Arthritis Overview

Arthritis Overview

When you wake up in the morning and feel pain or stiffness in your joints, you may have a form of Arthritis. There are over one hundred types of arthritis people can have, but the most common type is known as osteoarthritis, and another well known arthritis is Rheumatoid. There is also gout, septic arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis among several others.

Arthritis is a group of conditions which affect the body's joints. Joints are places in your body where two bones meet. The knees, hips, fingers and wrists are examples of joints in your body. Some types of arthritis are caused by the tissues around the joints being inflamed, while others are caused by the wearing away of the cartilage tissues which protect the bones from rubbing together.

Some types of arthritis are caused by injuries or damages to the joints, while others are caused by age or lifestyle. Some however, are caused by problems with the body's immune system, infections, or bacteria.

Currently about 46 million Americans suffer from one form of arthritis or another, and 19 million of those people either have limited mobility, or they're disabled from the disease. New estimates now expect those numbers to grow to 67 million by the year 2030, with at least 25 million people having limited activity abilities because of the disease.

The most common type of arthritis is Osteoarthritis, and it's more often caused by aging than anything else. Osteoarthritis can be caused by injuries though, and tends to be a problem for people who are obese, or those who regularly lift large amounts of weights such as body builders.

As people age, or put too much stress on their joints, the cartilage thins out or wears away. This is the type of arthritis known as Osteoarthritis. When the cartilage starts wearing away, it causes pain because the bones at those joints start rubbing together. Over time, that rubbing causes small spurs to develop on the ends of the bones, which increases the amount of pain experienced. Both the cartilage wearing down and the development of the bone spurs also cause loss of movement and mobility in the affected joints.

With Osteoarthritis, any joint in the body can be affected. Sometimes it's just one joint, and sometimes it's several. With Rheumatoid arthritis though, joints are usually affected symmetrically. In other words, usually if the left wrist has rheumatoid arthritis, the right one does too.

That's one of the primary differences with these two types of arthritis. Another important thing to know though, is that Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by inflammation instead of cartilage wear down. Rheumatoid arthritis is thought to be caused by the body's own immune system attacking the joints. This causes the tissue around the joint to become inflamed and swollen, which causes pain, tenderness, and loss of mobility.

To learn more about joint pain, visit the Joint Pain Forum today!

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