Have you ever had the arthritis causes revealed to you? While the answers to the cause of Arthritis is often vague at best, I can shed some light on the subject to give you a better understanding of what may be causing your Osteoarthritis.
But first I will debunk some very common myths around the causes of osteoarthritis;
- Old age – I love this ridiculous statemement as it is so illogical it is comical! Have you ever heard of someone being told that they have arthritis in their knee (one side only) because of age? Ok so lets think about it, in a case where one knee is worn away and the other is normal how could one be affected by ‘age’ and the other wasnt? Surely both knees are the same age!
- Cracking your joints (eg knuckles) causes arthritis – just forget about this one, it is completely untrue. The ‘cracking’ is due to the joint moving through it’s full movement and opening fully. This is usually when joints are under pressure and tight.
- It’s hereditary – while this can be true, it sure doesnt mean that just because your parents suffered that you have to.
So What are the Causes of Osteoarthritis?
Essentially I categorize osteoarthritis into 2 areas. Systemic and bio-mechanical.
The most common by far is the bio-mechanical variety. This is either due to a serious trauma or incorrect function and movement of a joint.
If a physical trauma wasnt treated correctly often as a result will cause wear and tear of the areas associated with the unresolved/incompletely healed trauma.
If there is poor movement of a joint that causes an excessive wear on a particular area of the joint or just too much pressure over the whole joint then the result is often the wear and tear that leds to osteoarthritis.
Systemic types of osteoarthritis is very rare in my experience it is for the very few folks who seem to be plagues with osteoarthritis in practically every joint. In these cases it appears that the cause is a mineral imbalance of too much calcium depositing in the joints.