While you don’t have to get a medical degree, learning more about your own disease will help you better understand why your doctor recommends certain treatments and asks you to avoid others. In addition, knowing more about your disease will help you feel in control of your OA and lead you to become an active [...]

When a person presents to a physician with complaints of joint pain and swelling, the doctor understands that numerous conditions could cause these symptoms. The history you provide and the results of your physical exam may point to one or more diagnoses. It is helpful to have further evidence to help clarify one diagnosis and [...]

People with OA can develop swelling and redness around the joints of their fingers. Bumps around the farthest joints in your fingers (the ones farthest from your wrist) are called Heberden’s nodes. They are typically about the size of a pea and are sometimes painful when they first develop, but frequently become less painful later. [...]

Your doctor makes the diagnosis of OA on the basis of your history and the results of your physical examination. People with OA usually complain of pain, stiffness, or joint swelling, or some combination of these symptoms. During your physical exam, your doctor will pay special attention to your joints. He or she will check [...]

OA is principally a disease of the joints. As a consequence, its symptoms include pain, swelling, and stiffness of the joints. The pain associated with OA usually has an insidious onset, is generally described as aching or throbbing, and may result from changes that have occurred over the last 15 to 20 years. It is [...]

Specialists in arthritic disease are often asked if OA is an inherited disease. People with OA are concerned about the possibility of their siblings developing the same problem or about their chances of “passing” the disease to their children. Studies of large populations of patients have demonstrated that OA does, indeed, have a major genetic [...]

In a worst-case scenario, a joint affected by OA can become stiff and painful. These symptoms result from the loss of the smooth, gliding surface that undamaged cartilage provides. As the disease progresses, the cartilage in a joint becomes thin and ragged, and more stiffness and a “catching” sensation may occur. These problems may cause [...]

The cause of OA is elusive in most cases. Nevertheless, physicians have noticed that certain groups have a higher rate of OA than others. You may find that you belong to one or more of these groups. Age Greater Than 45 Years Although OA risk increases with increasing age, not all people older than age [...]

OA can affect a variety of joints in the body, including the spine. Like OA of the hips and knees, OA of the spine (sometimes called spondylitis) is a degenerative disease. The spine is made up of many individual bones called vertebrae. Collectively, they provide a strong and flexible support for the body. The bones [...]

Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. It is a tough, semitransparent, flexible tissue that is composed of cartilage cells (chondrocytes) and tough fibers that are surrounded by a dense material made of fats and protein (sort of like a fruit salad suspended inside a bowl of Jell-O). Among the many tissues affected by [...]

OA is a disease of the joints. It predominantly affects the cartilage that lines the bones of the joint. Cartilage is the dense rubbery tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint. In healthy people, its surface is smooth and slippery, which allows the bones in a joint to glide over one another [...]

Despite extensive research, scientists still do not know what causes OA. It is theorized that some type of cartilage damage starts a destructive process that, in genetically susceptible people, results in OA. While the cause of OA is unknown, many factors are often associated with its development. Aging A person’s risk for OA increases as [...]

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic condition that affects the joints. It occurs more frequently as we age. Of the more than 100 different types of arthritic conditions distinguished, OA is the most common, affecting more than 20 million people in the United States along. It is estimated that if everyone in the U.S. population who [...]

Influenza infections can take a more severe course in people with RA. These infections are minor annoyances in the young and healthy, but can result in hospitalization and even death in elderly persons or individuals with a compromised immune system, like that found in RA. Many studies have demonstrated that influenza vaccinations can result in [...]

The pneumococcal vaccine is a preparation of biological material that is injected into your body and causes your body to form antibodies to pneumococcus (plural = “pneumococci”) bacteria. Whenever you are exposed to a particular type of bacteria, whether through an infection or via vaccination, your body produces antibodies to that bacterium. These antibodies then [...]

Given that RA is a disease that can affect mobility and strength, home modifications can make your life much easier. Some home modifications are simpler to make than others. For example, moving from a multilevel home to a single-level home or apartment is a big change, but even small accommodations can make a big difference. [...]

Alternative medicine and complementary medicine are terms that are often used interchangeably. We will follow this practice in this text. Alternative medicine comprises a mixed group of practices that target hygiene, diagnosis, and treatment of many diseases. The theoretical bases of alternative medicine diverge from those of modern scientific medicine and are not generally accepted [...]

I’ve heard that I can have my blood “filtered” to treat my rheumatoid arthritis. Is that possible? Yes, there is a device that treats RA by “filtering” the blood—the so-called extracorporeal immunoadsorption protein A column. While its name sounds complex, the device’s function is based on a simple theory: Antibodies have a tendency to stick [...]

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory process that affects the synovium, and its symptoms generally respond to the various anti-inflammatory medications that constitute the armamentarium of the rheumatologist. Sometimes, however, RA-induced changes to the structural or mechanical alignment of a joint may cause pain, disfigurement, or loss of joint function. In these cases, the pain, function, [...]

Mechanical stress on inflamed joints can worsen the pain and increase the damage that arthritis causes. While medication can help to decrease the inflammation associated with RA, reducing the stress on your joints can help both to reduce pain and to prevent disability. The majority of joint stress is caused by increased body weight and [...]