A Useful Guide to Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment
If you suffer from conditions affecting your bones, muscles, and joints, it is important that you seek the help of a rheumatologist. These are your go-to medical doctors for arthritis conditions as well as those that affect these three parts of your body. For those who have been diagnosed by these doctors with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), you will be prescribed a bunch of rheumatoid arthritis treatment options.
While you can choose from various rheumatoid arthritis treatment choices, they will have more or less the same goals. Basically, these treatments are offered to improve the general health of the patient as well as modify the disease process, reduce systemic inflammation, reduce symptom duration and severity, and send the disease into remission.
When it comes to these rheumatoid arthritis treatments, they are done to treat the disease primarily and even aggressively deal with its causes. However, patients are still entitled to receive relief from the symptoms of RA.
One of the most common approaches to treating RA will be through its symptoms. Prescribing you with over the counter medications and supplements is something that doctors commonly do to deal with mild to moderate symptoms of RA like stiffness and joint paint. Using pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs is often enough to deal with these symptoms.
The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen are effective for symptoms of low grade. However, their continued use is not recommended because of their serious side effects like stomach bleeding. For relief of more severe pain, over the counter or prescription pain relievers are given like hydrocodone, opioids, and oxycodone.
There may be a need to have surgery done if the affected part of the joint called synovial membrane is inflamed. By extracting the inflamed synovial fluid through surgery, the joints can be preserved. You know that there is inflammation on this part of the joint because of its discoloration. This also determines if a person has RA or not. This surgery is helpful if the RA is still not developed fully with a success rate of 50%.
Surgery as a rheumatoid arthritis treatment option usually takes place on the ankles, feet, knees, shoulders, and elbows. The surgery requires intact cartilage while physical therapy is necessary after the procedure.
There are additional rheumatoid arthritis treatment options that you can try if you suffer from RA besides medications and surgery as advised by your doctor. For instance, if you suffer from RA symptoms, you can do some exercises and change your diet. When it comes to your diet, you can avoid high fat and high protein as well as dairy and grains. For improved immunity and overall health, doing exercises and living a stress-free lifestyle can also help you. Just remember that during the recovery periods of RA, you should not be doing too much of your exercise routines. There are also supplements like fish oil that helps people who are suffering from RA. Just keep in mind to talk to your rheumatologist first about these things.
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