As there are many factors contributing to the onset of this common disease, it is often difficult to determine the cause or cause of arthritis.
Arthritis involves destruction of cartilage. Cartilage usually protects joints and enables smooth movement. Cartilage absorbs the shock when pressure is applied to the joint, as when walking. Without normal amounts of cartilage, bones rub against each other, causing pain, swelling (inflammation), and stiffness.
You may have joint inflammation for a variety of reasons such as:
* Broken Bones
* Infection (usually caused by bacteria and viruses)
* Autoimmune disease (The body attacks itself because the body believes that the body part is foreign)
* General "wear" of joints
Often, the injury cures, the disease is treated, or the infection has subsided, the infection disappears.
With some injuries and diseases, infectious diseases do not disappear or destruction causes long-term pain and deformation.
As this happens you suffer from chronic arthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common type and it is more likely to occur with age.
You may feel any joints, but most commonly feel your waist, knees, or fingers. Risk factors for osteoarthritis include,
* Overweight
* Hurt previously affected joints
* Using the affected joints with repetitive behaviors that stress the joints (baseball players, ballet dancers, construction workers are all in danger)
Arthritis can occur in men and women of all ages. Approximately 37 million people in the United States suffer from arthritis of some kind, which is one in seven people.
Other types or causes of arthritis include the following:
* Rheumatoid arthritis (adult)
* Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (childhood)
* Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
Gout
Scleroderma
* Psoriatic arthritis
* Ankylosing spondylitis
Reiter's syndrome (reactive arthritis)
* Adult Still Disease
* Viral arthritis
* Gonococcal arthritis
* Other bacterial infections (non-gonococcal bacterial arthritis)
* Tertiary Lyme disease (late stage)
* Tuberculous arthritis
* Spore infection, such as streptococcal disease
Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
If you have arthritis, you may experience:
Arthralgia
* Joint swelling
* Stiffness especially in the morning
* Warmth around the joint
* Redness of skin around the joint
* The ability to move joints has decreased
RA self-destructive immune response may be caused by a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental trigger. Changes in hormones are likely to play an important role in disease in response to environmental infections.
Certain genes in which one or more genes are associated with the risk of RA may increase the likelihood of developing the disease and can also partially determine if the condition is severe . However, because no one has a genetic predisposition to rheumatoid arthritis, other factors are also important.
It has been suggested that certain environmental factors have not been discovered, but infection by viruses and bacteria leads to rheumatoid arthritis in people who are genetically susceptible to infection. It does not mean that rheumatoid arthritis is infectious. People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis often have antibodies in the synovial fluid of the joints, suggesting the possibility of infection. In people with rheumatoid arthritis, adrenal hormone levels are lower, but it is unknown how hormones interact with genetic and environmental factors. Change hormone can contribute to the progression of rheumatoid arthritis.
Rheumatoid arthritis may occur irrespective of other diseases, but the relationship between the cause and other diseases is not well understood. In chronic rheumatoid arthritis, different methods of chronic arthritis may occur. Infections and other environmental factors that may cause rheumatoid arthritis may already exist in people who already have a disease gene.
