Last week, a patient asked me a question…
“Do I have arthritis?”
She was asking because of a chronic issue she had been dealing with for quite some time.
My answer was two-fold:
First, I said… “Maybe you have arthritis”. I told the patient that arthritis cannot be diagnosed by just looking at or feeling the area of pain.
For the type of arthritis we are talking about (osteoarthritis), an x-ray would be needed to conclusively show whether it is there or not.
(Note that there are various of types of arthritis, and that is why I am clarifying which type we are referring to here).
Second, I said… “Does it really matter if you do or not?”
The patient got a little confused.
If you also find that an odd statement to make, I’ll explain why I said that.
First of all, there are millions of people out there that have arthritis but don’t have any pain.
In fact, most people that have arthritis don’t even realize they have it.
So if you have no pain but do have arthritis, does it really matter to you if you had it?
Secondly, if you know you have arthritis and you also have had pain, did you always have the pain?
For example, did you have pain last week, but not this week?
Does that mean the arthritis disappeared this week?
Of course not.
So the point is, don’t get hung up on whether you have arthritis or not. It may or may not be relevant.
Now if your pain is simply not getting better, then sure… the diagnosis can helpful, and it can allow you to take educated steps to deal with the pain.
So it is completely okay to get an x-ray to see what the problem is, and it is okay to get an MRI or CT done to see if there are any other areas of damage. (We can refer you for x-rays if ever did need one by the way).
But otherwise…. I would generally say to not stress too much about whether you have arthritis or not.
Focus on getting better, and getting healthy.
Focus on having a strong nervous system, strong and flexible muscles, tendons, and ligaments, being stress-free or mindful, and eating healthy and well.
These are ALL areas we can help you with.
That way, you can feel so good, that you will forget that you even had any arthritis!
Any questions?
Give us a call anytime, or reply to this email and we would be happy to answer them, or to help you.
Yours in health,
Dr. Arora
