What is osteoarthritis?

The term arthritis means joint inflammation.  Inflammation can cause pain, swelling and stiffness, and the most common form of arthritis is osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is the breakdown of joint cartilage through wear and tear, resulting in pain and stiffness.  Osteoarthritis, or OA, commonly affects the joints of the hips, knees, spine and fingers.  Other joints affected less frequently include the wrists, elbows, shoulders and ankles.  Osteoarthritis can also be caused by work related repetitive injury and physical trauma.

It cannot be cured but the condition may settle down after a number of years and there's plenty that you can do to relieve your symptoms.  Now the main risk factors for osteoarthritis are age, being over the age of 40, gender, more women develop this type of arthritis than men, and being obese or even overweight is a major risk factor, particularly for osteoarthritis in the weight bearing joints of the knee and hips.