Information on Arthritis: What Causes Arthritis? Is There Any Way I Can Prevent Arthritis?

Arthritis is a disease that causes inflammation to the joints of the body. The joints of the body are those places where two sets of bones meet, for example the elbow, the hand, the knee and others. The disease and inflammation usually occur due to improper bone growth. This makes movement between joints very unsteady and, for the patient, very painful. There are many forms of arthritis of which the most common is osteoarthritis – which is a degenerative disease of the joints; rheumatoid arthritis which affects the joints and sometimes the skin and organs of the body; septic arthritis – where an infection attacks the joints; gout – where uric acid crystals form deposits on the cartilage of joints and cause inflammation of the joints; juvenile idiopathic arthritis – which afflicts those before the age of sixteen; and Ankylosing spondylitis – an arthritis of the joints of the spine.

The most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis. This degenerative joint disease attacks the cartilage, which is the tough tissue that connects bone and the sunchondral bone which is the rounded end at the end or base of a bone. This form of arthritis will cause joint stiffness, creaking noises when using the joint in question, inflammation, and acute pain. This form of arthritis affects the hands, feet and spine and also the hips sometimes. Studies have shown that arthritis sufferers usually have a family history of this disease in previous generations. The confirmation of the disease usually happens when the patient goes to a doctor complaining of a pain in the joints. A subsequent X ray will then confirm a case of osteoarthritis by the damage to the cartilage and damage to the subchondral bone.

There is no way to prevent the onset or to cure arthritis. The current treatments mostly involve heat treatments and the use of mechanical devices that place less stress on an affected joint when it moves. Apart from these, and in severe cases of arthritis, replacing an inflamed joint altogether with a mechanical substitute surgically is also done. Mostly however, an inflamed joint is sometimes allowed to just wear off and fit as best it can in the circumstances. This is why exercise is propagated as a great method of preventing and treating the disease. From a dietary perspective, not many of the treatments suggested have been very effected but patients are asked to change diets as well. Drugs are usually only given to prevent inflammation and reduce the pain.