Читать книгу Arthritis For Dummies - Barry Fox - Страница 39

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding what goes wrong in osteoarthritis

Identifying the warning signs

Discovering the causes of osteoarthritis

Pinpointing who is most likely to develop the disease

Confirming the osteoarthritis diagnosis

Treating osteoarthritis

Whether you call it osteoarthritis, degenerative arthritis, or degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis (OA) is the painful result of cartilage breakdown. When the tough, rubbery substance that cushions bone ends no longer does its job, the bone ends can’t slide easily across each other within the joint. That’s when pain and stiffness can settle into a joint. Suddenly, your knee or lower back aches, your hip burns, a finger joint swells and throbs, or your shoulder stiffens up. You can’t bend and flex the painful joint like you used to; its range of movement is limited. Most of all, it just plain hurts!

But what happened to mess up your cartilage in the first place? To understand what went wrong, here’s a look at how things work in healthy cartilage.