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OSTEOARTHRITIS
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the
most common of many types of joint problems. It's the type that most of us get as we get
older. Causes are age, injury, repetitive trauma, and genetic.
The basic abnormality in OA occurs
in the articular cartilage which caps the ends of all of our long bones where they meet to
form joints (e.g., the knee). Normal cartilage is the best shock absorber in the world.
It’s smoother than Teflon, very slippery, and fits each joint perfectly.
 The
sponginess comes from its construction of extremely large molecules
called proteoglycans. These many arms of these complicated
structures are interlocked, like the branches of a tightly packed
grove of willow trees, so all the space in between the arms gives
lots of room for compressibility.
When you bear weight on your leg, the water is squeezed out
of the cartilage into the joint space where it picks up
nutrients and oxygen. When the weight is released, it
instantly springs back, sucking up the water. In this way,
very little of the shock is transmitted to the rigid bone
beneath.
 When
the cartilage is worn away by the things mentioned above,
the normal shocks begin to break and fracture the
unprotected bone, causing it to overgrow
in a fruitless attempt to heal. This leads to the hard,
swollen, crunchy-sounding joints of OA.
Contrary to popular opinion, OA can
be prevented by joint protection techniques. Its progression can be slowed dramatically in
the same way, if the proper medications and instruction are used concurrently. The
medications used to increase comfort and decrease pain should be employed to improve the
effectiveness of the physical therapy and joint protection techniques, not as ends unto
themselves.
If you have OA don't ever
accept the answer that "nothing can be done". This is wrong and tragic, when so
much can be done so simply. |
