Psoriatic Arthritis
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009What Is Psoriatic Arthritis?
Psoriatic Arthritis is a chronic condition that involves inflammation of both the skin and the joints. It affects people who have psoriasis with the later diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis possibly being made well after the condition has been present.
Psoriasis is a reasonably common condition that affects around 2% of the population and is often seen affecting the skin at the tips of the elbows, knees, the scalp, navel and genital area. The single greatest risk factor that you might develop psoriatic arthitis is having psoriasis and people who have psoriasis lesion on their fingernails are even more likely to develop psoriatic arthritis.
Swelling and pain in the scaly patches of the body that are affected by psoriasis is an indicator of psoriatic arthritis. The group of arthritis that psoriatic arthritis belongs to is the kind that causes inflammation of the spine, so this is a part of the body which may become affected, causing pain in the lower back and neck. The common areas affected by this arthritis are the knees, ankles and joints in the feet.
In the vast majority of cases the skin disease will precede the arthritis although this is not always the case. There have been some epidemiologists who have questioned the relationship between the psoriasis and the arthritis, putting the link between the two down to a chance association and a mere coincidence that they have both occurred in the same patient. However, the relatively high proportion of patients who exhibit both diseases makes it unlikely that they are completely unrelated events.
A few of the more common symptoms of psoriatic arthritis include swollen fingers and toes, otherwise known as dactylitis, foot pain sometimes caused by a condition known as enthesopathy which causes pain at the point where the tendons and ligaments attach to the bones, and spondylitis which is caused by inflammation of the joints between the vertebrae of the spine.
There are various treatments available for psoriatic arthritis that can be used to relieve the worst of the pain and swelling, but there is no cure for the disease. We will look at the treatment options available in another article.
There are also several types of psoriatic arthritis and these will also be described in a future article.
There are some dietary supplements and regimens that will help with the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. Find out about suggested foods to eat in the article about The Diet For Psoriatic Arthritis.
You can also find more information about the following topics on the Arthritis Recipes site