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There are many different causes of arthritis. Some are genetic, some lifestyle-related, and some environmental, such as bacteria and viruses. The arthritis of Lyme disease, for instance, is caused by bacteria from an infected tick. Still other causes aren’t yet known or completely understood.
For osteoarthritis, the major cause is often described as wear and tear. But the true cause is not quite so simple as that expression might make it seem. The cartilage in your joints is living tissue, and its cells are continually undergoing changes and repair. For reasons doctors don’t yet fully understand, as we get older our cartilage is more likely to become damaged and gradually lose its ability to heal itself.
And the bone in our joints breaks down and reforms itself, too, by forming small projections called spurs that function almost like nature’s own splints.
If you’re overweight, your knee and hip joints are toting more than they were built to carry, and they wear out a little faster. And if you do an activity that requires your knees or hips to do a certain motion over and over, such as playing football or climbing stairs many times a day, those joints undergo extra stress as well.
Inherited or genetic factors can also play a role in the development of osteoarthritis. There are two basic types of osteoarthritis, primary and secondary.
Primary osteoarthritis
The damage occurs over decades and is caused by stress on the joint: Some is just from every-day living, but being overweight puts extra stress on your knees and hips and makes them more likely to become arthritic.
What happens in this disease? As we’ve said, when cartilage is young and healthy, it rebuilds itself, just as you grow new skin cells to replace the old. Eventually, however, you break down more cartilage than you can build. Your protective cartilage’s smooth surface gradually becomes roughened, then pitted with tiny holes.
The bone underneath is no longer adequately cushioned, and small bone spurs or “lips” form at the edge of the joint in the body’s own attempt to stabilize the damaged joint. This type of arthritis can occur not only in your knees and hips, but also in your fingers, spine, and big toe.
You could spot the damage on X-rays by the time you’re 40, and you’ll likely start showing gradual minor symptoms during the next decade or so.
Secondary osteoarthritis
A hard tackle in football, a broken bone, or damage caused by another type of arthritis can cause secondary osteoarthritis.
Overuse, or doing the same motion repeatedly, can also cause it. In most cases normal activities don’t produce osteoarthritis, however. It’s all a matter of degree. Jogging, for example, when done for fun or exercise, is usually perfectly safe, but professional runners or marathoners can literally run into trouble. This, in a way, is like lots of small injuries happening all the time.
If, for example, your job requires you to climb stairs frequently while carrying heavy loads, you’re more likely to have osteoarthritis in your knees than people whose jobs are “on the level.” If you play lots of tennis or operate a hand drill every day, you’re a bit more likely to have osteoarthritis in your hand or wrist.
Because secondary osteoarthritis involves extra stress on your joints, it can creep up at a younger age than primary osteoarthritis.
Rheumatoid arthritis
What about rheumatoid arthritis? Unfortunately, the causes aren’t so clear. As mentioned, some researchers theorize that it’s the body’s reaction to a virus or a bacterium, but no one is sure if this is really true or what trigger might be involved.
Here is a general overview of the causes of major types of arthritis and related ailments.
Bursitis. Excessive pressure on tissues around specific joints, such as kneeling or working a long time with your arms raised overhead.
Fibromyalgia. Unknown, but possibly linked to chemical changes in the body caused by prolonged high stress.
Gout. Too much uric acid. Your body may simply produce too much, or you may get it from eating too many foods that contain purines (substances that change to uric acid) or by drinking too much. (Alcohol contains purines, and it also keeps you from getting rid of purines in your urine.) The most common cause, however, is failure of your kidneys to secrete normal amounts of uric acid. There may be a genetic link.
Lupus. Unknown, but possible genetic, hormonal, or racial link.
Lyme disease. Bacteria from infected deer tick.
Polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. Unknown
