Osteoarthritis is the most frequent. It is a disease with multiple subtypes and multiple origins, and its symptoms affect approximately 7 million people in Spain.
Although as he warns Dr. Francisco Castro DominguezHead of Section of the Rheumatology Service, Teknon Medical Center, Barcelona and spokesman for the , “if we took into account the subclinical forms, the prevalence would be much higher.”
According to a study carried out by the Spanish Society of Rheumatology, osteoarthritis affects 30% of the population over 40 years of age in some joint.
By locations, as listed by Dr. Castro:
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“Lumbar osteoarthritis is the most frequent, affecting 15.52% of these people
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Followed by the knee that affects 13.83%
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The cervical that affects 10.10%
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The hand that affects 7.73%
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The one that affects 5.13%”.
But there is more. Rheumatic diseases are the first cause of permanent disability, and the third of temporary work incapacity. 50% of the leaves for permanent disability caused by rheumatic diseases correspond to patients with osteoarthritis.
So we can imagine the global economic impact of osteoarthritis, which according to the specialist’s calculations “is between 1% and 2.5% of GDP in developed countries, where the prevalence is also higher.”
And this cost does not stop increasing annually due to the increase in cases of obesity, the sedentary lifestyle and the aging of the population.
What is osteoarthritis and why should we not confuse it with arthritis?
We have always heard older people around us say that they have rheumatism when they experience joint, joint or muscle pain.
And this reference may be the reason why, to this day, we are not entirely clear about the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Dr. Castro explains that “The concept” rheumatism “does not exist in medical language.
What we have are diseases of the musculoskeletal system, which can be inflammatory/autoimmune or mechanical and have different names. The inflammatory / autoimmune forms of arthritis, and instead the mechanical, would be osteoarthritis ”.
Osteoarthritis is the insufficiency of a joint understood as an organ made up of different tissues: muscles, ligaments, tendons, joint capsule, subchondral bone, synovial membrane and cartilage.
In such a way that this pathology can degrade the cartilage, change the shape of the bone and cause synovial inflammation, which causes pain, stiffness and loss of mobility. In addition, it can affect any joint, but it is more common in the knees, hands, hips, lower back, and cervical spine.
On the contrary, “arthritis is an autoimmune inflammatory disease in which the body recognizes elements of the synovial membrane as foreign and attacks them, causing joint inflammation”, clarifies the rheumatologist.
Arthritis typically affects the hands, although it can affect any other joint as well. “In a form of arthritis known as spondyloarthritis, it can also affect the lumbar spine and sacroiliac joints,” concludes the doctor.
Main symptoms of osteoarthritis
Another difference between osteoarthritis and arthritis is the discomfort that the patient experiences depending on whether they suffer from one disease or another. “To begin with, osteoarthritis usually affects the knee, hips, lumbar spine, cervical spine, and hands. It is characterized by mechanical pain, that is, it worsens with movement”, explains the specialist.
On the other hand, arthritis is characterized by affecting mainly the hands, and produces very different symptoms, such as morning stiffness, and inflammatory pain, which usually improves with movement. In addition, the patient with may notice that the joints become red and/or hot. “These striking symptoms are less frequent in osteoarthritis”, explains Dr. Castro.
The symptoms of osteoarthritis usually appear after the age of 40, but as the SER specialist warns, “osteoarthritis can also affect much younger people, especially those who have had a previous joint injury, such as trauma or a ligament or meniscus tear, conditions that often occur in high-level athletes.
The patient’s medical history, physical examination, imaging tests such as X-rays and MRI and laboratory tests will help the doctor to establish the most correct and precise diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
Causes and risk factors of osteoarthritis
There are several factors that can favor the appearance of osteoarthritis. But as Dr. Castro explains, “traumatic injuries are one of the main risk factors, and these can occur as high accidental impacts, in people who have jobs with repetitive micro-impacts or in high-level athletes.”
But it is not the only factor, being overweight and also contributing to the development of this joint pathology. And they do it in two ways, as Castro explains: “due to the low-grade inflammation inherent in metabolic syndrome and another purely mechanical pathway in which weight exerts more pressure on the joints, particularly load-bearing joints, such as the hips and the knees”.
Also age, due to the amount of time in use and the mechanisms of aging is another risk factor. And the genetic load, since people who have relatives with osteoarthritis are more likely to develop the disease.
Finally, misalignment and/or discrepancy of the extremities are another risk factor for triggering the disease.
In addition, “women are more likely to develop osteoarthritis than men, especially after menopause,” concludes the rheumatologist.
Exercise, weight control and avoiding trauma, keys to prevention
It is clear that, when it comes to preventing osteoarthritis, issues such as genetics or age are not in our hands, but Dr. Castro stresses the importance of controlling other risk factors to prevent or at least delay the onset of osteoarthritis .
For this, the SER rheumatologist recommends:
• Avoid, as far as possible, traumatisms.
• Maintain a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m2.
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