Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis.  To fight osteoarthritis, one needs to exercise regularly, or take medications like NSAIDs, and lose that extra weight.  Other measures include joint replacement surgery and viscosupplementation.  Osteoarthritis is among the most debilitating maladies that afflict mostly the elderly.  “Osteo” is the Greek word for bone, which is perhaps why it is always mistaken as a bone disorder.  The condition actually involves the cartilage that covers and cushions the end parts of the bones within the joint.

How Osteoarthritis Develops

The mechanisms responsible for osteoarthritis remain poorly understood.  The strong links between increasing age and the prevalence of osteoarthritic symptoms, and recent evidence of age-related changes in the function of chondrocytes, suggest that age-related changes in articular cartilage can contribute to the development and progression of osteoarthritis.  The degeneration of the articular cartilage contributes much to the pain and disability brought about by osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis seems to begin when destructive enzymes damage the collagen fibers that maintain the structures of the cartilage.  Osteophytes may also develop round bone edges due to pressure from, say, exercise.  With the structures damaged, cartilages swell with water, becoming softer and more vulnerable to stress.  These factors contribute to pain, swelling of joints, stiffness and restricted mobility.

Risk Factors for Osteoarthritis

Researchers have identified several risk factors that increase the odds of developing osteoarthritis.  These include:

Age – Age is the crucial factor that determines osteoarthritic development.  The condition is rare among the young.  But though osteoarthritis correlates with age, it is not caused by it.

Obesity – Extra weight put undue pressures on the joints, particularly the knees and the hips, which leads to cartilage damage.

The Job Factor – Certain jobs increase the risk for osteoarthritis.  For example, the malady is common among miners, dockworkers, workers that must squat for long periods, and those who must constantly bend their knees for heavy lifting.

Genes – In 1944, researchers reported that osteoarthritis of the fingers has a genetic component.  In 1998, researchers studying 616 pairs of twins over 40 years old concluded that genetic factors may have predisposed half of all cases of hip osteoarthritis.

Inactivity – As people get older, they tend to exercise lesser.  This leads to weight gain, which stresses the joints.  Tissues vital to joint movement can atrophy due to less movement.  Because cartilages have no blood vessels, chondrocytes have to obtain nutrients from the synovial fluid.  Exercise contracts and expands cartilages in repetitions that pumps the vital fluid for the chondrocytes.

Injuries – Some injuries, like fracture of the ankle, will almost certainly predispose a person to osteoarthritis.

Symptoms of Osteoarthritis

If you have the following symptoms, you almost certainly have osteoarthritis:

Joints have a deep and aching pain that is steady or intermittent

Pain is worsened by exercise or other activity, but is eased by rest

Joint pain refuses to ease even after days of bed rest

Joints feel stiff for 30 minutes or so after waking

Joints have swelled and feel tender

When you start moving after inactivity, joints feel stiff for the next 20 or 30 minutes

Ways of Fighting Osteoarthritis

The good news is, osteoarthritis is manageable with approaches to alleviate the pain and improve the condition.  Here are some recommended methods:

To maximize results, work  with a physician for an action plan

Lose that extra pound

Hot or cold treatments – hot compresses are very effective in alleviating pain from osteoarthritis.  For still unknown reasons, moist heat seems to provide the greatest relief.  A cold compress is used to treat inflamed joints.

Exercise – activity alleviates pain.  Dr. Joseph Buckwalter, of the University of Iowa comments, “Joints aren’t like the bearings in your car, which wear out after a certain number of miles.  The more you use them, the better off you may be.”

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), sometimes called COX-2 inhibitors.  A word of caution: NSAIDS don’t prevent synovial tissue from eroding cartilages—the destructive process that inflammation sets into motion.

Viscosupplementation – Those who haven’t benefitted from NSAIDS can opt for injections of hyaluronic acid (a natural lubricant found in the synovial fluid
)—a procedure that is done weekly for 3 to 5 weeks.

A surgical procedure is the last option.  But the last three decades have witnessed amazing advances in joint-replacement surgery.

Although osteoarthritis is a frightening disease, there is much hope in stunting or delaying its progress.  The greatest human weapons against it are a well-informed mindset, a strong will, the determination to overcome, and rigorous discipline.

Sources:

Buckwalter JA, Mankin HJ(Department of Orthopaedics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.). Articular cartilage: degeneration and osteoarthritis, repair, regeneration, and transplantation.Instr Course Lect. 1998;47:487-504. (Accessed 09/03/2010)

Everyday Arthritis Solutions: Stop Arthritis from Stopping You (Reader’s Digest) Montreal/Singapore 2009.  256 pages.  Hardbound.