Who Gets Arthritis?
By editor | July 6, 2007
Unfortunately, most of us get arthritis. More Americans have arthritis than any disease other than high blood pressure. The Arthritis Foundation estimates that nearly 40million suffer from arthritis of some kind, and as the population ages in the next two decades, that number is likely to skyrocket. With advances in medicine and improved diet and work conditions, we live a lot longer than we did in pioneer days. The downside of this longevity is that our bodies aren’t designed to function flawlessly for all these years. And sometimes we aren’t as careful with our bodies as we could be.
Although we may not be aware of it yet, by the time we hit 40, nearly 9 out of 10 of us will have some osteoarthritis in the joints that carry body weight, most likely our knees and hips. Today, 15 million to 25 million Americans have osteoarthritis.
About seven million Americans have rheumatoid arthritis. That’s roughly equivalent to every man, woman, and child who lives in the state of North Carolina. While rheumatoid arthritis can hit anytime-there’s even a juvenile form that small children get it most often strikes between the ages of 20 and 50. Women tend to have rheumatoid arthritis more often than men, which suggests a hormonal or genetic connection.
Other forms of arthritis, such as gout, Lyme arthritis, fibromyalgia, and polymyalgia rheumatica, occur far less frequently, although some of these have been on the rise. For instance, Lyme disease, once limited largely to a few northeastern states, has now been found in almost every state. Some others, such as polymyalgia rheumatica, have increased in number as these diseases become better known and methods of detecting them have improved.
Tagged under:Arthritis arthritis foundation gout lyme arthritis lyme disease osteoarthritis polymyalgia rheumatica rheumatoid arthritis
Topics: Arthritis |
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