Few people consider the health and well being of their bones and joints until they experience the pain of inflammation and stiffness. For those who currently experience joint pain, you know all too well that it is far from pleasant. However, there are certain things you can do to help alleviate the severity of your discomfort and possibly prevent inflammation and cartilage degeneration, which cause this type of joint pain.

Throughout your lifetime, your joints sustain significant physical stress from everyday activities such as walking and bending. Fortunately, your body was miraculously built to accomplish these many activities. Your bones are connected with a material known as cartilage - the smooth, elastic tissue that covers the ends of bones, allowing them to safely move against each other as you move.

As a normal function, your body offers a joint maintenance program that includes rebuilding and regenerating cartilage. As a result, your joints are mostly able to maintain their shock-absorbing capabilities.

However, as you age or incur injuries, the body is sometimes unable to sustain the level of cartilage regeneration required by the body. Upon injury or cartilage breakdown, the body's natural reaction is to produce inflammation within the joint so blood flow is increased, making more nutrients and oxygen available to aid in the healing process. Pain and discomfort that prohibit normal movement can result from the inflammation and injury.

What is arthritis?

It is very important for people who are suffering from any of the rheumatic or arthritic conditions to understand that "arthritis" in itself is a rather bad name.

The literal translation of arthritis is: Inflammation of, or belonging to, a joint. To differentiate between the various types of inflammation which can be found in and around joints we add a word before it. The two most common words we use are:

(a) osteoarthritis

(b) rheumatoid arthritis

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a condition which in the first instance attacks the cartilages of the joint. Cartilage is the very smooth substance which surrounds the ends of the bone and makes it easy for the two surfaces to run together. The cartilage is of a very smooth silvery grey appearance. An osteoarthritic joint is a mechanical condition which is brought about when the joint bears loads or strains at the incorrect point. For example, a sufferer with an osteoarthritic hip joint has for some considerable time been carrying his/her weight incorrectly.

When considering the early stages of an osteoarthritic hip joint, the most important part is to deal with the lumbar spine, because it is at this point that the weight levels through hip joints are controlled. If there has been an injury of long standing to the lumbar spine, the weight will fall incorrectly through the hip joint. This produces a mechanical inefficiency and a wearing away at a particular joint.

The early diagnosis of an osteoarthritic condition is very important because quite frequently, by treatment and by the use of decalcification methods, It is possible to prevent the osteoarthritic joint from developing.

When the cartilage of the joint wears, due to incorrect weight bearing, nature comes to the defense of the joint.

First of all, it tightens up the soft tissue, around the joint i.e. the ligaments, tendons and muscles. This makes the joint rather difficult to move.

The next stage is that, as cartilage is difficult to regenerate and bone is easy to regenerate, extra bone is laid down to replace the damaged or lost cartilage. The amount of bone laid down is grossly in excess of the quantity that is needed to replace the damaged cartilage. This leads to the typical x-ray appearance of an osteoarthritic joint where there are little pinnacles (spikes) sticking out which are very easily detectable.

The challenge is to persuade the bone to deposit less, and at the same time maintain the flexibility of the soft tissues around the joint, and persuade the joint to move; this can minimize the damage already done to the osteoarthritic joint, and make it as near as is humanly possible a perfectly useful and pain free joint.

This is the typical process of degeneration of an osteoarthritic joint.

There is a second type of osteoarthritic joint and that is caused by direct violence to a joint i.e. a fracture through the joint or a very severe blow or break or damage in any shape or form, such as from a fall.

We differentiate between the term osteoarthritis and this second type, by referring to it as traumatic arthritis, but the resultant process is identical, and the treatment for it is also identical; only in this case we do not have to correct the alignment of the weight within the body, unless of course there has been damage to other portions at the

same time.

But here again, posture, the correct use of the joint and the movement of the joint to its full range are very important.

If you, or any friends of yours, are in the least bit doubtful about the resultant effect of falls - this especially applies to teenage children - then do seek advice as quickly as possible, bearing in mind that under the National Health Service very few General Practitioners have the time to devote to a full scale investigation as to why these little niggling pains are developing.

This is a very brief account of what happens when osteoarthritis is apparent.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Although the term arthritis is in the title, it is the rheumatoid part which is the important factor.

Where osteoarthritis is caused by wear and tear, incorrect posture, damage or injury, rheumatoid arthritis is a disease which is caused by a glandular deficiency. As far as we know, the main gland involved is one of the two suprarenal glands, the one which is situated above the kidney.

Various hormones are produced by these glands, one of which is adrenaline; another is the substance known as cortisone. You may have read about cortisone .and its effects on arthritic cases.

Unfortunately, synthetically produced cortisone has many detrimental effects upon the body as a whole, and if injected to any great degree produces various reactions within other glands of the body and also in such organs as the liver and, to a lesser extent, the kidneys.

One of the endocrine glands involved in this process is the pituitary body, which is a very large gland situated at the base of the brain.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease caused by the malfunctioning of endocrine glands and is very different to osteoarthritis which, as we said, is a condition brought about by incorrect postures, injuries and general malfunctioning of the bodily systems.

With rheumatoid arthritis we have a chemical problem; possibly a reduction in blood flow or a thickening of the arteries.

As a result of the malfunction of the endocrine glands, the soft tissues surrounding the joint (by this we mean the capsule, the ligaments and tendons of muscles which pass over the joints) become inflamed and very painful to move.

If this condition is allowed to continue, these soft tissues (which if you feel around any of your joints you will see is quite soft and pliable) become hard and somewhat brittle.

Any movement now occasions a great deal of pain. Pain is the biggest symptom that is produced in a rheumatoid arthritic joint.

Invariably the small joints are affected first; that is, the joints of the fingers and the toes, and, as many of you know, these joints are particularly sensitive to pain. The patient suffering with this terrible condition is very loath to move their joints in any shape or form.

As a result of not moving the joint, the cartilage of the joint itself, as in osteoarthritis, becomes slightly gummed down, leading to further disability.

In an attempt to overcome the pain occasioned by the inflammation of the soft tissues and the tendency of the cartilage of the joint to stick together, various abnormal movements are attempted. The result of this, of course, is the distortion, which you can see in the patient's fingers and toes.

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Arthritis Health Center

Arthritis or other chronic joint pain affects nearly 70 million people in the U.S. alone. Get in-depth information here about osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and related conditions. You'll find articles about arthritis symptoms and prevention, arthritis drugs, and other promising treatments.