Osteoarthritis

Composed by: Arindam Chowdhury
Class: 3.13 Haggai

When I came over the article on osteoarthritis, I realized that the word sounded quite familiar. After thinking for a while I recalled that it was my grandma who was suffering from this condition. This increased my interest to find out more about this condition.

Osteoarthritis is an illness caused by the loss of cartilage covering the joints. This leads to inflammation of the joint and causes much pain. Cartilages are protein substances that act as cushion over joints to facilitate movement of the joint. In osteoarthritis eventually the cartilage is completely destroyed. I learned that among the 100 over arthritis conditions osteoarthritis is the most common one. As it occurs more and more with aging, I also learned that before the age of 45 this condition is more common in males, however after the age of 55 females are considered to be more prone to this condition. Another interesting fact I came to know of was that a higher incidence of osteoarthritis exists in the Japanese population, while South African blacks, East Indians and Southern Chinese have lower rates. Osteoarthritis can occur in a number of places. Most of the common ones include hands, feet, hips, knees and the spine as well.

I also got to know some of the causes of this condition. The process of aging causes primary osteoarthritis. Over several decades, the joints undergo much of the repetitive action that is the eventual cause of the flaking and disintegration of the cartilage between joints. Osteoarthritis is also a hereditary derived condition. The second part of this condition, known as the secondary osteoarthritis can be due to one of several causes such as obesity, repeated trauma or surgery to the joint, abnormal joints at growth, gout, diabetes and other hormone disorders.

Osteoarthritis is a disease of the joints and unlike other forms of arthritis this condition does not cause inflammation to other parts of the body except for the affected joint. Osteoarthritis also causes the formation of hard bony enlargements of the small joints of the fingers. This bony enlargement of the small joints at the end of the fingers is called a Heberden's node, named after a very famous British doctor.

An x-ray of the affected joint is the most common way of detecting osteoarthritis. Results will show the absence of a cartilage or may show abnormal narrowing of the joints.

Despite the presence of 21st century’s cutting edge medical technology, there has been no specific treatment to cure the degeneration of the cartilage found in the affected joint. However there are some precautions that can be taken or even a surgery can be performed to replace the faulty joint with an artificial one. However this is only carried out in severe cases and otherwise most are asked to carry out the precautions told by doctors. Such precautions may be stopping physical exertion, or even carrying out regular exercise to strengthen the muscle around the joint and prevent the joint from freezing up as well as loosing weight and at times patients are given mechanical supports. In other occasions to keep the excruciating pain at bay, pain relievers such as aspirin is used. Or even Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are prescribed to patients to kill the pain.

Looks like osteoarthritis is a condition similar to the story of nature over man. There are some things that man has no say over to and one of the most obvious is death. And it seems that, like death, osteoarthritis is also bound to happen to at least some people in the world. But can man one day unlock the codes to deny nature’s laws?

Done by: Arindam Chowdhury