Greetings, Dr. Roach During the final few days of an August cruise, I had COVID. I got a horrible lung infection that took almost three weeks to get rid of, but COVID ran its course. After this, I started experiencing tremendous knee pain, to the point where I still walk stiffly and occasionally find it almost impossible to go down a slope because of the pain. No other portion of my body is having any problems.
I’ve been doing this for well over a month. Since he has seen numerous COVID patients with inflammatory conditions, my family doctor believes that this kind of localized inflammation, both in the knees and elsewhere, is a sign of the virus.
Do you think this is a reasonable diagnosis, or should I insist on a more in-depth investigation? My father had rheumatoid arthritis, so he checked for it, but the results of the blood tests came back negative. One of my knees does have arthritis, while the other knee has some sort of injury. — B.R.
ANSWER: I concur with your doctor that COVID can cause a flare-up in arthritis symptoms. According to a recent study, rheumatoid arthritis can develop following a COVID diagnosis, either as a flare-up or as a new condition. The testing was suitable given your family history.
Although it is not a common type of arthritis, reactive arthritis can also develop following COVID. This could be a flare-up given your history of knee arthritis, most likely osteoarthritis, the most prevalent kind. It has been demonstrated that COVID infections exacerbate osteoarthritis through a number of processes, but simply spending a lot of time in bed can exacerbate the condition.
To make sure there isn’t something unexpected, like a crystal deposition condition like pseudogout, I would have had at least a series of X-rays and blood work done for rheumatoid arthritis.
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Greetings, Dr. Roach Throughout my years in practice, I’ve observed that a large number of my friends and patients who exhibit dementia symptoms seem to fall into the higher education category. This isn’t scientific; it’s just an observation.
Are there any research or comments regarding the relationship between dementia and education? Though there seems to be a pattern, I acknowledge that I might have been witnessing a group of people who were primarily from a higher educated background. — L.H., M.D.
ANSWER: Research indicates that dementia can strike anyone. Higher educated people take longer to develop dementia to the point where others may readily identify it. They are believed to possess a certain amount of cognitive reserve.
A nutritious, largely plant-based diet (like a Mediterranean diet) and regular exercise are the two main strategies to prevent dementia. Even moderate alcohol consumption probably raises the risk of dementia. It is debatable if cognitive exercises such as games, crosswords, arithmetic puzzles, and visual-spatial exercises improve cognitive reserve (as education does) or slow down dementia.
As you guess, your sample is skewed since I think your associates are more likely to be better educated than the average person.
Although he regrets not being able to respond to each letter individually, Dr. Roach will try to include them in the column. Questions can be sent by mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803 or by email to [email protected].
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