Common joint disorders, their risk factors, and how to get the customized health insurance plans to

Common joint disorders, their risk factors, and how to get the customized health insurance plans to treat bone and joint diseases A joint is a structure where two or more bones meet and fit together. Other tissues within the joint include cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and synovial fluid. You may experience joint disorders, diseases, abnormalities, or other problems when something goes wrong with any of the parts of your joint.

Diseases of the joint may be short-lived (chronic), or long-lasting, or chronic. Some of the common joint diseases and described here in brief.

Osteoarthritis (OA) It is one of the most common joint disorders when the cartilage between two joints wears down, causing your bones to rub against each other, resulting in swelling and stiffness. Symptoms of OA include joint pain and stiffness, and swelling. The condition can occur due to the family history, fractures, or being overweight.

Arthritis The term is used for inflammatory joint diseases that result in pain, stiffness, swelling, and some redness of the skin around the joint. The inflammation may destroy the joint cartilage and underlying bone, and may cause irreparable deformities.

Gout This painful condition affects one joint, usually the toe or other joint in the ankle. Symptoms of gout include sudden swelling and pain at a joint that usually occurs at night. Gout is caused due to high uric acid levels in the blood, eating seafood, and the use of some diuretics.

Bursitis This is inflammation of the lubricating sac located over a joint, or between tendons and muscles or bones. The condition often occurs in the shoulders and has occupational origins. The most common form of bursitis affects shoulder joint. Direct injury is not usually the cause of bursitis. The condition usually develops in the middle ages, and women are more twice as likely as men to develop bursitis.

Rheumatoid arthritis The autoimmune condition affects the lining of the joints. Cells of the immune system that normally do not belong to joints accumulate at the lining of the joints in abnormally large numbers. These

accumulated cells interact with the local joint cells, causing inflammation that can even destroy cartilage and the bone.

Spondyarthritis Also commonly referred to as spondylitis, the condition is characterized by inflammation in the spine.

Untreated spondylitis can eventually lead to spinal fusion, or inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis.

Lupus This inflammatory joint disease can cause arthritis in the hands, shoulders, elbows, knees and feet. It can also affect other body parts, such as internal organs, brain, and blood.

Infectious arthritis Your joints may get infected due to many types of microorganisms such as bacteria, germs, viruses, etc., and also due to animal parasites. Blood-borne infections may enter the joints through the synovial blood vessels. The infection then can extend into your joint through natural openings. Usually large joints such as those in knee and hips are affected by infectious arthritis.

Risk factors of joint diseases Risk factors of joint disorders include previous joint injury, such as a sprain, lack of muscular conditioning, repetitive motion through sports, advanced age, or overexerting the body during activity.

Diagnosis of joint diseases Diagnosis of joint diseases begins with a medical history and physical examination. Imaging tests, such as X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound may be done by the doctor to determine the severity of the condition. Your doctor may also order blood test, or a bone density scan, called DEXA scan.

If you are running a facility or business wherein our employees are more likely to sustain bone injuries and joint disorders due to the nature of your business operations, such as sports facility, a manufacturing facility, transportation business, or a gym, you should ensure that your employees remain protected at all times. For this, you should consider having them covered with health insurance.

Getting a customized health insurance plan However, standard health insurance plans may not suit your specific requirements. For customized health insurance plans, you can consult the experts at PrudentRx program who will help you in getting the best and tailor-made health insurance to meet your specific needs. The experts will also help you with CVS copay optimization and other copay optimization methods. You will be advised about the best drugs to be covered from the PrudentRx drug list. Moreover, you can get answers to most of your queries at the PrudentRx FAQs.