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Arthritis is a disease that brings on stiffness and pain with swelling and it affects the muscles and the bones, especially the joints where it causes the most damage. Each bone is covered with a living tissue that covers the ends of the bones and guards them from rubbing against each other; this tissue is known as the Cartilage.

Therefore, because of this, cartilage has the exact same needs as the other glands and organs; cartilage cells are referred to as chondrocytes. New cartilage cells or chondrocytes are replaced with new ones as they die.

When there is prolonged inflammation, cartilage cells are destroyed and die faster than the body’s ability to replace them. Cartilage cells are not sufficiently regenerated when there is injury or insufficient nutrition for regenerating new cells.

The condition causes damage where instability, deformities and joint weakness can obstruct daily life. A person suffering from arthritis needs to bring about a change in his day to day living and requires proper medication and physiotherapy. One method of treating joint problems is invasive joint replacement therapy and is only resorted to after all other treatments have failed.

Arthritis is divided into to major groups that may affect the ‘localized’ or ‘generalized’ parts of the body or even depending on the joints that get damaged; it then is further divided into sub-groups. Localized Conditions: This affects the soft tissue surrounding the joints or bones is refers to conditions such as bursitis or tendinitis.

A sub-category of this affects one or some of the joints like hip or knee joints. Generalized arthritis conditions involve a sub category where there is no swelling or inflammation but the muscle and soft tissue are affected. In this condition there is no evident kind of damage caused to the joints and is known as Fibromyalgia; this form of the condition is widespread among people.

The second sub category is one where there is inflammation and the whole body is affected. Rheumatoid arthritis, gout and psortiatis arthritis are examples of the next conditions in this subcategory. Other generalized conditions are polymyositis (muscles); systemic lupus erythematosus (skin, kidneys, or other organs); and vasculitis (any organ).

An individual is capable of having more than just one arthritis type and it includes over one hundred different medical conditions that are known to affect roughly forty six million adults and three hundred thousand children within the United States. As early on as infancy, this condition can begin, even though it is most commonly seen in adults that are over the age of sixty, in the primary form of osteoarthritis. As the population within America ages, the number of individuals that are suffering from arthritis is constantly increasing.

Arthritis and related illnesses are the cause of major disability in the U.S. and costs over 124 billion dollars a year in medical care and indirect expenses. Osteoarthritis can be prevented by taking a few precautionary measures; these include, maintaining suitable or appropriate body weight, and consuming plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, which are good sources for the vitamins C and D.

There should also be sufficient calcium intake, 1000-1500mg per day for adults; in addition regular, moderate exercise can help preventing sports injuries that can aggravate a condition.

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