When you feel aches and pains in places like your lower back or knees, you may wonder whether it’s due to osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. The fact is that both of these types of arthritis will lead to significant joint deterioration and cause them to function inadequately. However, there are a number of differences between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, which is something we will dive into a little deeper in this article.
While both OA and RA result in pain, stiffness, and swelling, you are not destined to live out the rest of your life with these uncomfortable symptoms. There are ways to treat and reduce the painful symptoms, thanks to a few powerful and natural ingredients. However, you should first learn to tell the difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
What Is Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most commonly occurring type of arthritis. Currently, nearly 30 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis. What occurs is that cartilage that is capping your bones where your joints are located wears away. There is a special membrane that is lubricating and protecting your joints, called synovial. When this membrane experiences inflammation, you start to feel pain and swelling in your joints. Osteoarthritis can also lead to joint erosion.
A major difference between OA and RA is that someone with osteoarthritis will have symptoms that are localized to their joints. Additionally, there will be lumps underneath the skin near the joints, which is similar to what sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis experience. However, the difference is that these lumps in people with OA are bone spurs, rather than tender nodules.
Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, pain is not felt symmetrically. You may experience pain in your left knee, but not in the right one. Another common experience is that you feel pain in joints on both sides of your body, but one side will give you more pain than the other. People with OA will usually feel pain in their hands, fingers, spine, hips, and knees.
A common issue people with OA experience is stiffness in the morning. Upon waking up, this stiffness is at its worst. However, as the day progresses, this tends to go away. Even just a few minutes of mobility and light stretching will eliminate the stiffness. There are also situations where someone with OA will experience the same kind of stiffness returning after being stationary for an hour or more.
There are many who inaccurately believe that osteoarthritis is something you have to accept when you get older and that you have to learn to live with the pain. However, there are new ways to approach the joint pain that osteoarthritis leads to, which means you can live a relatively pain-free life, even when you have OA. You will be able to improve your mobility, reduce pain, and enjoy your life to the fullest. We will go over a powerful way to reduce joint pain caused by OA a little later.
What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when a person’s immune system begins attacking their own joints. This is why it is considered to be an autoimmune disorder. Due to the autoimmune process occurring, inflammation occurs within that individual’s body. Your body is basically attacking itself. Even the membrane around your joints becomes viewed as a threat as if it was a foreign virus invading your body.
Once your body starts attacking your joints, fluid begins to build up within them. This leads to the following issues:
- swelling
- pain
- stiffness
- inflammation
Besides the issues mentioned above, there are unique symptoms that people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis get, which can affect many parts of the body beyond joints. Here are some of the early warning signs of having rheumatoid arthritis:
- fever
- aching muscles
- overwhelming fatigue
When someone has a more advanced case of RA, they will notice that there are lumps, called rheumatoid nodules, under the skin close by the joints. These can feel tender when touched.
People with RA will also experience morning stiffness, as sufferers of OA do. However, this does not go away as the day progresses, even with increased mobility. If you have prolonged joint stiffness in the mornings that do not seem to go away, you are likely noticing one of the first symptoms of RA.
The pain that sufferers of RA experience start in small joints, such as in the fingers. Feelings of those joints being stiff, painful, and swelling up is common. From there, the symptoms move onto the larger joints, including the knees, shoulders, and ankles. Another glaring difference between RA and OA is that when you have RA, you feel these symptoms in joints located on both sides simultaneously. RA symptoms get progressively worse over time. You may be unsure if you have RA at first, due to the initial symptoms sometimes being flu-like.
How to Help Prevent and Treat Joint Pain
Whether you suffer from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, you can enjoy relief from the aches and pains. JointFuel360 is a powerful and natural joint supplement that is packed with helpful and effective ingredients. These will help to protect your joints and significantly reduce the pain you experience. Potent antioxidants like resveratrol, anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric powder and black pepper extract, and joint-protecting ingredients like type II collagen and hyaluronic acid all help treat joint pain.
Wrapping Up
Whether you have osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, you can finally get your body feeling like it did before all the pain and swelling began. With the help of a powerful joint supplement like JointFuel360, you can both treat and prevent joint pain in the future. While you may be unable to fully release yourself from the hold that osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis has on your life, you can definitely reduce its grip over your life and how you feel.
The post Is It Osteoarthritis or Rheumatoid Arthritis? appeared first on JointFuel360 Official.
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