When elderly people suffer pain and stiffness in the upper body and arms, it could be caused by polymyalgia rheumatica, a disorder that affects people over the age of 50.
A sign of the disorder is when people cross their arms in order to rub their upper arms with their hands, said Prof Bernhard Manger of Erlangen, Germany, in an article in a German magazine for physicians.
Steroids are suitable in the treatment of the disorder. The anti-inflammatory drug is taken daily, and patients must reckon with long-term treatment lasting years because recurrence of the disorder is relatively high.
The disorder also is often accompanied by arterial inflammation, for example of the temporal artery, making it more problematic. When the temporal artery is affected, it causes pain when chewing, and it also must be treated.
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