Telehealth programs covering diet plans and at-home exercises are resulting in better symptom management among patients who are suffering from osteoarthritis. Orthopedic specialists are now quite helpful regarding the treatment of osteoarthritis among patients.
What is Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and is also known as wear and tear arthritis. Body joints are responsible for most of our body movements and joint health is critical in this regard. However, conditions like arthritis can affect our joint health to a greater extent and can leave us with painful joints that ultimately affect our mobility. The condition is quite common and any of your body joints can get affected by this.
Though any of our body joints can get affected by this, however, the joints that bear most of our body weight are most affected by the condition. Thus, our knee and foot joints are most affected by the condition. In osteoarthritis, joints become painful because of the breakdown of cartilage.
Cartilage is the connective tissue that is found throughout our body. Cartilage cushions our joints and limits the resistance that occurs during the movement of joints. In the case of osteoarthritis, this cartilage is no longer there to limit this friction and thus friction between the joints results in painful, swollen and inflamed joints.
Stages of Osteoarthritis
There are four stages of osteoarthritis depending upon the clinical signs and severity of the condition. Four stages of osteoarthritis include:
- Stage 1: At this stage of osteoarthritis, there is no obvious pain in affected joints and only minor wear and tear begins. This generally doesn’t require any treatment.
- Stage 2: This is the mild stage of osteoarthritis. At this stage, joint wear and tear become obvious and there is evident bone spur growth at the end of knee joints. Treatment at this stage usually consists of lifestyle interventions as well as supplements to relieve the joint pain.Â
- Stage 3: This is the moderate stage of osteoarthritis and during this stage, the cartilage present in the joint area starts eroding. This erosion results in painful and inflamed joints that start affecting your everyday activities.Â
- Stage 4: This is the most severe form of osteoarthritis and during this stage, there is complete damage to the cartilage and there the inflammatory response is quite severe. In this stage, joints become stiff and everyday activities become quite challenging as future of tech.Â
Body Weight and Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis as told earlier in a condition that mostly affects the joints that bear most of our body weight. For this reason, bodyweight comes as an important risk factor for osteoarthritis. The heavier a person weighs, the more weight it adds to your joints. So, your body weight directly affects your chances of suffering from osteoarthritis. So, keeping your body weight under control comes as an effective strategy to minimize your chances of suffering from osteoarthritis.
Not only this, but bodyweight management in osteoarthritis patients is an important part of any treatment plan. With restricted mobility and painful joints, arthritis management with physical activity is important. There are physiotherapy centres that treat patients accordingly and engage them in a variety of physical activities required for their optimal joint health. This helps with the management of the symptoms in osteoarthritis patients. However, during the recent COVID pandemic, many things changed from the provision of healthcare facilities to the way we get our medicines delivered.
Telehealth Services and Osteoarthritis
Telehealth services came to rescue us during this time. We witnessed a shift from physical to online and this changed our consumer’s behaviour as well as gave a new dimension to the healthcare service provider nascentindia. The positive effects of these services aren’t limited and were known to help osteoarthritis patients.
A recent study that was based on trials with osteoarthritis patients, revealed that the osteoarthritis patients who were engaged in telehealth programs for weight loss ultimately showed symptoms improvement. This telehealth program involved at-home exercises that patients were able to do at home. The trial was video-based and included weight loss programs and other educational support regarding the management of osteoarthritis treatment. All these resulted in better management of osteoarthritis giving us a new hope to build a healthy digital world for osteoarthritis sufferers.