Osteoarthritis – Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment with Acupuncture

Osteoarthritis is a popular sort of arthritis that is affecting billions of people worldwide. It happens when your protective cartilage cushioning the edges of the bones wears over time.

Osteoarthritis can destroy any joint in your body. Commonly, it damages the spine, hips, knees, and hands. 

Therefore, when you start experiencing knee aches every day, you can’t even walk well, climbing the stairs becomes a challenge; you should visit a doctor before the pain starts giving you sleepless nights.

Osteoarthritis is one the most known to cause chronic knee pain. It leads to inflammation, pain, and stiffness, among others. It makes it hard to extend or flex the knee.

Symptoms of Osteoarthritis

The OA signs and symptoms often are gradual and get worse day by day and often result in chronic pain. It gets severe and intense, making your daily tasks difficult. 

Increased Pain

Theaffected joints may hurt due to the damages done at the end of your bones. The pain gets worse during and after any movements, during activities, and when at rest. The pain level increases as the day proceeds, and the possibility of more swelling. 

Limited range of movement

Your joints stiffen in case you are not active. You can quickly notice that after awakening. You might not move well due to pain and stiffness. It makes it hard to enjoy many activities that came quickly. 

Tenderness

In case you put any force or light upon your affected joints, the feeling you get is a bit tender.

Loss of flexibility

It becomes hard to move the joint while in a full range of motion.

Grating sensation.

While using any of the affected joins, there is a feeling of grating sensation. While at it, you experience a crackling or popping sound. 

Bone spurs

They are extra pieces of bones that are a hard lump that forms around your joints’ affected part. 

Increased inflammation and swelling

The synovial fluid within your affected joint might increase due to the inflammation of the soft tissues. Usually, the fluid overcomes friction when on movement, but it makes the joint swell if it increases. Any fragments of the broken-off cartilage might float in the synovial fluid; thus, the swelling and pain shoot up.  

Joint instability

The joints get less stable. A severe OA in your knees leads to locking, and you can barely move. You also experience buckling, and this can cause injury and falls. 

Causes of Osteoarthritis

OA is a result of joint damage. The destruction accumulates over time, leading to severe chronic pain. Age is one of the critical factors that lead to OA. Note that the older one gets, the more tear and wear the joints become. 

Often, OA has been named the “wear and tear” condition. Despite the malfunction of cartilage, it has a significant impact on the whole joint. Besides causing the joint lining inflammation, it leads to bone changes, and the connective tissues deteriorate, detaching the muscles from the bone.  

Osteoarthritis Treatment with Acupuncture.

Acupuncture is recognized as a potentially valuable remedy for osteoarthritis. Here, the doctor inserts a hair-thin needle into your body to help in anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects. 

Patients suffering from knee arthritis will respond strongly to electro-acupuncture. With moderate knee pain, a few numbers of acupuncture sessions produce excellent results. But with advanced arthritis or “bone-on-bone,” ongoing acupuncture is necessitated.

Call a Professional.

Clinical studies support the possibility of acupuncture to ease osteoarthritis pain, especially in your knee. Remember that acupuncture is the best option to minimize pain, stiffness, inflammation and improve your knee’s motion. White Crane Clinic is ready to improve the overall quality of life to better participate in other activities.