Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis are the two major forms of arthritis. Arthritis is the inflammation or swelling of the joints that occurs due to age or any autoimmune or other factors. This results in severe pain, and stiffness in joints, and in many cases, it might require surgery. Though having similarities in symptoms, there are certain marked differences that shall be discussed in this blog.
Cause of Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is caused when the cartilage lining in the joints wears out. It occurs usually in older age or in obese individuals. Whereas, in rheumatoid arthritis, the healthy cells of the body are attacked due to autoimmune changes in the human body.
Areas of concern:
Rheumatoid Arthritis attacks many joints at once. Mostly the joints in the hands, wrists, and knees are affected. The affected joint becomes inflamed, damaging the tissue. This causes chronic pain and deformity within the joint. Osteoarthritis affects the entire joint. It causes changes in the bone and deterioration of the connective tissues. It also causes inflammation of the joint lining.
What is Osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis is a very common condition that can affect any joint in the body. It’s most likely to affect the joints that bear most of our weight, such as the knees and feet. Joints that we use a lot in everyday life, such as the joints of the hand, are also commonly affected. In a healthy joint, a coating of tough but smooth and slippery tissue, called cartilage, covers the surface of the bones and helps the bones to move freely against each other. When a joint develops osteoarthritis, part of the cartilage thins and the surface becomes rougher. This means the joint doesn’t move as smoothly as it should.
How Osteoarthritis is caused?
When cartilage becomes worn or damaged, all the tissues within the joint become more active than normal as the body tries to repair the damage. The repair processes may change the structure of the joint, but will often allow the joint to work normally and without any pain and stiffness. Almost all of us will develop osteoarthritis in some of our joints as we get older, though we may not even be aware of it. However, the repair processes don’t always work so well and changes to the joint structure can sometimes cause or contribute to symptoms such as pain, swelling, or difficulty in moving the joint normally.
Symptoms of Osteoarthritis
The main symptoms of osteoarthritis are pain and sometimes stiffness in the affected joints. The pain tends to be worse when you move the joint or at the end of the day. Your joints may feel stiff after rest, but this usually wears off fairly quickly once you get moving. Symptoms may vary for no obvious reason. Or you may find that your symptoms vary depending on what you’re doing.
The affected joint may sometimes be swollen. The swelling may be: hard and knobbly, especially in the finger joints, caused by the growth of extra bone soft, caused by thickening of the joint lining and extra fluid inside the joint capsule.
Other Causes of Osteoarthritis
It’s still not clear exactly what causes osteoarthritis. We do know it isn’t simply ‘wear and tear’ and that your risk of developing osteoarthritis depends on a number of factors:
Age factor in Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis usually starts from the late 40s onwards. This may be due to bodily changes that come with aging, such as weakening muscles, and weight gain and the body becomes less able to heal itself effectively.
Gender
For most joints, osteoarthritis is more common and more severe in women.
Obesity causes Osteoathritis
Being overweight is an important factor in causing osteoarthritis, especially in weight-bearing joints such as the knee and the hip.
Joint injury
A major injury or operation on a joint may lead to osteoarthritis in that joint later in life. Normal activity and exercise don’t cause osteoarthritis, but very hard, repetitive activity or physically demanding jobs can increase your risk.
Joint abnormalities
If you were born with abnormalities or developed them in childhood, it can lead to earlier and more severe osteoarthritis than usual.
Genetic factors in Osteoarthritis
The genes we inherit can affect the likelihood of getting osteoarthritis at the hand, knee or hip. Some very rare forms of osteoarthritis are linked to mutations of single genes that affect a protein called collagen. This can cause osteoarthritis to develop in many joints at an earlier age than usual.
Other types of joint disease
Sometimes osteoarthritis is a result of damage from a different kind of joint disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or gout. Two factors that may affect the symptoms of osteoarthritis, but aren’t a direct cause of it are the weather and diet:
Weather
Many people with osteoarthritis find that changes in the weather make the pain worse, especially when the atmospheric pressure is falling – for example, just before it rains. Although the weather may affect the symptoms of your arthritis, it doesn’t cause it.
Diet
Some people find that certain foods seem to increase or lessen their pain and other symptoms. However, your weight is more likely than any other specific dietary factors to affect your risk of developing osteoarthritis.
How will osteoarthritis affect me?
Osteoarthritis affects different people, and different joints, in different ways. But, for most people, osteoarthritis doesn’t continue to progressively worsen. For some people, the condition reaches a peak a few years after the symptoms start and then remains the same or may even improve. Others may find they have several phases of moderate joint pain with improvements.
The degree of damage to a joint isn’t very helpful in predicting how much pain you’ll have. Some people have a lot of pain and mobility problems from a small amount of damage, while others have a lot of damage to the joint but few or no symptoms. If you have severe osteoarthritis, you may find some of your daily activities more difficult depending on which joints are affected. More severe osteoarthritis can also make it difficult to sleep.
Which joints are affected by Osteoarthritis?
Any joint can develop osteoarthritis, but symptoms linked to osteoarthritis most often affect the knees, hips, hands, spine, and big toes.
Knee in Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis of the knee is very common. This is probably because your knee has to take extreme stresses, twists, and turns as well as bear your body weight. Osteoarthritis often affects both knees.
Hip
Osteoarthritis of the hip is also common and can affect either one or both hips. The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint that normally has a wide range of movement. It also bears a lot of your weight. Hip osteoarthritis is equally common in men and women.
The hand and wrist
Osteoarthritis of the hands usually occurs as part of the condition nodal osteoarthritis. This mainly affects women and often starts around the time of menopause. It usually affects the base of your thumb and the joints at the ends of your fingers, although other finger joints can also be affected.
Back and neck
The bones of your spine and the discs in between are often affected by changes that are very similar to osteoarthritis. In the spine, these changes are often referred to as spondylosis. Although they are very common, they aren’t the most common cause of back or neck pain.
The foot and ankle
Osteoarthritis of the foot generally affects the joint at the base of your big toe. However, osteoarthritis of the mid-foot is also quite common. The ankle is the least commonly affected part of the foot.
Shoulder in Osteoarthritis
The shoulder consists of two joints, either of which can be affected by osteoarthritis:
a ball-and-socket joint where the upper arm meets the shoulder blade – called the glenohumeral joint
a smaller joint where the collarbone meets the top of the shoulder blade – called the acromioclavicular joint.
The elbow
The elbow joint isn’t commonly affected by osteoarthritis. When it is affected, it often follows either a single serious injury or a number of more minor injuries.
The jaw
The jaw, or temporomandibular joint, is one of the most frequently used joints in the body and the cartilage in this joint is particularly prone to wear. Osteoarthritis in the jaw often starts at an earlier age than in other joints.
What is rheumatoid arthritis?
Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that can cause pain, swelling, and stiffness in joints. It is what is known as an auto-immune condition. This means that the immune system, which is the body’s natural self-defense system, gets confused and starts to attack your body’s healthy tissues. In rheumatoid arthritis, the main way it does this is with inflammation in your joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis affects around 400,000 adults aged 16 and over in the UK. It can affect anyone of any age. It can get worse quickly, so early diagnosis and intensive treatment are important. The sooner you start treatment, the more effective it’s likely to be. To understand how rheumatoid arthritis develops, it helps to understand how a normal joint works.
How does a normal joint work?
Most of our joints move in certain directions and within certain limits. For example, the knee is the largest joint in the body. It must be strong enough to take our weight and must lock into position, so we can stand upright. The end of each bone is covered with cartilage that has a very smooth, slippery surface. The cartilage allows the ends of the bones to move against each other, almost without rubbing. The joint is held in place by the synovium, which contains thick fluid to protect the bones and joints. The synovium has a tough outer layer that holds the joint in place and stops the bones from moving too far. Strong cords called tendons anchor the muscles to the bones.
What happens in a joint affected by rheumatoid arthritis?
If you have rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system can cause inflammation inside a joint or a number of joints. Inflammation is normally an important part of how your immune system works. It allows the body to send extra fluid and blood to a part of the body under attack from an infection. For example, if you have a cut, the skin around it can become swollen and a different color due to infection.
However, in the case of rheumatoid arthritis, this inflammation in the joint is unnecessary and causes problems. When the inflammation goes down, the capsule around the synovium remains stretched and can’t hold the joint in its proper position. This can cause the joints to become unstable and move into unusual positions.
Symptoms
The main symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are:
- Joint pain
- Joint swelling, warmth, and redness
- Stiffness, especially first thing in the morning or after sitting still for a long time.
Other symptoms can include:
- Tiredness and lack of energy
- Poor appetite
- Weight loss
- Fever
- Sweating
- Dry eyes
- Chest pain
Rheumatoid arthritis can affect any joint in the body, although it is often felt in the small joints in the hands and feet first. Both sides of the body are usually affected at the same time, in the same way, but this doesn’t always happen. A few people develop fleshy lumps called rheumatoid nodules, which form under the skin around affected joints. They can sometimes be painful, but usually are not
Causes
The following can play a part in why someone has rheumatoid arthritis:
Age
Rheumatoid arthritis affects adults of any age, mostly between the ages of 40 and 60. Around three-quarters of people with rheumatoid arthritis are of working age when they are first diagnosed.
Sex
Rheumatoid arthritis is two to three times more common among women than men.
Genetics
Rheumatoid arthritis develops because of a combination of genetic and environmental factors, such as smoking and diet. There is a higher chance of developing the condition if there is any genetic link.
Weight
If you are overweight, you have a significantly greater chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis than if you are a healthy weight.
Conclusion:
There is no assurance that rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis will affect you in the future. If you’re a strong-willed person who doesn’t let his or her joints fall prey to arthritis, you might be able to avoid this one too. However, if you’re in one of the aforementioned situations, you get rid of the problem with the medical facility in Nagpur. Contact Dr. Abhinav Bhatnagar, who is one of the best Orthopedic doctors in Nagpur. He is available for consultation at Abhinav Multispeciality hospital, one of the best hospitals in Nagpur. Right treatment under the best hands is exactly what you need to live a pain-free and active life. Happy living!