The inflammation of the joints that is the main cause of arthritis can occur due to many reasons. One of the main causes is probably aging. Once you are into your forties, the wear and tear on your system starts taking its toll and there are visible signs of the body not being able to handle everything inside it as it should. So if you do not take extra care of yourself and give yourself up to the ravages of time, arthritis and the stiffness and pain associated with it can take a hold on you and once it does, it’s tough to reverse the problem. So suddenly, you find your knees hurting, your hip feeling sore and you slow down in whatever you’re doing. Even simple things like opening a bottle or turning on the tap can become a pain as the condition gets worse.
There are different types of arthritis – over one hundred – and there are many causes that could contribute to these various types. In some cases, injury could be the cause where the joints take a long time to heal and sometimes become worse. The injury could be to the joint lining, the cartilage, the fluid between the joints, the tissues and ligaments or the bones. Once inflammation sets in, the pain and stiffness begin and you need treatment to set it right again. While in many cases, treatment can halt and maybe even reverse the condition, there are some cases where it’s tough going.
Another cause could be hereditary factors where you find people belonging to certain families succumbing to arthritis pain as they grow older and sometimes even when they are young. Here too, a program of total treatment that includes exercise and nutrition could make things better and ease the pain.
Infections too could be another cause of arthritis. The joints could get infected and this could lead to the inflammation that typifies arthritis. In this case, if it is caught early, medication can heal the inflammation though sometimes it will need a strong course of antibiotics to clear up the infection.
Being overweight is yet another and while not all obese people suffer from the condition, those extra pounds do put a strain on the joints and inflammation could develop because of the pressure. In this case, losing weight and getting to an optimum weight level very often eases the problem.
Yet another cause could be certain sports that are hard on the joints. While this might not be a problem when the person is young, the wear and tear on the joints could show up as the years go by. Very often, the cartilage takes a beating and the reduced level causes inflammation to develop.
Other causes could be certain factors in the body like a tendency to acidity or gout that could also trigger off the inflammation in the joints. In gout, the excess uric acid in the body tends to get deposited in the joints which get inflamed. Avoiding certain foods can sometimes help with this problem. Often, the causes may not be clear and arthritis could appear without any warning. In certain cases, it could be an auto-immune condition where the body’s tissues turn on itself causing the inflammation and the pain and stiffness.