of chronic pain and disability in the United States, and it affects millions of men, women and children every year. So you’re right to wonder if joint pain and other symptoms may be your body’s early warning signals of a serious condition. If you’re currently experiencing joint pain, keep reading to learn when it may be caused by arthritis.  

Is All Joint Pain Arthritis?

Not all joint pain is a sign of arthritis. A joint injury from a fall, car accident, sports accident, overuse or another incident may cause short-term pain, swelling and inflammation around a joint. Rest, activity modifications, ice and medications are usually all that’s required to heal a minor or acute joint injury within a few days or weeks. An injury to the surrounding tendons or ligaments can also cause short-term joint pain and symptoms that are treated with at-home care.

However, arthritis is the leading cause of joint pain. And if you’re experiencing long-term joint pain, stiffness and difficulty moving, it’s probably time to see your doctor and receive an evaluation. Keep reading to learn more about what arthritis is and the early warning signs.  

What Is Arthritis?

Arthritis is a general term that’s used to describe joint inflammation, pain and disease. It’s not a single disease — “arthritis” covers a wide spectrum of joint conditions and diseases. As of today, there are over 100 identified types of arthritis and related conditions. According to the Arthritis Foundation, over 50 million adults and 300,000 children have some form of joint disease.

Arthritis is a long-term, debilitating condition. Many people who have severe joint disease suffer from chronic pain and an inability to move around easily due to stiff, inflamed and damaged joints. Risk factors for developing arthritis include age (65+), previous joint injury, genes, gender (more women have arthritis) and obesity. 

The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA):

1.) Osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is also called “wear and tear” arthritis or degenerative arthritis. It’s a degenerative condition that develops when the smooth, protective cartilage covering the ends of bones starts wearing away. Cartilage cushions bone ends and enables frictionless, flexible joint movement. When cartilage erosion occurs, it leads to pain, inflammation and swelling within the joint. When cartilage completely wears away, it leads to painful bone-on-bone friction that limits joint movement. Osteoarthritis is a progressive disease that causes damage to the entire joint, including the joint and joint lining, underlying bone, and surrounding ligaments, tendons and muscles. Over time, progressive degeneration can cause chronic pain, loss of joint and muscle strength and difficulty walking, climbing stairs and performing daily activities.

2.) Rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is also called inflammatory arthritis. It’s an autoimmune disorder that develops when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues and joints. The attacks cause painful joint inflammation, swelling and stiffness. Like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis causes damage and degeneration to the entire joint, cartilage, underlying bone and surrounding soft tissues. Along with joint pain and symptoms, inflammatory arthritis can cause you to feel fatigued, weak and sick. Additionally, as inflammation spreads it may affect other internal organs.

Less common forms of arthritis include:

• Psoriatic arthritis
• Gout
• Ankylosing spondylosis 
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
• Infectious arthritis
• Reactive arthritis

If you think that your joint pain may be due to a form of arthritis, keep reading to learn early warning signs.    

Early Signs and Symptoms

When joint pain is caused by an acute injury, symptoms usually resolve within a few days to weeks with rest, ice and medications. Persistent pain and other symptoms may be early warning signs of arthritis. It’s time to see your doctor if you’re experiencing the following joint symptoms:

• Pain, especially after a lot of movement
• Stiffness and soreness first thing in the morning of after a long period of inactivity
• Swelling, redness, warmth and tenderness
• Loss of movement or range of motion
• Grating or grinding sounds with movement

Symptoms may present differently depending on what type of arthritis you have. Osteoarthritis symptoms usually start slowly and progress with time. While osteoarthritis can develop in any joint, it commonly affects large weight-bearing joints like the spine, hips, knees and feet.

Early rheumatoid arthritis symptoms may come and go in painful flare-ups or progress slowly with time. It usually affects small joints in the fingers and toes first, before spreading to other joints over time. Rheumatoid arthritis pain may be accompanied by other symptoms like fever, fatigue and loss of appetite.       

Treatment and Management

Currently, there is no cure for arthritis. It’s a long-term, chronic disease. However, early and aggressive treatment measures can help you manage symptoms and slow down the progression of damage. Your doctor may recommend a conservative treatment plan to help control your condition. Conservative measures include:

• Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications to reduce joint inflammation, pain and swelling
• Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and biologic response modifiers to block or prevent inflammatory markers in the body (for rheumatoid arthritis)
• Corticosteroid injections to temporarily reduce pain and inflammation
• Topical creams and ointments with capsaicin or menthol to block pain signals from achy joints
• Physical therapy to regain joint and muscle strength, flexibility and range of motion
• Low-impact exercises like swimming, walking and bicycling to maintain joint strength and movement
• Weight loss to reduce stress and pressure on weight-bearing joints

The treatments listed above can help reduce arthritis pain and other symptoms, but they can’t treat the underlying damage and degeneration. If conservative measures aren’t effective, your doctor may recommend a surgical procedure like a total joint replacement or joint fusion. While both procedures can help reduce pain and restore joint functionality, surgery has significant downsides. Surgery is costly, invasive and may require months of post-op rehabilitation to get you back up and moving again. 

If you’ve been diagnosed with arthritis or degenerative joint damage and told you needed surgery, you may be a candidate for an innovative treatment that targets the root cause of joint pain and damage. Keep reading to learn more about the iO-Core™ procedure.  

iO-Core Treats the Root Cause of Arthritis and Joint Pain

iO-Core™ is a minimally invasive procedure that combines orthopedics and biologics to treat degenerating cartilage and underlying bone and tissue damage caused by arthritis. 

Treating the underlying damage and not just the surface layer of cartilage has shown better results over “standard of care” methods in decreasing pain and improving mobility for many patients. That’s because the latest research has found that painful bone marrow lesions on the underlying bone are a significant source of pain and cartilage loss for people with advanced arthritis. Unfortunately, identifying and treating bone marrow lesions is an oft-neglected component of standard clinical treatment of arthritis. 

Many people who were told they needed a total joint replacement surgery have found long-term pain relief from iO-Core™ instead. Contact us today to see if you qualify for the iO-Core™ procedure.