SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) - More than a fifth of Americans -- over 52 million people -- are struggling with arthritis. While the chronic condition causes painful, stiff and swollen joints, promising research is leading to new treatments that can make life easier for those with a diagnosis.
Although arthritis is the number one cause of disability in the U.S., many people ignore early symptoms like joint pains, according to UCSF Rheumatologist Dr. Judith Ashouri.
"And so often the diagnosis happens at a later stage in the disease course, and it can be hard to diagnose early on," Dr. Ashouri told KCBS Radio's Bret Burkhart on this week's "As Prescribed."
Early diagnosis is key.
"The earlier you start treatment and try and halt the immune response, patients generally have better outcomes and improved quality of life," said Dr. Ashouri, who specializes in rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes painful inflammation.
Most treatments target the immune system with the goal to decrease and halt inflammation.
"The goals of our treatment are multi-pronged. One is to stop the inflammation. And that, in fact, decreasing the inflammation and targeting the inflammation helps decrease the pain, which is also another part of our treatment is to try and stop the pain. And that will then result in improved quality of life and improved mobility," Dr. Ashouri explained. "And then also to overall prevent joint damage and joint deformities. So the earlier patients can start treatment in general, the better the outcomes."
There is no cure, but there is hope with certain types of gene therapies.
"Any damage that's already happened to certain tissues or joints from the disease will continue to be there. But our goal is to prevent further damage," said Dr. Ashouri.
Researchers still don't fully understand the causes of arthritis, but evidence has shown different environmental triggers can contribute to the condition.
"For example, in the case of rheumatoid arthritis, smoking is a contributing environmental factor, as well as certain types of infections and other types of autoimmune arthritis," Dr. Ashouri said, adding that there is also a genetic component.
To that end, studies are currently looking at using medications in patients who are at high risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis to see if it could actually delay or prevent disease onset.
"But the results are not in yet. In terms of lifestyle changes that people can do, I think we're just at the tip of the iceberg, understanding how our environment and also all the microbes that live on us, how they interact with our immune system," said Dr. Ashouri. "But what's really exciting is that we have a lot of new technologies and a new understanding of this interaction that I believe will lead to breakthrough therapies as well as understanding of disease onset within our lifetime."
Listen to this week's "As Prescribed" to learn more. You can also listen to last week's episode to learn about a new study out of UCSF that indicates AI could help ER triage, here .
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"As Prescribed" is sponsored by UCSF.
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