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Facts About Laser Treatment For Arthritis In Knees

By Richard Morris


The term arthritis is used to mean joint inflammation. The term may not refer to a specific medical condition since it is used in reference to over 200 different conditions. These conditions affect joints and tissues that appear around the joints. Besides affecting tissues that appear around joints, it may also affect other connective tissues. Generally, arthritis is a rheumatic condition, which means that it tends to involve swelling, stiffness, aching, and pain around joints. Here are facts about laser treatment for arthritis in knees.

In existence are numerous kinds of arthritis although osteoarthritis is the most prevalent. Rheumatoid arthritis, gout, fibromyalgia are additional types. The signs of the condition may show instantly or they develop gradually over several years. There are some rheumatic conditions that affect the immune system as well as a number of internal body organs. Rheumatoid and lupus are examples of such conditions. Rheumatoid and lupus affect many organs, making them to cause different symptoms.

According to the CDC in the United States, over 54.4 million American adults have been diagnosed with some type of arthritis. Out of this number 23.7 million individuals have been restricted in terms of the activities they can engage in by the disease. In comparison between adults and young people, people above the age of 65 are at a higher risk of developing this condition than younger individuals. However that does not mean that younger people cannot develop the condition.

Since research has been ongoing on the best methods of treating this condition, laser treatment has come up as a very capable treatment option. In this method, treatment can be done using either Class III or Class IV lasers. Class III lasers are usually classified as cold lasers because of their lack of enough power to penetrate the skin. They are weak lasers that only penetrate a few millimeters into the skin.

Given the disadvantage that is associated with Class III lasers, Class IV lasers were developed. These lasers have more than 50 times more the power of Class III lasers. This allows them to be able to penetrate deeper into the skin and produce better results in terms of treating arthritis.

Class IV lasers have been found to be effective at treating fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis. Since Class IV lasers are a recent invention, Class III lasers were in use before and they proved to be very ineffective due to their limited ability to penetrate the skin. Even though Class IV lasers are effective at treating fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, their ability to treat rheumatoid arthritis is still not known.

When used to treat osteoarthritis, Class IV lasers work by improving the underlying cytochemistry of the affected area. The improvement in cytochemistry usually results in an increase in the flow of blood and it also relieves pain. This improves symptoms that the patient initially experienced.

Further research is necessary in this filed in order to discover improved treatment techniques. The methods that are available as of today are inadequate. Public and private institutions are devoted to developing improved results. Many studies today lean more towards laser therapy since it has promising capacity to treat arthritis.




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