Arthritis among teens & youngsters too, lifestyle a big factor, say doctors

NOIDA: Doctors at orthopaedic clinics and OPDs in hospitals say patients as young as 16 have been coming to them with a limp due to severe pain in their joints. Around 15-20% of orthopaedic patients are 35 or younger, they say.
Why? A sedentary lifestyle with long sitting hours, lack of nutritious diet and no exercise, besides excessive smoking and consumption of alcohol may be to blame.
Among the young arthritis patients, inflammatory arthritis is most commonly seen, doctors told TOI on World Arthritis Day. It causes an autoimmune condition, in which patients experience swelling and pain in their fingers, wrists, small joints apart from stiffness in the neck.
"Until about 5 to 7 years back, most arthritis patients were above the age of 45. Now, a patient can even be even 16 years old. A lot of working professionals around the age of 30 are coming to us with pain and stiffness in their joints," said Dr Ravindra Singh, an orthopedic surgeon at MMG Hospital in Ghaziabad.
"For younger people, the deficiency of necessary nutrients such as Vitamin B12 and calcium start weakening the cartilage, which, if ignored for long, can even cause joint deformities. A serious concern among youngsters who are studying or working is also weight management... The knees have to bear the strain if a person is obese. Some of the initial symptoms that we get to notice are when youngsters complain of difficulty in getting up and climbing the stairs," said Dr Akhilesh Yadav, head of the orthopaedic department at Max Hospital in Vaishali.
Dr Suvrat Arya, a senior consultant in the department of rheumatology at Jaypee Hospital in Noida, also harped on lifestyle as the primary reason why youngsters were being diagnosed with arthritis. "Smoking, alcohol consumption, stress, obesity and long sitting hours of 8-10 hours a day are major causes of inflammatory arthritis among youngsters," he said on Wednesday.
The treatment, he said, is a combination of medication, specific exercises and diet control for those in the initial stages of the condition. "For the patients who did not address the problems for long, the condition can also lead to the need for joint replacement," Dr Arya said.Apart from eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly, another intervention that the doctors recommend is physiotherapy, which - they say - has shown positive results.
A 32-year-old business development executive in Greater Noida, Shubham Gaur, told TOI he has been experiencing "excrutiating pain" in his jointsfor the past few months. "I went to the doctors, who told me I have to do some exercises and take frequent breaks from my workstation. I am also taking some medications and adding vitamins to my diet," he said.