Osteoarthritis / Arthrosis

Osteoarthritis is a condition that develops slowly. There is a hereditary predisposition but too little or wrong use of the joints and body can increase this predisposition. Repeated one-sided work can do the same thing, because of the strain on your body, and so can very hard work where you do not use the facilities supposed to be relieving you.
In sufferings of the hormonal system, joint problems can arise - especially in diabetes, hyperparathyroidism, overweight, scoliosis, and too low metabolism. It is particularly in the weight-bearing joints that the osteoarthritis appears, but the shoulders and hands are also often affected.
Most often, a certain cause of the osteoarthritis cannot be found. Particularly the hip joints and knee joints are affected - and this particularly happens in elderly people. In women, osteoarthritis in the interphalangeal joints of the fingers and in the metacarpophalangeal joint of the thumb is common. In the interphalangeal joints, sore swellings can appear - Heberden's nodes and Bouchard's nodes. The soreness passes, but the joints stay somewhat nodose. In the spine, osteoarthritis most often appears in the discs between the vertebras as protuberances of calcium, as small changes in the small joints between the vertebral processes, and as calcification of the ligaments.
It is usually the articular cartilage that is affected. Under normal cicumstances, it can manage the strain to which it is exposed, but constant strain in hard and one-sided muscular action and overweight of the weight-bearing joints can damage the cartilage and destroy it.
If you do not sufficiently use your joints, there will not be produced enough synovial fluid; synovial fluid is what nourishes the cartilage as cartilage does not contain blood vessels itself. The joints become dry when they are not being used, and there will be creaking and sqeaking and the cartilage will be more easily destroyed. A bad diet will contribute to destroying the resistance of the cartilage. The synovial membrane and the ligaments can also be attacked.
In osteoarthritis, there can be inflammatory changes with recrudescence of pains and possibly excess fluid in the joints - e.g. the knee joint - from time to time. Simultaneously, the pains will get worse. In this case, the doctor will take a blood sample and find out if you might have articular rheumatism instead. Otherwise, the symptoms are most often pains and a reduced mobility.
A particular kind of osteoarthritis is the suffering frozen shoulder. Here, there is a kind of inflammatory reaction in the tissue around the shoulder joint. The joint capsule "adheres" to the upper arm's caput in the shoulder joint. It has nothing to do with bacteria, but it can occur after inflammation of the tendon or bursa of the shoulder joint. Most often, however, there is no actual disease in the shoulder joint.
A frozen shoulder can also appear in relation to a suffering of the bodily system - e.g. diabetes, chronic pulmonary disease, or cardiac thrombosis. If you keep your arm motionless for a long period of time, the symptoms worsen and the reduction in mobility increases. Therefore, it is important to get your arm going again as soon as possible after having injured it. Mostly affected by a frozen shoulder are women over the age of 50, but, of course, men can also be affected.
The pains and stiffness usually develop gradually over a couple of months - the shoulder becomes sore, and on X-ray pictures, decalcification will be visible. It cannot be ruled out that the hormonal balance is involved. In most cases, the suffering disappears after 12 - 18 months, but some people will have a sustained reduced mobility.