Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2014/January 2015 | Page 80

FASHION HEALTH & BEAUTY

There are ways to ease
the burden of arthritis
A

rthritis can be caused by a number
of conditions, including wear
and tear, rheumatoid arthritis
and gout, it affects millions of people
nationwide, and thousands here on the
Island, writes Peter White.
Wear and tear arthritis, medically known
as osteoarthritis is not life-threatening,
but can be extremely painful and
uncomfortable and sadly there is still
no real cure on the horizon to ease the
burden of this type of arthritis.
However, there are ways to help cope
with the condition, whichever form
it comes in - either osteoarthritis or
rheumatoid arthritis. I went along to St
Mary’s Hospital to speak to Dr Mark Pugh
(right), consultant rheumatologist who
has been working on the Island since
January 2003, and prior to that was a
consultant in Solihull, West Midlands.
Mark explained: “With osteoarthritis you
get failure of the cartilage in the joints,
where as rheumatoid arthritis starts to
attack the lining of joints which then
damages the cartilage and bone. Typically
rheumatoid arthritis is regarded as a more
severe form of arthritis although you can
have mild rheumatoid arthritis, and in that
case severe osteoarthritis is much worse.
“The classical symptoms of arthritis are
pain, stiffness and swelling. Some of the
drugs we use to treat rheumatoid arthritis
can help the symptoms of osteoarthritis,
especially in the early phases of the
condition, although it doesn’t improve the
long-term outcome.
“There are several causes of
osteoarthritis, but it is the most strongly
inherited of all common types of arthritis,
so if your mother and father had dodgy
knees or back, there is every likelihood you
will go the same way. Symptoms can come
on quite suddenly and in lots of places. It
can be in one joint or in many joints, and
in small or big joints.” So if you suffer from
osteoarthritis, the question is what next?
Mark said: “It is important to stay mobile,

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and generally not rest the joint. Even if
using it causes discomfort, it keeps the
muscles strong, which in turn helps the
joint. With strong muscles you normally
get less pain. If you are carrying extra
weight, then reducing that also helps and
slows down the rate that your hip, knee or
back will wear out.
“If you wear padded footwear, like
trainers, that reduces the symptoms,
particularly in the knee and to a lesser

extent the hip. My advice is if you do
something today; are aching stiff
tomorrow but by the day after you feel ok,
that’s all right. But if you do something
and wipe yourself out for three or four
days, you have obviously overdone it , but
you have exercised the right bit, because it
has complained. So you need to find your
baseline, and over three months of more
exercise you should get less pain.”
Mark has no evidence that cutting down