What is Arthritis?
Arthritis is thought of as an illness of aging, affecting millions of older Americans. Almost everyone over the age of 50 will have a form of arthritis to some degree. It is almost as common in aging as wrinkles and gray hair. Chances are, if arthritis has not yet affected you, it will.

In simplest terms, arthritis is an inflammation of the joint. When inflammation is present, it is characterized by heat, redness, swelling and pain in the affected joint. Most often this occurs when a joint is strained, injured or otherwise irritated. In some people this may cause no symptoms or only occasional mild stiffness or pain. In others, it may be quite severe, causing permanent and disabling joint damage.

Pain is one symptom of arthritis, but only certain nerves carry pain messages. Unless these nerves are irritated, you will not feel pain. Because pain is a warning from your body that something is wrong, a person with no pain may not be aware they have arthritis. Arthritis can cause silent degenerative joint damage for years without pain.

While none of us can hope to stay young forever, we do not have to accept the progressive degeneration of this disease as inevitable. Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis affecting older adults, often responds positively to chiropractic treatment.

Types of Arthritis
The most widespread type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, also called degenerative joint disease and hypertrophic arthritis. Since it usually starts later in life, it is thought to be caused by too much wear and tear on the joints. Forty million Americans, including 80% of persons over 50 suffer from osteoarthritis. Often it affects the hands, especially in those who have used their hands a lot. However, it is most commonly found in the weight-bearing joints such as the knees, hips and the spine.

In the case of the spine, osteoarthritis may be a sign that it is out of alignment or balance. Frequently, this may be the result of an old injury to the spine such as a car accident or a sports injury. The lipping and spurring or bone growths often seen on x-rays are caused by additional calcium deposited in the joints. This is a form of the body's defense. It is trying to "splint" or stabilize the area by adding calcium to make the bone stronger. This can lead to further spinal imbalance and nerve irritation that may cause pain and improper function.

In contrast, rheumatoid arthritis usually starts earlier in life. It is a serious disorder in which your immune system attacks your joints, causing severe pain, inflammation, and often physical deformity. What causes it and why some spontaneously recover is a mystery. Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis differs from adult rheumatoid arthritis mainly in the age when it occurs. A higher rate of spontaneous remission is seen in the juvenile form and there are fewer cases where there is severe disability.

Medical Treatment of Arthritis
Standard medical management of arthritis is to treat the symptoms. Primarily, drugs including aspirin are prescribed to reduce the symptoms of pain, stiffness and inflammation. These are used extensively, however they may produce side effects including stomach upset, headaches, and dizziness. In some cases, physical therapy such as heat treatments or paraffin baths are prescribed to relieve joint stiffness. When nothing else helps, sometimes surgery is recommended as a last resort.

One thing is certain. While pain relievers like aspirin may temporarily ease discomfort, they also mask the symptoms. They do nothing to correct the source of the problem and may delay proper treatment. The cause of the problem must be addressed before lasting relief and good health can be restored.

The Chiropractic approach to Treatment
There's a good reason why Chiropractic Doctors have a high level of patient satisfaction among arthritis suffers. Medical management of illness too often treats the symptoms rather than the causes. The chiropractic approach is based on finding and correcting interferences to your body's own natural state of good health.

When spinal bones lose their normal position and motion, the disturbance to the spinal cord can profoundly affect delicate nerve tissue. The resulting interference with normal nerve flow starts a degenerative chain-reaction that can affect the health and function of every other system of the body. Doctors call this the Vertebral Subluxation Complex. Doctors of Chiropractic are the only professionals trained and educated in the diagnosis and correction of the Vertebral Subluxation Complex. Vertebral subluxations can lead to many health problems-including arthritis.

Your doctor's primary tool in treating the Vertebral Subluxation Complex is the use of manipulation or the spinal adjustment. By applying precisely directed force to a joint that is out of position or not moving properly, a more normal position and function is gradually restored. Once spinal alignment is improved through chiropractic adjustments, stress to the joints is reduced. Many elderly patients don't care for or are too fragile for manipulation. For those patients, alternate therapies, such as flexion / distraction, can be used. With more normal joint mobility restored, most patients experience a great reduction in pain and stiffness, and a reduction in the speed of spinal degeneration from arthritis.