Читать книгу Arthritis For Dummies - Barry Fox - Страница 31

It seems unfair, but your chances of developing arthritis are increased — sometimes greatly increased — if you happen to be female. There may be plenty of reasons for this, but the top three appear to be hormones, differences in the female musculoskeletal system, and a greater tendency to gain too much weight:

 Hormones: During the menstrual cycle, rising hormone levels promote the loosening of the ligaments (joint laxity), which allows them to bend more than usual. While this might seem great for dancers and gymnasts who need to be super flexible, it increases instability in the joints that can contribute to injuries that could lead to osteoarthritis. This may be the reason that female athletes (but not male) can be two to eight times more likely to suffer from ACL injuries in the knee, which increases their likelihood of developing knee osteoarthritis up to six times.Joint pain can also appear or worsen during and after menopause, a time when estrogen levels drop significantly. Estrogen helps protect the cartilage that cushions the joints and also tamps down inflammation of the joints. But these protective effects diminish after menopause, which increases the risk of developing OA.

 Differences in the Musculoskeletal System: Because the female body is designed to give birth, there is increased elasticity in the tendons in the body’s lower half, causing joint laxity which makes the joints in this area more likely to become unstable. In addition, because women’s hip joints are set wider than their knee joints, the femur is aligned at an angle from hip to knee, making the knee less stable and injuries more likely. Both of these causes of joint instability can contribute to OA.Giving birth also increases joint laxity to accommodate the birth process, but the joints may not return to normal afterwards. One study found that for each birth a woman’s risk of needing a knee replacement increased by 8 percent, while the need for a hip replacement increased by 2 percent.

 Gaining Too Much Weight: According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2017–2018, 41.9 percent of U.S. women were obese, as were 43 percent of U.S. men. However, severe obesity affected 11.5% of women compared to just 6.9% of men, making women even more likely than men to develop arthritis. While doctors have long known there’s a clear connection between obesity and OA, it can also contribute to or worsen RA, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, and other inflammatory forms of arthritis. Fortunately, just losing a few pounds can not only ease arthritis pain but also improve joint function and increase the quality of life for most arthritis sufferers.Women aren’t the only ones who are especially prone to developing arthritis and arthritis-related problems. Compared to Causasians, African Americans are twice as likely to have knee OA and 77 percent more likely to develop a condition called multiple large joint OA in their knees and spine. Multiple large joint OA, a disorder that affects more than 27 million American adults, may require joint replacement surgery to ease pain and restore joint function. African American women are also three times more likely than Caucasian women to develop lupus and fibromyalgia, conditions that already target women far more often than men.