Causes of Degenerative Arthritis and How to Prevent It

A common misconception about arthritis is that it is an aging process, but age — also known as time — is only one of three factors. Our physicians at PC Medical Centers hear it all of the time. Patients are told by other providers, “You have the knee joint of an 80-year-old,” or, “You have the spine of a 90-year-old.” However, we see 60, 70, 80 and 90-year-olds all of the time with joints that look great. So, what are the other factors? First, let’s look at what degenerative arthritis is.

Degenerative arthritis — inflammation of a joint causing degenerative change — is a process in which a joint in the body has repetitive inflammation either in or around the joint, which causes the joint to start to degenerate. This repetitive inflammation generally comes from malfunction. Simply put, if the joint is not working correctly, damage will occur, and inflammation will be the result. If the inflammation occurs either constantly or on a regular basis, the joint will start to degenerate.

There are three factors that create degenerative arthritis. First is time, also known as age; second is function or how the joint is working; and third is use or pressure on the joint. This is why you can have one knee that looks great but the other knee has degenerative arthritis. Or, you can have one spinal joint that has zero injury but the next spinal joint has degenerative arthritis.

Basically, if you have a joint in the body that is not functioning very well (function) and you use it a lot (pressure), it will degenerate quicker.

The answer is to improve the function of the joint as much as possible and heal the previous damage. This is done by improving the joint mobility, improving the muscle balance and using joint injections to improve the healing response.

PC Medical Centers has helped 112 people avoid surgery in their knees, hips, low back, neck and shoulders throughout the past three years. If you would like to see how PC Medical Centers in Cape Girardeau could help you, please visit PCMedicalCenters.com for more information.