Why do you think so many have arthritis?

[butterfly77]

It seems as if more and more people are afflicted with this disease. Do you think it is in environment,food, air, water or something else?

[gademocrat7]

1. Which form of arthritis?

osteoarthritis or rheumatoid?

[butterfly77]

3. Both...

but I am interested in osteo.

[Warpy]

18. The exercise fads that started in the 70s have contributed

to the appearance of osteoarthritis at younger ages. Running, weight training, martial arts, tennis, team sports, and any other strenuous activity that puts repetitive strain on joints is going to contribute to the breakdown of those joints over time.

The good news is that it'll take longer for your heart to kill you if you've done all this stuff.

[lcordero2]

2. The human body is under constant attack

and is not able to cleanse itself properly

[shance]

4. Sugar and other addictive substances degenerate joints and tissue.

I never realized how sugar weakens the body - especially muscles, joints and tissue.

I can't find the link of the information how most cancers crave substances like sugar and even nicotine and alcohol (more sugar).

Fascinating stuff. I'll see if I can find it.

[Amy6627]

8. I think you are dead on, sugar along with environment pollution,etc.

[no_hypocrisy]

12. You beat me to the punch. Diet. Check out the Japanese

diets. Very low arthritis rates, with seniors being able to farm when over 100 years.

[izzie]

15. Is that true? Never heard that. I think it is because we have done this

Got rid of so many of the things that killed us off early so many are living longer and it goes with joints just wearing out.

[Golden Raisin]

5. The Clintons did it!

[Amy6627]

7. Is that you John McLame?

[hlthe2b]

6. Most "arthritis"

is osteoarthritis (basically degenerative joint disease that is associated with aging). Joints do degrade with age, but the symptoms and degeneration accelerate and become more pronounced in obese patients (more weight = more stress on the joints). In addition, loss of muscle mass from inactivity/lack of exercise means that joints are less protected from injury. This adds to joint injury and degeneration--> osteoarthritis. In addition, we are living longer and more likely to engage in high impact activity well into older age... This both adds to the chance for injury, but also adds to the cumulative impact and stress on the joints. Low impact exercise such as walking is very good both to prevent arthritis, or to decrease pain from chronic osteoarthritis. But, high impact injury, especially when out of shape, or obese-- and when very sporadic, increases chances for developing osteoarthritis (and injury).

Osteoarthritis is the common form as opposed to rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease....The CDC study just released showing an increase in "arthritis" does not differentiate, but only asks participants if they have ever received a diagnosis of "arthritis"from their physician; thus, it is likely the majority of cases they detected were osteoarthritis.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/

[JuniperLea]

9. All of the above

And for some, joint injury.

I injured my left foot in a ballet accident when I was 16, and I was told I would probably get arthritis in that foot. I was also told I should have never been en pointe at age 8, that I should have been told by instructors not to do that until I was at least 16.

I've also been told that all the years in high heels could have caused the arthritis on its own. My foot doctor has an interesting binder in his office. He pulled pictures off the internet and from magazines. His binder now has sections like "Super Model Bunions" and "Arthritic Feet of the Rich and Famous". I wish I had known all that as a kid. I would have avoided high heels like the plague!

[hughee99]

10. Could it also be a product of people living longer?

Life expectancy has increased from around 47 years in 1900 to over 70 now. With more people living longer, and arthritis tending to affect older people more often then younger people, this might have something to do with it. Since a larger percentage of people are living into their older years, you might actually see a larger percentage of people with arthritis without it having to do with any external factors other than just the higher average age.

I don't know that this is the case, it's just a thought.

Edited for grammar

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. There is no one thing called arthritis

Arthritis is a condition (inflammation of the joint) and not a single disease. Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease, where a person's immune system attacks connective tissue throughout the body. Psoriatic arthritis is also an auto-immune disease, but different from the one that causes rheumatoid arthritis. Septic arthritis is caused by any of a number of acute or chronic infections of a joint. Gout is caused by a buildup of uric acid crystals in connective tissue. Osteoarthritis is a deterioration of joint cartelage, which itself could be caused by any number of problems, from joint trauma to autoimmune disease to infection to the general breakdown of tissue in an aging body.

My guess is that the growing notice of arthritis is caused by A) Big Pharma talking up the virtues of their anti-inflammatory medications and B) the general aging of the American population, leading to a higher incident of arthritis than one would have in a younger population.

[Double T]

13. All those you mentioned with emphasis on stress................

this miserable american rat race is slowly killing ALL of us, or at least making us ill.

[Tanuki]

14. Even Neanderthals got arthritis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal

"Degenerative Disease
Arthritis is particularly common in the older Neanderthal population, specifically targeting areas of articulation such as the ankle (Shanidar III), spine and hips (La Chapelle-aux-Saints ‘Old Man’), arms (La Quina 5, Krapina, Feldhofer) knees, fingers and toes. This is closely related to degenerative joint disease, which can range from normal, use-related degeneration to painful, debilitating restriction of movement and deformity and is seen in varying degree in the Shanidar skeletons (I-IV)."

So it doesn't seem it's all that new---maybe as some other posters have suggested, more of us are living to the older ages at which it shows up. I suspect that obesity, diet, and other environmental factors play a role as well.

[Odin2005]

16. People get old. Bodies wear out.

[China_cat]

17. Is it that they really have arthritis

or that they call stiff, sore joints by that name without a diagnosis from a doctor. (My grandmother did that for years but was only diagnosed with MILD osteoarthritis when she was 80)

[Citizen Number 9]

19. Obesity is a factor

Obesity is up in the population and the extra weight wears on joints like nobody's business......