Arthritis is a painful condition that may stop you from doing the things that you love. The pain of this condition can affect almost any and every joint of the body. It most often affects the hands, knees, hips, neck and also the lower back. The condition gets worse over time and no cure is known. There are, however, treatments that can bring pain relief and help the patient become active once again.

Researchers have not been able to pin down the actual cause of osteoarthritis, however the condition may have several contributing factors. Those factors can include aging, heredity, injury, weak muscles and being overweight.

People do not normally begin to be aware of osteoarthritis until they reach about forty. This particular form of arthritis is more likely to develop in women. Sports injury are once of the factors that have been linked to the disease. Additionally, if your work puts extra stress on your joints it may be a factor in its development.

Often osteoarthritis becomes worse with age. The pain can become so severe that a person is no longer able to work or enjoy their favorite hobbies. The condition may develop to the point that a doctor encourages the person to have joint replacement surgery.

Several medications do help with the disease. Some of these are available over the counter and include acetaminophen that helps with pain, NASIDs that help with both pain relief and to relieve swelling. Ibuprofen is a NASID.

If over the counter medications are not treating the pain effectively, your doctor may prescribe Tramadol, or stronger pain killers such as Darvon or codeine. Finally he may prescribe cortisone shots.

Glucosamine, a naturally occurring substance is sometimes useful in the early stages of osteoarthritis. It has been shown to be without side effects in several studies and is available at Costco as Kirkland glucosamine. This affordable product has brought relief to many patients.

Once you find relief for the pain caused by arthritis, you will begin to feel better. You may feel so much better that you decide to pick up an old hobby that has been laid aside due to your pain from arthritis.

Perhaps you will want to pull out dreadnought acoustic guitar and fill the air with music once again. Fingers that had become useless on this instrument due to the pain of arthritis can become nimble again and you can enjoy your old friend.

Maybe, instead, you want to pull out the old PS2. If you can find the ps2 transformers, you can show the grandkids how a video game should be played. Your once again nimble fingers will let you fine tune your game while they are stuck in school.

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