Anti-Aging Information

Infection is nothing to mess around with, especially when it involves one of your joints. Septic arthritis, specifically, is a medical emergency your doctor must recognize and treat immediately to avoid permanent damage to one of your joints. Your doctor should remove fluid from the infected joint quickly, analyze it, have the fluid cultured, and, if necessary, begin antibiotic treatment posthaste. Last, when an infection in a vital joint just isn't improving, open surgical drainage may be necessary. That's the time to call in the surgeon.

Gout goes back to Hippocrates, the legendary father of medicine, 2,500 years before our much-maligned Pickwickian gourmand ever began stuffing his face with sweetbreads only to grab an exquisitely painful big toe shortly thereafter. Gout is caused by the buildup of uric acid crystals, especially in the first joint of the toe. It is primarily a disease of adult men, uncommon before the third decade, but with a peak incidence in the fifth decade. Gout tends to run a painful course caused by elevation of uric acid, the product of purine or DNA breakdown, culminating in painful, gouty arthritis. Between attacks, gout crystals tend to deposit painlessly in the joints.

A high uric acid level in the blood can also cause indescribably painful kidney stones. Some women have compared these minuscule monsters to labor pains. Medically, there is an association between a high uric acid level with gout, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and abnormal lipids, cholesterol, and triglyceride.

There is no easy answer to joint pain. What's good for one type of disorder may only make another one worse. For example, the physical activity that helps the arthritis victim maintain motion in the affected joints can only make the pain of degenerative joint disease worse.

If you experience joint pain, don't get too worked up unnecessarily. The afflictions I mentioned aren't necessarily as dire as you think. A case of garden-variety arthritis, for example, can be treated with a medication as simple as aspirin. Obviously, early diagnosis and intervention can make all the difference between temporary, intermittent joint pain and painful, ultimately dysfunctional joint destruction. Recognizing the problem, seeking medical consultation, and pursuing the most logical solution is the commonsense approach.