Arthritis symptoms aren't just pain. Though it's often referred to as arthritis or rheumatism, this disease of the joints is actually several different diseases with different triggers and causes. Because arthritis can strike anyone at almost any age, it is wise to know what the symptoms of the different types of arthritis are. If you catch arthritis early, you may be able to minimize the damage it does to your body, retaining your full mobility longer.

The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, which attacks primarily the hands, feet, large joints, and spines of people who are at least 45 years old. In most cases, these arthritis symptoms are caused by age-induced wear and tear on the cartilages of these joints. In many other cases, osteoarthritis is caused by athletic injuries, accidents that damage the joints, or excessive wear and tear. Osteo arthritis symptoms include swelling and inflammation of the involved joints, especially later in the day, without other physical symptoms. In most cases, it can be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs like acetaminophen as well as hot and cold compresses.

Rheumatoid arthritis is significantly rarer, and also significantly more aggressive. In this form of arthritis, symptoms are caused by an overactive immune system that mistakes your cartilage and supportive tissues for an invading enemy. Rheumatoid arthritis has symptoms that are very distinct from osteoarthritis. Instead of just involving joints, rheumatoid arthritis causes fatigue, loss of appetite, fever, achy muscles, and stiffness in addition to inflamed joints.

Psoriatic arthritis is rarer still. This type of arthritis is found only in people who suffer from the skin disorder psoriasis, and often involves the hands when psoriasis cannot be cleared up in that part of the body. Though in most people the psoriasis predates the arthritis, in a few the arthritis can be present for twenty years or more prior to the disease flaring on the skin. In this type of arthritis, symptoms include inflamed tendons and organs as well as joint problems. The spine and large joints are commonly affected, but with symptoms that may be mistaken for bursitis or osteoarthritis. If this arthritis is in the hands, the signs are unmistakable; it causes fingers to swell like sausages and turn red. Unlike other forms of arthritis, this type tends to have symptoms that are worse in the morning rather than the evening.

The best way to treat arthritis symptoms is to catch them before the disease progresses too far and prevent them. Early symptoms of arthritis are vague, but fairly easy to identify. They include morning stiffness, stiffness after long periods of sitting still, pain or tenderness in one joint, "crunching" in a joint when it is used, increased joint pain when the weather is wet, and for knee arthritis, instability or buckling of the joint especially in going up and down stairs. While the most common site of arthritis is the knee, the hip is the most debilitating location to have arthritis. In some advanced cases, arthritis symptoms can only be treated with a total hip replacement.