What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?
What is ankylosing spondylitis? How is illness?

This type of arthritis causes painful inflammation of spine. Over time, this can cause your spine — small bones in your spine (facet joints) — to fuse together. It can also affect other joints, such as hip and sacroiliac joints, and can even damage eyes, heart, and other organs.

There is currently no cure for ankylosing spondylitis. Only certain medications, therapeutic massage, and lifestyle improvements can be used to relieve symptoms and prevent further progression of disease.

Men are three times more likely than women to suffer from ankylosing spondylitis (AS), which usually occurs between ages of 16 and 35. It's more common in whites, Asians, or Hispanics, and there's a genetic component, which means you're more likely to get it if you have a parent or sibling who has had someone with ankylosing spondylitis.

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?
Typical clinical picture:

1. Lower back pain (early stage)

Typical symptoms are pain and stiffness in hips and lower back. Proper exercise will make you feel better, but rest will make you feel worse. This discomfort, pain will appear at night and will often interfere with sleep, but symptoms will appear in morning more severely.

2. Peripheral inflammation

This is a "broad term" because it is pain and swelling that affects attachment points of tendons and ligaments, for example, you may have pain in your upper calf, heel or lower heel, or rib area. meets sternum, Discomfort if costal cartilage is affected, it may also affect your respiratory system because contraction and expansion of chest cavity is limited.

3. Other effects on body

Because ankylosing spondylitis is also a type of arthritis, it can also affect other joints, most common of which are sacroiliac, hip, and even knee joints, etc. The clinical manifestations are also joint pain, stiffness, etc. . .

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?

Of course, main manifestation of ankylosing spondylitis is spine. In early stages, it may be discomfort and pain in thoracolumbar spine, but a certain degree of mobility still remains, and symptoms improve with activity, but in later stages, fusion is possible and deformity of vertebral vertebrae, stiffness of bones and loss of mobility of spine (that is, you cannot stretch lower back, back, bend, twist, etc.), seriously affects daily life.

So, if you're experiencing pain in your lower back, hips, or buttocks that gets worse over several months, especially if you often wake up with pain at night, gets worse in morning, or gets better after exercise but may worsen during rest. You should go to hospital (orthopedics) to have a look and check.

Diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis

Your doctor will first ask you when your symptoms started and what they look like. It will also check flexibility of your spine, which position causes pain, and other relevant signs. The most important thing is you. It's possible. take blood tests for inflammation and HLA-B27 gene, but they only provide evidence, not definitively, whether you have ankylosing spondylitis. X-ray and MRI show presence or absence of lesions in spine (of course, early stages may not affect performance).

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?
Ankylosing spondylitis treatment

There is currently no cure for ankylosing spondylitis, but there are treatments that can relieve symptoms and delay more severe long-term effects, meaning a series of surgeries can help you improve your quality of life; Medications are just one aspect, changes to your daily routine can have biggest impact. It mainly includes following seven aspects:

1. Medical treatment

NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen are usually prescribed first to reduce pain, stiffness, and swelling. Biological drugs act on immune system, thereby interrupting development of inflammation. Other arthritis medications can reduce pain and reduce swelling in other joints.

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?

2. Healthy habits

Being as active as possible is best thing you can do for yourself. It will also help you maintain a healthy weight without putting more stress on your spine or joints. Eat less bread, rice, and potatoes and more lean protein, vegetables, and fruits. Be sure to get enough calcium and vitamin D for your bones. Also, avoid smoking.

3. Posture and posture are very important

When you walk or sit without hunching over, keep your spine straight, your shoulders straight and your head straight. Try instead of a soft comfortable chair / sofa, choose a hard upright chair, and put a backrest at back of chair to support spine a little.

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?

4. Bed and sleeping position

Try to use a firm hard mattress (hard plank bed), avoid high pillows, lie on your back, straighten your legs, and get into a reasonable, standard and comfortable sleeping position that can allow you a "good" sleeping position. Sleep".

5. Massage, physiotherapy exercises

Massage, exercise therapy, and other types of physical activity can improve joint health and mobility, relieve muscle tension, and relieve some painful symptoms.

What do you know about the medical knowledge of ankylosing spondylitis?

6. Cope with pain

Typically, cold compresses or ice are used to treat swelling, and heat is used to relieve joint stiffness or tight muscles. Is it hard to train in morning? Try taking a warm bath and stretching gently and slowly without rushing or rushing. If you're in pain and can't sleep at night, try an electric blanket to keep warm and relieve symptoms.

7. Type of work (control of working pressure, load)

The type of work is very important. During work, avoid heavy lifting, bending over and a number of tasks that "increase load" on body, try to reduce "load" on spine and various joints, and protect them, this will be less painful.