Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Some Arthritis Risk Factors You Should Know

By Anthony Martin


Pains and stiffness around the bones can lead to their inflammation. Unfortunately, this affects up to 50 million people in America today. The causes of the over 50 million cases can be attributed to some modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Among the modifiable causes of arthritis are inactivity, occupation, diet, smoking and joint injuries while the non-modifiable ones include hereditary, hormones, sex, and age.

One cannot control the aging process. As long as one doesn't want to die, the other option is to grow old and face the challenges of old age. At old age, the cartilage may have been exposed to more wear and tear, exposing the bones to grind against themselves. As this happens, inflammation occurs and the pains are strongly felt.

If 64 out of every 100 patients are women, it means that one is likely to have the challenge by being a female. Actually, while the different forms of this condition are peculiar to the female gender, only Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and gout are known to affect the males more. One can, therefore, conclude from these facts that one's sex is a determining factor and since one cannot control or change his or her sex, it remains a non-modifiable one.

Hormones, which are natural chemical substances in the body, have been discovered in clinical studies to be the major factor affecting the occurrence of this condition. As a result, about 70% of women suffer more of this than men. That means that if you are a woman, you are already naturally predisposed to suffering from the rheumatoid type than you would have been if you were a man.

Just like some diseases are hereditary, the same is also applicable to this one. People who have the gene known as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) are more likely to have the problem, and pass the risk on to the younger generation through child bearing. Anyway, HLA is not always responsible for this, but it cannot be denied that it has caused the condition more often than not.

The modifiable risk factors are those factors that individuals can control. For example, a person may choose to be inactive or not in order to control the risk of having joint pain. When people in Russellville AR engage in sedentary lifestyles, their joints become stiffer and the pains can increase with time. It is therefore important to engage in physical activities to reduce the likeliness of having this problem.

Again, the diet one takes plays a major role. Taking foods rich in sodium salts will increase one's chances of having this health problem. On the other hand, taking fruits like bananas will reduce the risk.

In the same vein, smoking does not help at all. In fact, it is one of the major causes of bone degradation and will cause any natural healing process of the bones to be carried out slowly. Although the exact way by which smoking affects bone healing is not exactly known, studies have shown that it actually happens. It is, therefore, necessary to stop smoking if you want to reduce your chances of having joint pain or inflammation.




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