There are various types of arthiritis. they are not due to lazyness. it is mainly due to wear and tear of the joint and lack of lubrication.
ARTHRITIS - AN INTRODUCTION
Arthritis ("arth" meaning joint, "itis" meaning inflammation) literally means inflammation of a joint. It is not a single disease entity or even a few variations on a single theme, but rather it actually consists of more than 100 different conditions. These can be anything from relatively mild forms of tendinitis (as in "tennis elbow") and bursitis to crippling systemic forms, such as rheumatoid arthritis. There are pain syndromes like fibromyalgia and arthritis-related disorders, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, that involve every part of the body. There are forms of the disease, such as gout, that almost nobody connects with arthritis, and there are other conditions - like osteoarthritis, the misnamed "wear and tear" arthritis - that a good many people think is the only form of the disease. In all of its many forms and various degrees of discomfort, arthritis affects an estimated 3 million Canadian women, men, and children.
Inflammation is involved in many forms of arthritis. It is the body's natural response to injury. The warning signs that inflammation presents are redness, swelling, heat and pain. These are the same kinds of reaction the body has to a sliver in the hand, for example. When a joint becomes inflamed, it may get any or all of these symptoms. This can prevent the normal use of the joint and therefore it can cause the loss of function of that joint.
There are more than 100 joints connecting the body's 206 bones. Most of the major bone connections in the body are joints designed to allow a broad range of motion. There are different kinds for different functions: ball-and-socket (hips and shoulders), saddle joints (which connect thumb to hand), hinge joints (fingers and knees) or pivot joints (wrists). Tied together by ligaments, the bones of joints are capped with a smooth substance called cartilage. This tough elastic material acts as a shock absorber and allows the bone ends to glide smoothly across each other. If the cartilage is destroyed (as in osteoarthritis), the bones of a joint can grind against each other causing pain, loss of mobility, deformity and dysfunction
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Answered by
Laxmikantha
, an ibibo Master,
at
9:59 AM on November 07, 2008
