Pain in the joints is always, well, an incredible pain and it is tough to live and to deal with it on a regular basis. Usually, whenever people have pain in their joints they believe that they have arthritis, which is more often than not correct, but they might also have bursitis, and these two are actually pretty difficult to tell apart, unless you really do know the differences between these two.
Essentially, arthritis is inflammation in the joints, and it causes a lot of pain. Usually, it is associate with the degeneration of the tissue that connects the joints, making it most common in areas that we keep on bending and twitching throughout our lives such as the hips and the knees.
On the other hand, bursitis is the inflammation of a sac filled up with fluid that we have between the joints, that keeps them from rubbing into each other. If they did rub into each other, they would certainly heart a lot and degenerate even faster, so this sac, the bursa, is incredibly necessary. Bursitis is more common the hips, elbows and on the shoulders.
Usually, the common causes for bursitis are direct trauma and infections, as well as stress and arthritis. These lead to the development of bursitis and, as you can see, they are pretty much easy to handle, if done properly.
On the other hand, the most common cause for arthritis is related to age and to the wearing down of the tissues that connect our joints. There isn’t really a lot we can do about aging and as such, the only thing we can do about arthritis is to take care of it.
The treatment for both bursitis and arthritis is very similar, and it rests on the usage of over the counter drugs with active ingredients such as naproxen and ibuprofen that will make the pain go away and take care of the inflammation. It is also possible to get steroid injections, but these would also require antibiotics to be taken in order to make sure the situation is under control.
In the most severe cases of bursitis, the ones that don’t really happen very often, doctors might be required to take action on the bursa in order to make the pain and the infection go away. In order to do this, it might be required for them to drain the bursa and, in the worst possible scenario, it might be even necessary for them to remove the bursa.
The best way to prevent both bursitis and arthritis is to go directly to the specialist, the orthopedist, and to ask for information and to be examined regarding these conditions. Then, all you have to do is follow the instructions the specialist will give you.