Many people can get confused when the term "Arthritis" comes up. Arthritis is an inflammation of the joint that often is accompanied by swelling, redness, stiffness and pain.
The two main forms of Arthritis I'll see in my practice are Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis. Rheumatoid, is often associated with an autoimmune response in the body. It usually affects the extremities first, ie. the hands, is often bilateral and in progressive cases can result in deformity.
Osteoarthritis, on the other hand is often connected to "wear and tear" of the joints associated with activity, injury and trauma. I often see this in patients who were very active in their early years. Also, I often see this type of condition affecting one side or joint more than the other.
This recent article draws a direct correlation between obesity and the prevalence of Osteoarthritis. When you think of it, it isn't hard to see how carrying around excess weight would be detrimental to your joints. Especially, your knees, hips and ankles.
This study was done on about 336 participants who were recruited from an existing Osteoarthritis study. These participants were determined to have minimal or no loss of cartilage in their knees. They were followed up over the next 30 months and their results were monitored.
What researchers found was; at 30 months follow up, over 20% of the participants showed a slow loss of articular cartilage in the knees, whereas over 5% of the participants showed significant loss.
The researchers found that Obesity and being overweight was a strong risk factor for developing Osteoarthritis. In fact that they discovered that with every 1 unit increase in a patient's Body Mass Index (BMI) their chances for developing Osteoarthritis increased 11%.
The moral of this story is maintaining a healthy body weight by adopting a healthy lifestyle and exercise is not only benefiting your heart and preventing disease, but also good for your joints!!
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