General Information About Arthritis

Arthritis is a general term that's applied to a range of painful conditions affecting the bones and joints. There are about 100 different types of arthritis.

Arthritis is normally associated with older people, but it can affect people at any age, even children. There are some types of holistic arthritis that are inherited, but most are not. Some forms of arthritis show very strong tendencies to be inherited, others show a weak tendency and some based on the available evidence are not inherited.

Symptoms

The main symptoms of arthritis are pain and stiffness of particular joints. There may also be some restrictive motion of the affected joints along with some swelling and redness over the joints in a number of cases. The particular symptoms will depend upon which sort of arthritis you are suffering from although the huge majority of types of arthritis all include problems generated by the inflammation and swelling of joints.

Causes

The cause of arthritis isn't fully known, however, some factors which might contribute to arthritis are obesity and jobs which put repetitive movements of a specific joint. There is no evidence however, that suggests that physically active men and women that are not injured through sport have a greater risk of arthritis. Some studies have indicated that gout may sometimes be a contributing factor to causing arthritis.