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What is arthritis and why do we get it? In this blog we will explore the often age related osteoarthritis (OA) and look to answer these questions. 

The word arthritis comes from "arthro" meaning "joint" and "itis" which is the medical ending you put on words meaning "inflammation". The cause of osteoarthritis is debated and we don't know why certain people are more targeted than others. We know that OA is more prevalent in people over 45, females and in the obese. Numbers from the NHS shows that OA affects nearly 9 million people in the UK.  

So what is the process of arthritis? What actually happens inside your joint? An inflammatory process will start affecting the cartilage on the joint surfaces that can result in swelling and redness. Over time the joint surfaces will degenerate and this will reduce the joint space making the joint surfaces come closer together or even touching. This new friction will cause the body to try and protecting itself and it does this with putting down new bone formation.  

Using a tent analogy can be helpful to understand this concept fully. Imagine a tent out in hard weather. It will have tent poles and guide ropes to support itself so it won't collapse or fly away in the wind. To stand balanced it needs equal support and force from each direction. Now imagine that we took away the support from the one side. The tent would definitely move more in the wind. And we would expect the tent to come out with slight injury or be more "worn" than if it had a full support. The same could be said about the joint. If the joint is the tent, the ligaments, tendons and muscles are what keeps the tent upright and in place. If the joint loses stability in one (or more) direction(s) (due to injury, weakness or lack of control) it will become hyper-mobile (too much movement) and/or unstable.  

The body compensates for instability with trying to stabilise and protect itself, effectively it will try to put down a new tent pole. This can be muscle spasm or in the case of arthritis it will be the new bone formation that happens in what is normally talked about as "wear and tear" and age related changes. In medical terms we call this osteophytes (bone spurs) or sclerosis (thickening bone).  

So what does this actually mean? It means that mechanical age related joint changes is the body's natural way of changing and adapting to forces put on them. If something moves too much or too much force is put through a joint the body will protect itself by creating more stability. This can be by new bone formation or muscle spasm.  

So what can you do to help prevent this? Get help to make sure that your joints and muscles are functioning at their best (hey, that's what we do) and make sure to exercise and use your body regularly. You will find more information on the importance of exercise and keeping active in our other blog posts. .