Download Top Ten Things That Don`t Cause Arthritis

Top Ten Things That Don’
t Cause Arthritis
By Rob Shmerling, Harvard Health Publications
What Is Arthritis?
Strictly speaking, arthritis means inflammation of a joint, which often leads to some combination of pain,
swelling, redness and limited motion.
What Causes Arthritis?
A joint infection may clearly be caused by a particular bacterium, but that doesn’
t tell you why the
bacterial infection developed in the first place. An injury such as a broken bone or torn cartilage may lead
to arthritis years later, but not everyone with a similar injury will get arthritis. For most cases, then,
arthritis develops for no known reason.
What Does Not Cause Arthritis?
·
·
·
·
Overuse With usual use, joints hold up well most of the time.
The weather or damp, cold breeze At the current time, there is no evidence that identifies any
type of weather as a cause of any type of arthritis.
Most medications although there are occasional exceptions, prescription, over-the-counter and
complementary and alternative medications are not a recognized cause of arthritis. Again, there
are rare exceptions: Corticosteroids, including ones available in pill form (such as prednisone)
may cause interruption of the blood supply to the bones around the hip, causing death of the bone
there (called avascular, or aseptic, necrosis). If the “
ball”
of the ball-and-socket joint loses its
round shape due to avascular necrosis, arthritis may develop. Other drugs (such as alendronate or
phenobarbital) may cause bone or joint pain but not arthritis. Similarly, diuretic drugs (“
water
pills”
) may increase the risk of gout, but it isn’
t the cause of the disease. Finally, a rare condition
called “
drug-induced lupus”
can follow treatment with the certain medications including
procainamide and hydralazine; arthritis may be a part of the reaction.
Infections and vaccinations Most infections, whether due to a virus, bacterium or other
organism, will not cause arthritis, and most cases of arthritis are not caused by infection (at least as
far as we know). There are infectious causes of arthritis, but they represent a small fraction of all
arthritis. Important examples include bacteria (such as Gonorrhea and Staphylococcus), Lyme
disease, some viruses (including occasional cases of hepatitis B hepatitis C, or parvovirus.
Similarly, vaccinations, including those for Lyme disease and rubella have been linked in rare
cases to the development of arthritis, but the connection to a vaccination has been unclear. Some
rubella vaccines contained strains of the virus that seemed to cause arthritis more often; these
vaccines were removed from the market and reports of vaccine-associated arthritis are less
frequent now. The Lyme vaccine also has been withdrawn from the market, though due to poor
sales, not because of side effects. Fortunately, the vast majority of people receiving the most
common vaccinations never develop arthritis.
Andelcare
Highest quality, personalized home care services for seniors
Call us at 425-283-0408 or 206-838-1844
Visit us on the web at www.andelcare.com
·
·
·
·
·
·
The wrong diet Our current understand of most types of arthritis comes with no strong
recommendation about which food to choose and which to avoid.
Cracking knuckles Although you can injure a joint by overenthusiastic knuckle cracking, there is
rather convincing evidence that regular knuckle cracking has little effect on joint health.
Getting older Although degenerative joint disease (also called osteoarthritis) becomes more
common with age, arthritis is not inevitable. Therefore, age alone cannot be blamed as “
the cause”
of arthritis.
Mental or emotional stress Although there are stories of people having severe emotional trauma
and soon after developing an arthritic illness, there is no convincing evidence that psychological
stress causes any recognized type of arthritis. On the other hand, stress can make any pain seem
worse, and there is controversy regarding the relative importance of psychological stress on the
development of perpetuation of joint pain without arthritis (as in fibromyalgia).
Poor posture “
Slouching”
does not cause arthritis, although certain types of arthritis or bone
disease can affect posture. The idea that poor posture causes arthritis probably follows a
misunderstanding of cause and effect: Osteoporosis may cause a stooped posture because
vertebrae collapse (called compression fractures). Arthritis in the spine may follow, but the
stooped posture is not the cause of arthritis. Another example of arthritis affecting posture (rather
than the other way around) is ankylosing spondylitis, a condition in which inflammation of joints
in the lower spine leads to a rigid spine (ankylosis means fusion). However, “
poor posture”
itself
does not lead to arthritis.
Inadequate Calcium intake Recommendations to take extra calcium follow the observation that
without enough calcium, bones may become thin and so weak that fracture becomes more likely.
That’
s what osteoporosis is but osteoporosis is not arthritis, and calcium intake has rather little to
do with the development of arthritis (unless, as described above, osteoporosis leads to fracture and
fracture leads to arthritis).
The Bottom Line
With so many types of arthritis and so little understanding about their causes, it is understandable why
many myths about arthritis circulate. In fact, it may be tempting to latch on to even a far-fetched theory
about cause rather than accept the explanation that “
nobody knows.”
But if faulty assumptions about the
cause of your arthritis lead you to adopt a difficult or unhealthy diet, or to move to a different climate, or
to pursue another costly or risky treatment, you may be sorely disappointed and even less healthy than
when you started.
Additional research may force me to remove one or more of the items on my Top 10 list. For now,
however, the most direct and honest answer most health-care providers can offer is that we simply don’
t
know why most cases of arthritis develop. Until better answers are available, my advice for some of the
most common types of arthritis is to dwell less on why it happens and to focus more on how to get better.
Andelcare
Highest quality, personalized home care services for seniors
Call us at 425-283-0408 or 206-838-1844
Visit us on the web at www.andelcare.com