Many people find themselves experiencing some sort of ache and eventually ask the question, "What is arthritis?". Arthritis is a large group of conditions that affect the health of bone joints found in the body. It has been estimated that nearly one in three American adults suffer from some form of arthritis. It seems that arthritis affects twice as many women as it does men.
Some of the types of arthritis include psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, septic arthritis and osteoarthritis. Arthritis can be caused from strains and injuries that were caused by repetitive motion, overexertion, sports or falls. Unlike the autoimmune arthritis diseases, osteoarthritis largely affects older people. This condition largely results in the degeneration of joint cartilage.
Arthritic joints can be especially susceptible to changes in the weather. The increased sensitivity is believed to be caused by the affected joints developing additional verve endings in an attempt by the body to protect the joint from further damage.
Osteoarthritis is also referred to as degenerative arthritis or degenerative joint disease. This is a condition in which low grade inflammation results in pain found in the joints. This pain is caused by the wearing away of the joints -more precisely, the wearing of the cartilage that covers and acts like a cushion inside the joint.
As the bone surface becomes less well protected by cartilage, the person experiences pain when participating in weight bearing activities, such as walking and standing. Because decreased movement is caused by the pain involved with osteoarthritis, some people suffer from atrophy of muscles and other degenerative secondary effects.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting nearly twenty-one million people in the United States. Osteoarthritis is responsible for roughly twenty-five percent of the primary care physician visits in the United States. The statistics see to be about the same for Canada and most of Western Europe.
It is estimated that twenty-five percent of visits to primary care physicians, and about half of all non-steroidal and anti-inflammatory drug prescriptions are caused by those seeking relief from their osteoarthritis.
Is has been estimated that about eighty percent of the population will have radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis by the time they reach the age of sixty-five. Though only about sixty percent of these patients will be symptomatic, this certainly is a rather large number of people.
The primary symptom of osteoarthritis is chronic pain which itself causes loss of mobility and very often includes stiffness. The pain involved with osteoarthritis is generally described as a burning sensation or a sharp ache found in the associate tendons and muscles near the affected joint.