Columbia Asia Hospital offers advice and support to arthritis patients at health camp

Have you been living with pain and stiffness in your joints that have restricted your movement and severely affected your quality of life? Arthritis, a fairly common degenerative ailment inflicts several elderly people, but not many take recourse to treatment and help.

With an aim to encourage people to come out and seek help in making their lives better,Columbia Asia Hospital, Ghaziabad, organized a two-day Arthritis camp (December 23-24) to offer free counsel and advice to patients.

Patients living with the debilitating disease often give up hope that they can ever live a normal life and accept arthritis as part of the normal ageing process. However, with medical intervention, therapy and in some cases joint replacement, a lot of normalcy can be restored and quality of life improved.
This was the message that the health awareness camp intended to give up — that if you are living with an intolerable knee pain or deformity in your limbs, you need not continue to bear the agony in silence, just seek treatment that will make your life better.

Dr. Rajesh Verma, Joint Replacement Surgeon, Columbia Asia Hospital, Ghaziabad, says often people consider joint replacement as a measure of the last resort and refuse to go for it despite suffering pain when they need not do so.

People suffering from arthritis often experience morning stiffness, difficulty walking more than 50 meters, swollen joints, deformity in upper and lower limbs and even limp. The problem can make life very difficult, and even simple daily tasks can become painful and exhausting.
With advancing age and regular wear and tear, the cartilage around the joints gets worn out.  Treatment options include physiotherapy, visco-supplementation, pain medications and surgery. While medicines and exercises can help, after a certain stage these options are of limited help.

“Over the years, joint replacement has emerged as a viable and safe option, which is also long lasting for advanced cases of osteo-arthritis, and a number of elderly people are actually opting for it,” says Dr Verma.

Besides seeking medication and help, it is also important for people to take care of their diets, exercise and take care of your joints so as not to cause any further damage to them.
Patients attending the camp are being offered free of cost registration, consultation with the senior orthopedician as well as free X Ray screening and free session with a Physiotherapist. The hospital also offered a 30 per cent discount on lab and radiology tests.

“Through this Arthritis camp, our endeavor is to encourage people to seek medical help for arthritis related issues as life does not end with the problem, it is still possible to make your life better and improve the quality of living with proper intervention,” said Dr. Sumit Prasad, General Manager, Columbia Asia Hospital, Ghaziabad.