Arthritis - When Thing Go Wrong
By editor | July 11, 2007
When you think about it, our bodies are amazingly mobile. They’re constructed so that we can easily bend our knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, and fingers. Some joints move in many directions, such as our hips, which have a ball-and-socket arrangement that allows fluid movement. Others are elegant hinges.
One thing that helps our joints move smoothly is a spongy material at the ends of the bones called cartilage, which cushions the bones and keeps them from rubbing against each other. You may have seen cartilage in a piece of chicken that tough, springy, translucent material and our cartilage is somewhat similar. Another thing that helps is the synovial membrane, a lining in the joint. This membrane pumps out a lubricating fluid that works some what like the oil you put in your car. Without this fluid and cartilage, we’d be like the Tin Woodman when he rusts up. In fact, if problems develop with your cartilage or joint lining, you may begin to fie/like the Tin Woodman after a thunderstorm with the oil can just out of reach.
Problems occur when parts of our joints begin to wear out from overuse or simple wear and tear, such as when the cartilage becomes chipped or torn. Or the synovium can become swollen and then damage the nearby cartilage, ligaments, and bones. Still other pains may be caused by problems such as tears or strains in the muscles, tendons, and ligaments that support the joint.
We call many of these problems arthritis: “arth” means joint, and “itis” means swollen or inflamed, so the word just means inflammation of a joint or joints. The inflammation will often make the joint swollen or red, but in some cases no swelling is present.
It’s important to understand that pain around a joint is not always arthritis, however. Other causes of inflammation around a joint may produce pain that feels just like arthritis but is not. Some other causes of this pain can be conditions like bursitis, tendinitis, polymyalgia rheumatica. Your doctor will detect the true culprit by taking your medical history and giving you a physical examination.
Tagged under:Arthritis bones bursitis cartilage causes of inflammation joints polymyalgia rheumatica spongy material tendinitis translucent material
Topics: Arthritis |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.