Degenerative Joint Disease or Osteoarthritis is a chronic progressive degenerating disorder that affects your joints and results in chronic pain, immobility, and joint stiffness. Out of the many forms of arthritis, it is the most common. Your joints are complex structures made from the coalition of several different components. One such component is the articular cartilage that lines the part of the bone, forming the joint.

In osteoarthritis, the cartilage degenerates progressively, and as a result, the bony surfaces rub against each other. This further weakens the integrity of the joint and ultimately results in symptoms. Your hip and knee joint are most susceptible to arthritis.

Anything that puts excessive pressure on your joints for a sustained period may result in osteoarthritis. In addition to that, the following are the common causes of degenerative joint disease:

• • Increasing age
  • Sexual predisposition; women are more likely to develop this problem
  • Obesity puts extra stress on your joints and may lead to arthritis
  • Injuries while playing sports or from an accident can cause osteoarthritis
  • Trauma from a fall can cause this accelerated aging of the joints
  • Genetics
  • Structural bone deformations
  • Metabolic diseases

The best way of telling if you have arthritis is by observing if your joints hurt when you move them; pain on use. Apart from that, there are three usual modalities for getting a concrete diagnosis of degenerative joint disease. They are:

1. Xray: The normal bone morphology is lost within the joint, and cartilage and narrowing and osteophytes can be observed.
2. Synovial effusions: They are non-inflammatory (clear, having few white blood cells). This helps to distinguish osteoarthritis from other forms of arthritis like Rheumatoid arthritis.
3. Joint fluid: There should be less than three cartilage fragments in the joint fluid. If this number exceeds three, a diagnosis of arthritis can be made.

There are many symptoms of arthritis and they tend to increase in number and intensity as the disease progresses over time. The most frequently occurring symptoms are:

• • Sharp pain
  • Joint stiffness
  • Loss of motility
  • Swelling and edema
  • Tenderness in the overlying soft tissue
  • Cracking or grating sounds upon moving the affected joint

Moreover, if the condition goes untreated for an extended period, these symptoms can increase tenfold!

The primary objective of noninvasive arthritis treatments is to relieve the symptoms and prevent further damage to the cartilage. They include:

• • Icing with an icepack
  • Using NSAIDs to deal with the pain and inflammation
  • Chiropractic care (best results) to improve mobility and promote healthy movements causing a reduction in reduce stress on the joint to stop the progression of degenerative changes.
  • Physical therapy to stretch, strengthen, and re educate the joint and surrounding tissue.
  • Bracing
  • PRP therapy, platelet therapy, and Stem cell therapy.
  • Acupuncture

If appropriately managed and diagnosed in the early stages, surgery is not required to treat arthritis. However, if it progresses, then a surgical option may be warranted, usually resulting in a joint replacement. In this surgery the entire joint is replaced with a frictionless surface that may be metal, plastic, or ceramic.