Aadvika’s articles

Author: Aadvika Yatagiri

Growing up, there was only one thing I wouldn’t trust my mom on. That’s when I’m cracking my knuckles… she yells at me saying that I’m going to get… Arthritis. The amount of facebook reels my mom watches makes me wonder which reel she got this off of. And everytime she does tell me this, my older sister for the very few times in life steps up and becomes my hero, by explaining what cracking my knuckles actually look like. You see… between our joints, we have little bubbles that cushions them. Once we start cracking your knuckles, they pop! Then it takes about 20 minutes to reform as the cycle starts again. My mom always ignores the facts when we mention them and goes back to her fake false Facebook reels. And I never used to think of arthritis seriously, until my aunt got diagnosed with it this year. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion notes that, “An estimated 1 in 4 U.S. adults report a diagnosis of arthritis” Arthritis is a serious disease in our world, but it’s often skimmed over. Let’s learn what arthritis is in order to understand at least 54.4 million people just in the U.S.

So today, let’s open our Facebook app and take a look at where arthritis started and what it even means. Second we’ll scroll through some reels and how each one can affect us, while finally, finding the accurate reel to watch and look into medication and how people with arthritis deal with this condition, because arthritis is a disease we all need to recognize, in our world, society and even the people we care about.

Let’s date back to the prehistoric times, where dinosaurs roamed the earth and were actually the first ones to develop traces of arthritis, especially osteoarthritis . According to a book by Bruce M. Rothschild, “The Complete Dinosaur”, only a small portion of dinosaurs actually suffered anything resembling human arthritis. Though research has shown that osteoarthritis did affect the dinosaurs, especially causing gouts. There were holes in a T-Rex’s fossil, showing results that the dinosaur was a gout patient. Now let’s travel to 4500 BC where there was actual evidence on text from native americans, seen on their skeletal remains which you can tell with erosion of the bones. Fast-forward to the 1800’s, French physicist Augustin Jacob Landré-Beauvais, wrote about his experiences with some of his patients that had shown extreme joint pain. He knew these were different symptoms from osteoarthritis and gout which were already discovered. He noticed this happened more in people who were poor and affected females more than males. He saw that this wasn’t discovered before, and named it primary asthenic gout, even though it was inaccurate. Skip half a century later, according to medical news today “English physician Alfred Garrod separated gout from other arthritic conditions. This happened when he found high levels of uric acid in the urine of people with gout but not in those with other types of arthritis.” In 1859, Alfred decided to separate gouts and RA into different categories which he called rheumatic gout. Soon enough, one of his sons, Archibold, researched in depth of RA and renamed it to rheumatoid arthritis. It seemed to perfectly fit because joint inflammation which was arthritis, and the term rheumatism or rheumatoid stood for joint pain in olden terms, hence the name rheumatoid arthritis. Now let’s take a step back to really think… What is arthritis? Well, arthritis is a condition based on joint inflammation which is literally what it means. So maybe some of my mom’s facebook reels were right about that, but now it’s time to actually start scrolling to take a look at different types of arthritis.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, “There are more than 100 different forms of arthritis and related diseases. The most common types include osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and gout.” Let’s take a look at 4 common types of arthritis and their symptoms. The most common arthritis is osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage and fluid between our joints starts gradually breaking away, and often affects the whole joint. OA mainly happens in your fingers, knees, hips, neck, and lower back. And is more common in older people. There are typically 4 stages of OA. The first stage starts with mild joint pain. The second stage starts with having pain while doing activities and having difficulty straightening or bending joints. The third stage ends up with frequent pain, stiffness after moving, and visible swelling. The 4th stage gets severe, with high pain, daily activities become very hard and severe swelling. It’s time to move onto our next common type which is psoriatic arthritis. PsA is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks its own body, like joints, skin and even some organs. Some scientists believe that genes or the environment might be able to trigger Psa. It regularly happens in both women and men equally for the age over 30 but mainly in white people. It occurs in fingers, toes and larger joints. Another condition like this is Juvenile Idiopathic arthritis. According to Cleveland Clinic, “JIA is the most common type of arthritis in children. It affects about 1 in 1,000 children (about 300,000 children total) in the United States.” It does the same by attacking the immune system allowing even teens and younger children to be harshly in pain. The worst part is that this disease itself has 5 other types. Even kids in our world are suffering, and just in the U.S that’s 300,000 children. Moving onto our last type of arthritis, its gout. Gout is an inflammatory arthritis, and often has a few flares of pain in your big toe or lower limbs, but it can be very painful. According to the University of California, “Gout is one of the most controllable forms of arthritis.” but gout can be caused by having high uric acid, and when it builds up, the kidneys cant excrete it properly which creates crystals and the only symptoms it contains is… pain. Gouts create extreme pain, and unexpectedly. You could take a nap on your couch, and end up in pain the moment your eyes open. Arthritis impacts everyone differently, it just depends on your condition and your state on how much this pain or disease could affect you. Symptoms of these diseases can be drastically worse, we’re still in a world where we just understand the pain of having arthritis. So maybe we’ll learn more by looking at medications!

Let’s see… *scroll on a phone* there! I found an accurate reel! It’s time to dive in on medicine that can help with this condition. Well the problem is… said by the John Hopkins Medicine, “There is no known cure for arthritis. But it’s important to help keep joints working by reducing pain and inflammation.” The most common type of medicine is over-the-countertop, such as acetaminophen like tylenol, NSAIDS (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like Ibuprofen, and even DMARDs (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs) for more severe cases that are often prescribed can help. But today there are many breakthroughs in new medicine. The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology shows that there is a new drug called Talarozole, a study conducted by the University of Oxford. While it’s still in its early stages of figuring out if this can be a new hope for hand osteoarthritis, it’s creating hope for many people. Another new research shows that the FDA has approved a DMARD called Baricitinib for people with moderate to severe Rheumatoid arthritis. Baricitinib blocks Janus Kinase which are enzymes that authorize inflammatory signals to operate in a cell. While this can help save people, there are restrictions and safety precautions. Eli Lilly and Company, made a 2 mg dose and a 4 mg does. The 2 mg already got approved- but the 4 mg is for patients with more severity, except the problem that with 4 mg it’s able to create DMT or a deep vein thrombosis which creates a deep vein typically in the leg and can break loose to other organs which can be fatal. Donald Miller who was a professor at the North Dakota State University was there for the decision making and allowed the 2 mg but denied the 4 mg due to risks of DMT. While Dr. Salzmann reported that it was working well in other countries. The company itself is trying to get it approved in the U.S and another similar drug named tofacitinib that was approved back in 2012 has only been approved for 2 mg and below. One more research shows that “Triple therapy has emerged as a potential game-changer in the management of rheumatoid arthritis. This treatment approach combines three medications – methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and hydroxychloroquine- to target arthritis symptoms effectively.” according to ProHealth clinic.Though, it’s not just medicine that you need to heal arthritis, it’s also about balance. Balancing between exercising, losing some weight, maybe even going to hot and cold therapy and acupuncture to help with stiffness found. Having a plan could help people to reduce the amount of pain they face today. 

So today, we went onto facebook, did some scrolling and found an accurate reel to learn about the history of arthritis, what it is, different types and medications. A condition that existed all the way back into the prehistoric time, till today and to the future- we should all show everyone what it is. Arthritis is something we can all successfully educate people about. So while my mom’s facebook reels might be inaccurate, and while I still somewhat believe her that by cracking my knuckles I’ll get arthritis, let’s create accurate reels together, to show each other that in our world today, we should know that every step creates a story.