Arthritis / What is Arthritis?

Arthritis is the inflammation of a joint and it’s surrounding tissues, including the cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. Arthritis can be caused by numerous disease states and chemistry imbalances, nutritional deficiencies, genetic disorders, and over-use (wearing-out) of the joints. The joints most often affected with arthritis are found in the back and spine, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, hips, knees, ankles, and toes. The most common symptoms of arthritis include painful, limited movement in the affected joint(s), swelling of the joints, increased heat and redness in surrounding tissues, and a dry, crackling sensation or sound emanating from the affected joint.

• Women are almost twice as likely as men to suffer from arthritis. The disease becomes more prevalent after age 45. Yet it is not a disease exclusively of the elderly, for more than 300,000 children are also affected.
• A 1997 survey of 1,000 Canadian Arthritis sufferers showed that 62% of those dissatisfied with the care they received cited "not getting better" as their chief complaint. Arthritis was one of the most reasons for visiting the family doctor and is the third most common reason for prescription drug use.
• Arthritis is a costly disease: It's the leading cause of absenteeism; more than 45 million work days are lost each year.
• The estimated yearly cost in lost wages and medical bills is $65 billion -- second only to the bill for heart disease.
• Arthritis patients average eight visits to their doctor each year -- twice as many as those suffering from other chronic illnesses like high blood pressure.
• Approximately six million people are "self-diagnosed" and improperly "self-treated."
• Despite using aspirin, Tylenol™, and other prescription medications, those with arthritis experience chronic pain and a worsening of their symptoms with time.

What Are The Main Types of Arthritis?

1. Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD), or Osteoarthritis

How Arthritis Occurs QuickTime

DJD is the breakdown or wearing-out of the cartilage on the ends of the bones, which limits the ability of the bones to move against each other. This occurs mainly in large, weight bearing joints, or in other joints where there have been years of repetitive movement. The cartilage between the bones allows the bones to move (or slide) on each other, providing stable movement at the joints. If the smooth cartilage between the bones becomes roughened from wear and tear, it causes friction between the bones, leading to pain in the joint. With osteoarthritis, you will often see bone spurs on x-rays, and occasionally soft cysts (fluid filled cavities in the bones and/or joints. Osteoarthritis usually develops after the age of forty, affecting women three times more than men. Classic symptoms include joint stiffness in the morning upon arising, or after periods of resting and/or sitting. Movement, stretching, or heat relieves this stiffness. Other symptoms include pain that increases with the use of the affected joint(s), progressive reduction of joint motion, and pain, redness, and swelling in the surrounding tissues.

2. Rheumatoid Arthritis

X-Rays of Osteoarthritis Lumbar Disc Disease See larger image See larger image

Rheumatoid and juvenile rheumatoid (affecting young people) arthritis(RA) are serious, painful joint diseases. RA primarily affects the cartilage (at the end of the bones), and tissues that surround the lubricating fluid in the joint. The tissues in and around the joint are often degenerated or completely destroyed and replaced with scar tissue. RA can affect the entire body, but it most often affects the small joints of the fingers and hands. These joints become swollen, tender, and in advanced cases, deformed. The pain and deformity of advanced RA is often crippling. Rheumatoid arthritis affects over two million Americans. It occurs in women twice as frequently as men, often in people aged under 40 years old. Juvenile RA, as the name states, can involve even young children. The primary causes (onset factors) of rheumatoid arthritis appear to be linked to bacterial infections, nutritional deficiencies, or physical and/or emotional stress. More information can be found {arthritis_rheumatoid} here.

3. Gouty Arthritis

Gouty arthritis occurs mainly in people who are ‘living the high life’ eating rich foods, red meats, and regularly drinking alcohol. It is caused by the formation of uric acid crystals in the bloodstream (another chemistry imbalance), which find their way into the joints and their surrounding tissues, causing extremely sharp, needle-like pain in the joints (especially the joints of the big toe). Fever, body chills, sweats, and loss of joint motion often accompany this intense pain. Over 90% of gout sufferers are overweight males, over the age of forty. Health problems related to or caused by gout include indigestion, constipation, depression, headache, a higher risk of heart and kidney disease, and various skin conditions. More information can be found {gout} here.

4. Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriatic arthritis is similar to rheumatoid arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis usually affects people with psoriasis of the skin, and/or nails (common symptoms include a characteristic red, flaky or scaly skin rash, and thick, eroded nails) or those with a family history of psoraisis. Psoriatic arthritis causes pain, inflammation, swelling, and eventually degeneration, primarily in the joints of the fingers and toes, and sometimes the hips and spine.

Arthritis can be caused by many factors. Nutritional deficiencies leading to arthritis usually involve calcium depletion, or a diet poor in fresh vegetables and high in acid and mucous-producing foods. Arthritic conditions can also be related to unbalanced body chemistry (acid pH), imbalances of the body’s glands and the hormones they produce, genetic (family) history, allergic reactions to foods, auto-immune reactions (when the body’s immune system attacks itself), and stressful lifestyles or environments. Other common causes include osteoporosis (thinning of the bones), and long-term use of anti-arthritic drugs and over-the-counter pain medications. Anabolic steroids, used by some body builders, can lead to arthritis-like degeneration of the joints. Finally, overuse of any joint in the body can cause the wearing down of the cartilage between two bones (osteoarthritis) or instability of the joint.

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