Symptoms Of Degenerative Arthritis

Symptoms Of Degenerative Arthritis – Who Is At Risk?

Before looking at the signs and symptoms of degenerative arthritis, it is worth just taking a moment to consider just who is at risk of developing degenerative arthritis. It should be noted that arthritis is not inevitable and that many people die of old age without ever experiencing the pain of arthritis at all.

Nevertheless, there are some things which make us all that little bit more susceptible to degenerative arthritis. These include:

Age And Degenerative Arthritis

• Age. Cartilage, together with other structures within our joints, does become weak and wear out with use over time which inevitably means that age is a factor in the onset of this disease. So, while you may well reach the age of 90 without experiencing arthritis, your chances of doing so increase after the age of about 45.
• Joint injury. If you have sustained any sort of injury to a joint as the result of trauma then this joint is at risk of developing arthritis. Injury can come in many different forms from a car accident, to a sports injury or perhaps a simple fall at home.
• Repetitive strain. If you have used a joint repeatedly and excessively then that joint is at risk of developing degenerative arthritis. Repetitive strain is often seen in dancers, bowlers in cricket, assembly line workers and computer operators, amongst many others.
• You are a woman. Women are at greater risk of developing degenerative arthritis than men. Indeed, women are about three times more likely to develop osteo arthritis than their male counterparts.
• One or both of your parents suffered from degenerative arthritis. There is a fairly clear genetic component to degenerative arthritis and this is particularly true of degenerative hip arthritis which is inherited in about fifty percent of all cases.
• You are overweight. If you are carrying excess weight then this places pressure on your hips, knees and ankles which, over time, acts very much like a repetitive strain on these joints. Excess weight places particular strain on the knees.

The Symptoms of Degenerative Arthritis

While degenerative arthritis can strike just about any joint in the body it is most commonly found in the neck, lower back, hips, knees, the ends of the fingers and the base of the thumbs.

In most cases when this disease strikes you will experience one or more of the following symptoms of degenerative arthritis:

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  A Painful Arthritic Hand

  Joint pain.Perhaps the most commonly reported symptom of degenerative arthritis is pain in the effected joint. This is normally a quite distinctive pain which is experienced as an ache which radiates out from the very core of the joint. This pain normally increases if you use the joint and subsides if you rest it. Over time however the pain can grow to eventually become more or less constant and lead to difficulty sleeping and thus fatigue during the day.

  One seemingly curious sign of arthritic pain is that it often increases just before it rains. This is because rain is normally preceded by a drop in barometric pressure which also causes the lining of your joints to become inflamed and release excess fluid.

• Joint stiffness and a reduction in movement. Arthritic joints are often stiff and display restricted movement. In advanced cases the joint can literally freeze altogether, often with the effected limb left in a strangely bent position.
• Swelling, tenderness and warmth around the joint. Swelling is not generally a major problem with degenerative arthritis but can be experienced and is most often seen in the fingers and knees.
• ‘Cracking’ joints. In some cases of degenerative arthritis you will hear a cracking or popping sound when you move a joint and this sound is created by the rubbing of roughened cartilage. This sound should not be confused with the sound generated when you deliberately crack your knuckles by applying pressure to them. In this case the sound is created by the release of nitrogen gas and has no connection to osteo or any other form of arthritis.
• Bony finger growths. You may experience bony growths, known as Heberden’s nodes, which appear at the tips of your fingers or bony growths, known as Bouchard’s nodes, which appear on the middle joint of the fingers. There is believed to be a genetic component to these bony growths.

The presence of one or more of these symptoms of degenerative arthritis does not in itself confirm the presence of the disease but is a good indication that you might have the condition and a sure sign that you should seek expert advice from your doctor.

With so many different types of arthritis the only way to positively determine whether or not you have degenerative arthritis is to x-ray the joint in question to look for the presence of one or more of the following signs:

• Degradation of the cartilage.
• Overgrowth of the cartilage.
• Narrowing of the space within the joint.
• Bone spurs.
• Pieces of cartilage or bone floating free within the joint fluid.
• Deformity of the joint.

Learn more about…

Degenerative Arthritis Treatment