What is Arthritis

Raena Morgan: Dr. Ferguson, What is arthritis? Dr. Todd Ferguson: Arthritis is a itis of the arthr. Raena Morgan: Okay. Dr. Todd Ferguson: Any times something has itis on it, it means inflammation and then the thing put before it describes were that inflammation is. So, it’s an inflammation of the joints and similar to sinusitis is an itis of the sinus, the sinuses, and the inflammation of the sinuses. So, there are several different types of arthritis or inflammation of the joints and they all have slightly different mechanisms behind them. Osteoarthritis is the most common and that is a gradual break down of the cushioning in the tissue in the joints, so that there is more bone on bone. And it used to be thought that was just a sort of wear and tear type of thing. And certainly it does come on later in life and the joint you use more is where it is. Raena Morgan: But it is not just wear and tear? Dr. Todd Ferguson: But it is not as simple as wear and tear. It is actually now known that it is an inflammatory process, Raena Morgan: Okay. Dr. Todd Ferguson: So, it’s not just a matter of oh, everybody gets osteoarthritis eventually. It really depends on how inflammatory is your diet, how inflammatory is your life style and can be affected by anti-inflammatory post medications and herbs and nutrients. Another common form of arthritis is rheumatoid arthritis and that is more even auto immune condition. Antigens or things that activate the immune system coming to the body and the immune system creates antibodies to those they glom on to the antigens, creating an immune complex, that then travels around and gets lodged in your joints. And in the case of rheumatoid arthritis, there are immune complexes lodged in the joints causing joint destruction. So, you know the treatment there is, is not just anti inflammatory and protecting joints, but also addressing the auto immune nature, why did they have auto immune condition going on. There is another condition would psoriatic arthritis, which has to do with psoriasis type skin rashes. That same condition also can cause arthritis. So, this kind of three categories that I think of is that jointed generation category which osteoarthritis would depend on it. The autoimmune category which would be like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and any other, the final category would be septic arthritis, which would be infections in the joints. So you say you got injured in joint somehow and you got an infection in there. You know, it would be inflamed, it would be red and those are, those are usually pretty emergent. They can be dangerous effect if that infection spreads. So, that’s kind of a different category. Those can come on really quick and it can be treated really quickly and cured really quickly. Whereas, these allergic categories are more long term and that’s more what I deal with it more, the chronic forms of arthritis. Raena Morgan: Well, thank you for that explanation. Dr. Todd Ferguson: Thank you.