Most Commonly Occurring Arthritis –
Osteoarthritis (O.A.) is the most commonly occurring type of arthritis. It occurs most frequently in the knees, hands, and hips.
It is also called as degenerative disease or wear and tear disease.
Osteoarthritis is manifested as pain and stiffness in the joints and which increases to severe pain and stiffness over the period of time. Arthritis is mainly caused due to wear and tear of the cushion type of tissue in between the bones called as cartilage.
Cartilage is a very important part that covers the bone ends and prevents abrasions of the bones over each other.
The pathogenesis – progressive degeneration of the cartilage causes release of some enzymes which break down collagen further destroying the cartilage.
This exposes the underlying bones to rub over one another causing great pain and discomfort.
This also leads to formation of granulation or osteophytes of the bone causing more pain.
Progressively it causes loss of space between two bones and especially bones at the knee joint and leading to TKR i.e., Total Knee Replacement Surgery.
This wear and tear takes place over a period of years and the causes are mainly due to –
- Lack of exercise.
- Continuous sitting or standing position working pattern.
- Above normal body weight.
- Excessive exercise like walking or cycling to long distance etc.
For an Ideal Lifestyle person has to observe –
- Balanced Working hours.
- Exercise.
- Diet and weight control to reduce the potential degeneration of the cartilage tissue.
