Sports with Sacrolitis
There is no ban on sports in sacroiliitis. On the contrary, sufficient physical activity is important to positively influence the course of the disease. Regular sport can often prevent or at least delay an otherwise threatening stiffening of the back.
There are no general recommendations or restrictions as to which type of sport should be done in the case of sacroiliitis. The most important thing is to find a regular activity that you can do with pleasure and motivation. However, it is especially important to perform the movements correctly and with a straight posture.
For example, Nordic Walking should be done with a sufficiently large step width. In addition, pain should not be ignored and, if pain is frequent, the type of sport should be changed if necessary. It is best to seek advice from your doctor or physiotherapist about the most suitable type of sport for you.
Association with other diseases
Sacroiliitis is the key symptom of the group of inflammatory spinal diseases (spondylarthridia). The best known disease is ankylosing spondylitis. However, sacroiliitis does not always occur at the beginning of the course of the disease.
Occasionally, ankylosing spondylitis initially manifests itself through a non-specific inflammation of other joints, so that a diagnosis can often only be made as the disease progresses.If Bekhterev’s disease is not present, a rarer cause of sacroiliitis such as an infection may also be present. Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. There is a high association with Bekhterev’s disease, which in most cases is the cause of sacroiliitis.
Between five and ten percent of patients suffering from Bekhterev’s disease also suffer from a chronic inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease. Therefore, if diarrhea frequently occurs as an additional symptom when sacroiliitis is present, this association should be considered. The suspicion of a chronic inflammatory bowel disease can be clarified by a colonoscopy.
HLA is the abbreviation for human leukocyte antigen. It is a system of special structures found on white blood cells and can vary from person to person. It has been found that some HLA groups have an association with certain diseases.
For example, HLA B27 can be detected in 95 percent of people with ankylosing spondylitis. This disease is a common cause of sacroiliitis. However, HLA B27 detection alone is not proof of the disease, since there are also healthy people with this HLA type.
Likewise, five percent of the ill people do not have HLA B27. However, if there are symptoms of sacroiliitis, the detection of HLA B27 can provide an indication of the presence of ankylosing spondylitis or a related disease. If the result is negative, the diagnosis is unlikely but not impossible. A test for HLA B27 must therefore always be evaluated in the individual overall view of the patient’s findings.
