Osteoarthritis- Care for Your Joints

Osteoarthritis does occur with age but it comes with no symptoms. It is almost two-thirds of the people that even after undergoing x-ray do not show any symptoms of Osteoarthritis. This degenerative joint disease causes pain, swelling and affects hand, knees and hip joints and even in the spines.

Joints are found at the junction of two bones. The joints need to be flexible to allow smooth movement. It should also be stable enough to support weight and absorb tremendous force without wavering. Muscles are attached to the joints through fibrous tendons. It is the contraction and the relaxation of the muscles that helps in the movement of the joints. For example, if you bend your elbow, your biceps contract but your triceps relaxes. Again the muscles need to be strong enough to provide strength to the joints as does the ligaments. With muscles and ligaments providing the stability to the joints, we do also have smooth, shiny and slippery tissue that has no blood vessels or nerves known as the cartilages. Cartilage, the living tissue gets its nutrition from the joint fluid that also acts as lubrication for the smooth movement of the joints.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis that occurs not only as one ages but being overweight or sustaining any injury in the joints can also cause swollen or reduced motion of the joints. Osteoarthritis attacks the cartilage first. Again, due to osteoarthritis the cartilage can get swollen due to the decreased water content that is due to decreased proteoglycan content that causes the cartilage to be less resilient. The collagen fibers of the cartilage get disorganized and the cells begin to produce less proteins resulting in the thinning down of the cartilage. It breaks down the cartilage and as a result the bones rub together. Over time, the rubbing might damage the joints.

Osteoarthritis might lead to other problems such as that the muscles can get weaken that is the muscles that hold the joints can get weaken because they are not being used. As a result, over time the joint does not work at all as its shape is affected.

As the normal cushioning between the bones wears out, the bones tend to form abnormally dense tissue next to the arthritic joint known as sclerosis. Tiny cysts are also formed in the bones. This process often produces bone outgrowths called as spurs or osteophytes. These bone changes and the inflammation can be very painful and restricts normal work.

The diagnosis of osteoarthritis is normally done through x-rays. However, till date there are no methods available to detect Osteoarthritis in its earlier stage as well as to begin treatment early. The symptoms of osteoarthritis come very slowly but it involves around the joints only. Establishing the correct diagnosis at its onset can be very helpful in treating this disease. However, osteoarthritis does not always produce pain and swelling. In some people it might just show as mild abnormality in the x-ray and a little stiffness. However with some others it might progress to total impairment of work and movement.

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