Arthritis treatment guide – Part 7

Arthritis is a broad heading for an illness that encompasses over 100 different forms of inflammatory illness. Each individual condition is characterized by its own distinctive symptoms and although arthritis is most often associated with inflammation of the joints, many of the illnesses can affect other areas of the body including muscle, skin, lungs and kidneys. The chronic arthritis pain that often accompanies this inflammation is usually the reason as to why the individual sufferer seeks medical help. Although most often pain relievers are a major form of treatment for this disease, each form of the illness is treated on an individual basis, and for its own distinct characteristics.
There are five basic forms of arthritis treatment usually one or any combination of these five drugs will be used as a treatment that is prescribed for the arthritis sufferer. The three most common forms of treatment are Analgesics, Nonsteroidal medications or NSAIDs, and Steroids. Analgesics are a drug which is used specifically for arthritis pain relief, unlike Nsaids which focus on decreasing pain, fever and inflammation, analgesics are used only for the relief of pain.
Nonsteroidal treatments or NSAIDs as they are most commonly known, work to reduce pain, fever and inflammation, COX-2 Inhibitors fall into this drug category and act much like the typical NSAID, but these are generally a drug group that is much gentler on the stomach. Salicylate acid which derived its name from the willow tree is another nonsteroidal treatment. It can actually be obtained from the bark of a willow tree, and is commonly found at your drugstore under the label of acetylsalicylic acid, or ASA.
Corticosteroids, or Steroids as they are more commonly known as, are a powerful drug therapy used to rapidly reduce inflammation within the joints or organs.
Antirheumatic drugs or DMARDS are disease modifying drugs generally used in the treatment of autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis or myositis. These drugs can be used to suppress the immune system of the afflicted person, this way the disease progress itself can be slowed, or in some cases even brought to a complete state of remission.
Biological response modifiers are agents that are introduced into the human body to provoke a specific response mechanism from the body against a specific illness. These were first used in Rheumatoid arthritis patients who did not respond to traditional therapies.
Some drugs are disease
January 11, 2011 









