Imagine if all the diseases had no signs and symptoms at all. Just waking up one day and find part of your body does move or when it moves you feel a lot of pain. Symptoms provide the ability of the early evidence of one having a disease or a medical condition. Some diseases have distinctive symptoms while other have symptoms that cannot be associated with one single disease. The signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis are thus important for ascertaining the existence of pain and seeking medical attention immediately. All the arthritis disease comes with pains of the joints and in most cases, results in joint swelling.
Symptoms of Osteoarthritis
There are many symptoms of osteoarthritis. Even so not all the symptom will be evident when one is suffering from osteoarthritis. The symptoms vary too depending on the joint that is affected
Main Symptoms Osteoarthritis
Cracking of joints- The joints may produce cracking sound when moved. This is especially when the joint is moved after a long time of not moving. The cracking sound results from pressure being released from the joint. It is most common as a symptom of osteoarthritis. Even so, the cracking of joint can occur in healthy joints.
Swelling around the joint- osteoarthritis result to destroying the structure of the joint and this could lead among other things swelling of the joint due to the accumulation of the synovial fluid due to thickening of the synovium layer. The degree of swelling varies with the level of the effect of the osteoarthritis. Even so other forms of arthritis can have similar swelling when they affect the joints.
Pain– This is very common in the osteoarthritis patients. The swelling and the friction between the joints when the cartilage wears off the result to this pain. The pain severity is very in advance level of osteoarthritis. Even a slight movement of the joint result to pain. However, in some case, the patient may have osteoarthritis but won’t feel the pain especially in the early stage of the condition as symptom of osteoarthritis.
Stiff joints– This occurs especially when the leg have relaxed for long. The stiffness, however, subsidizes when one continuously moves the joint. The stiffness is due to the reduced flexibility of joints.
Limited range of movement– The joint may sometimes stop working normally due to the weakening of the muscles of the joint or the joints becoming weak. This many results to the joint not moving freely and when forced to work as normal the patient feels intense pain. The limited movement usually occurs in severe and advanced osteoarthritis.
Joint deformities– This is the worst-case scenario where the joints become deformed due to the growth of the bones when they try to self-repair. The symptom, however, occurs during the advanced stage of osteoarthritis.
The symptoms are common for most patients with osteoarthritis. The symptoms of osteoarthritis may, however, differ from one patient to the other without a scientifically proven reason. There are many other symptoms relating to osteoarthritis. Even so, the symptom does not really mean that one has the condition until it is proven.
