FAQ Category: General

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most commonly used medications for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). They provide relief from the painful symptoms of OA. They do this by stopping the production of prostaglandins.

Prostaglandins are chemicals in the body that have a wide range of functions. One of those is to help the process of inflammation. By stopping prostaglandins, the inflammatory process is also halted.

However, studies have shown that one of the other functions of prostaglandins is to keep the joint cartilage healthy. Halting or impairing prostaglandins appears to make arthritis worse.

That’s one reason scientists are hard at work trying to find nondrug ways to stop inflammation. They are hoping to find ways to do this without negatively affecting the joint. Many types of nutraceuticals are being studied for OA. Nutraceuticals are natural plant products used as supplements to help promote health and prevent disease.

Some of the more commonly used nutraceuticals for OA include glucosamine and chondroitin. You may have also heard of SAMe. Other less well known substances used to manage OA include willow bark, evening primrose oil, and curcum (tumeric).

S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is a naturally occurring compound. It is found in every cell of the body. It is especially common in the brain and the liver. From what scientists know about SAMe, it appears to have an important role in many body functions.

For arthritis sufferers, it may help protect the joint surface. It helps the body make proteoglycans, an important step in the making of cartilage cells. SAMe has the ability to reduce the pain and inflammation that are often part of osteoarthritis (OA). How this works remains unknown.

SAMe seems to work better than a placebo (sugar pill). It may work as well as a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID), the most commonly used medication for OA. SAMe may not work as quickly as an NSAID. Pain relief is more likely to occur one to two weeks later.

But the pain relief may not last. Long-term effects may decline over time. This may be because SAMe is a mood elevator. It may actually work by decreasing a person’s perception of pain. Your mother-in-law may have benefitted from the short-term effects of SAMe. But its effects on joint cartilage are less well known.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a special agency of the United Nations (UN). It works to coordinate decisions on international public health. Many countries, including the United States, follow the WHO guidelines for measuring and reporting on various health conditions.

The WHO has developed a tool called the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF). The ICF uses three categories to help describe patients with any kind of health problem. These three measures include: impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions.

Impairments refers to problems in body functions or structures. This includes the body parts and organs. For example, if your Gramma has a problem with her hearing or vision, she would have a hearing impairment or visual impairment. If her liver wasn’t working properly, the doctor might say she has a liver impairment.

Sometimes impairments occur but we aren’t affected that much by them. If the affected individual has trouble doing something because of the impairment, then it’s called an activity limitation. So if her vision is impaired enough, she may not be able to walk without help from a person, cane, or seeing eye dog. This is an activity limitation.

And, if she has to give up driving because of it, then she has a participation restriction.

Whenever you take your grandmother to see a health care specialist, don’t hesitate to ask for explanations. The more the family understands of her situation, the better you’ll be able to help her remain independent for as long as possible.

Boniva is a medication that belongs to a general class of drugs called bisphosphonates. Bisphosphonates are anti-resorptive, which means they keep the bone from dissolving and being absorbed by the body. They are used most often by bone cancer patients or older adults with osteoporosis.

The use and effects of bisphosphonates has been studied in animals and adults. The first study in children was just done in Australia. Results were optimistic. They used the bisphosphonates in children and adolescents who had a traumatic hip injury. Femoral neck fractures were included.

A bone scan alerted the doctors to which patients had damage to the bone leading to bone death or necrosis. Intravenous bisphosphonate was used for an average of 20 months. It was given at six weeks and again three months after the injury and then every three months.

The results were very favorable. However this drug is still considered experimental for children. No one knows the best dosage to use or if there might be long-term side effects.

This same study showed that if the bone scan was negative, the children did not develop further problems with osteonecrosis. It might be helpful to start with this type of test to identify if your child is at risk.

Bones are living tissue, much like skin and other parts of the body, although because they are so hard, they may not seem to be living things. Because they are living, they produce cells. When a bone is broken, blood clots like it does if your skin is broken in a cut. As the blood clots, it sits between the broken parts of the bone and new tissue begins to form. If this tissue is allowed to be undisturbed, then it starts to seal the broken parts together. The important part is keeping this healing spot stabilized, so that the fracture can heal and this is where the brace or cast comes in. While most casts or braces are kept on for about 4 to 6 weeks, they can be kept on longer if the bone doesn’t seem to be healing properly.

When your cast is removed at 4 to 6 weeks, the fracture is not yet completely healed; it can take anywhere from 3 to 18 months for a bone to get back to its earlier strength. However, the bone is about 80 percent healed in most patients at this point.

Dystonia is a neurological problem that causes someone to move their muscles in unnatural ways. They can tighten up (contract), spasm, or twist. These contractions, spasms, and twisting may cause the arms and legs to look abnormal. Dystonia can happen on just one part of the body, one side of the body, or all over.

Dystonia itself isn’t painful, but as the muscles contract and spasm, even twist, this can cause pain.

The military used to have height requirements but these have been abandoned. There was no evidence that being taller was an advantage for a soldier. In fact, being short may help in some areas where soldiers must move through small spaces.

One of the most common injuries in soldiers is a stress fracture in the pelvis, knee, or foot. Although many risk factors have been identified, height is not one of them. However, females are at increased risk compared to males.

Your daughter is at greater risk of injury if she is in poor physical condition. Good muscle strength is needed to reduce strain on the bones during vigorous training. Jogging, marching, and long-distance running are the types of activities that can cause bone stress injuries.

The risk of stress injuries is greatest during the first eight weeks of basic training. The sudden increase in amount and intensity of exercise is linked with bone stress injuries.

Injury-prevention programs have become the focus of attention for the military. Identifying the risk factors first has been necessary before a prevention program could be started.

Occasionally, especially after surgery, clots form in the blood and follow the blood stream to the lungs. When these clots reach the lungs, they can block the arteries and this is a pulmonary embolism.

While most cases of pulmonary embolism do not cause death, they can. Because the artery to the lung is blocked, oxygen can’t get to the heart and can cause heart damage. When the damage is severe enough, this can cause death.

Anyone who is inactive for a while is at higher risk of developing a blood clots in the legs than is someone who is active. This is why nurses get freshly operated patients out of bed to move around, despite the discomfort or pain.

When someone is flying, not only are you not moving around, you are in a very cramped place most of the time. This means that you are not moving about. And, if you are predisposed or at high risk of getting clots, the risk rises while you are on the plane.

People at higher risk for clots are those who have a personal or family history of blood clots, people who are overweight, who have certain medical conditions such as hypertension, who take birth control pills, and people who smoke.

Your body needs vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, to help form your bones, cartilage, muscle, and blood vessels. You also need vitamin C to be able to absorb nutrients from your food, such as iron. Some people feel that vitamin C helps prevent colds or shortens their course.

According to the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board guidelines, men should consume 90 mg of vitamin C per day, women who are not pregnant should have 75 mg/day, women who are pregnant should have 85 mg/day, and women who are nursing should have 120 mg/day. No matter which group you are in, you should not take more than 2000 mg/day.

You can get vitamin C in many food sources. A few include citrus fruits, berries, apples, broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus.

CRPS, or complex regional pain syndrome, is diagnosed when other possible causes have been ruled out. CRPS is not a new illness; it was first identified in the Civil War among injured soldiers.

If your doctor suspects CRPS, it may be based on any or all of these tests:

For many years, we have believed that using a squat to lift is the best way to prevent back injuries. We’ve been told to hold the item close to the chest. This was supposed to reduce the compressive and shear forces on the spine during lifting.

With more advanced technology, scientists are now able to measure spine angles while a person uses different lifting methods. The same measurements can be taken holding the item close or far away from the body for comparison. Computer software programs can take the data and analyze what’s going on inside the spine.

More than one study has shown that the risk of back injury is the same no matter what method you use. That tells us there are other reasons you hurt your back while lifting. Scientists will start to shift their research focus now to look for these other factors that can cause lifting injuries.

Lupus otherwise known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder that can affect many parts of the body including the skin, joints, and organs.

Autoimmune means the immune system isn’t working properly. It recognizess body parts as foreign to itself. Then the immune system launches an attack against normal body tissue.

There are two main types of lupus. The first is discoid (also known as cutaneous) lupus. Discoid lupus only affects the skin. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects the skin and other tissues as mentioned.

Either type can be mild but SLE is chronic and can become progressive. Researchers are beginning to use genetic testing to identify subtypes. This will help establish the diagnosis earlier and direct treatment more specifically.

Medications in the bisphosphonate family that are used for osteoporosis can be harsh on the gut, or gastrointestinal system.

To take the medication safely and effectively, the pill should be taken on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning, with a full glass of water. At this point, it’s very important to stay upright, either sitting or standing and not to lie down at all. In fact, it’s so important that people who cannot sit upright or stand for 30 minutes shouldn’t take these medications.

After 30 minutes, you can eat or drink, but it’s still advised that if you are going to lie down, to make sure that you eat first.

Following these instructions should reduce the chances of developing side effects like painful swallowing or heartburn.

Bisphosphonates strengthen your bone by slowing down the resorption, or process of bone loss. This gives the cells that form bone more time to make new cells. We all lose bone mass as we get older, but women lose more bone mass at a faster rate after they go through menopause. These medications slow down this loss.

The sun’s rays are actually the best known source of vitamin D, but since many people live in such a way that getting natural vitamin D might be difficult, they may need to make sure they get it through foods and supplements.

Unlike other vitamins, vitamin D isn’t that readily available in many foods. Some countries, like the United States and Canada, fortify some foods like milk, yogurt, and breakfast cereals with vitamin D. It does also occur naturally in many types of fish, such as salmon and cod liver oil is a good source. You can also get a small amount of vitamin D from whole eggs.

Vitamin D is important to our overall health. The most well-known effect of vitamin D deficiency is rickets, a disease that children can get if don’t get enough of the vitamin. It causes their bones to get soft and their long bones, like in the legs, can bend or break.

Recent studies suggest that people who take regular, approved doses of vitamin D may reduce their chances of developing certain types of illnesses and cancers. Researchers are also looking at how the vitamin may be associated with disorder such as multiple sclerosis, depression, chronic pain.

There is much you can do to reduce the risks of osteoporosis and the earlier you start the better. The most important things you can do is to be sure to do weight-bearing exercises like waking, dancing, anything that puts weight onto your bones. That’s how they build strength. Be sure to eat a healthy diet with plenty of vitamin D and calcium to give your bones the necessary nutrients. Don’t smoke and, if you are entering menopause, you may want to speak with your doctor about hormone replacement and if it is right for you.

There are also medications available to help stop bone mass loss and rebuild mass. Again, speak with your doctor to see what is best for your treatment plan.

There are several drugs out now for the treatment of osteoporosis (brittle bones). The main class of drugs you’re referring to is called bisphosphonates. The specific drugs in this class started out with Fosamax (alendronate).

Now drug manufacturers have come up with several others in the same drug family. These include risedronate (Actonel), ibandronate (Boniva), and pamidronate (Aredia). Still being investigated is zolendronate (Zometa), which can be given in a single intravenous dose once a year.

One study that compared these drugs for a year in postmenopausal osteoporosis showed that Fosamax increased bone mineral density slightly more than the others. But the difference wasn’t enough to suggest everyone should switch from one to the other.

There is much work to be done to sort out the answer to your question. These drugs may improve bone density, but do they reduce the risk of fracture? And which one works best for that? More study is needed to find out.

Researchers are also looking at the effects on bone density and fracture rates. Postmenopausal women who take a combination of drugs and supplements for their osteoporosis are often the main target of the research. There’s a need to study the effect of bisphosponates on men as well.