Arthritis affects your joints – where two or more bones meet. Cartilage is the slick, smooth tissue that covers the ends of your bones, enabling them to glide against one another. Arthritis occurs when this self-lubricating surface wears down.
Such damage can lead to joint weakness, instability, and visible deformities that, depending on the location of joint involvement, can interfere with the most basic daily tasks such as walking, climbing stairs, using a computer keyboard, cutting your food, or brushing your teeth.
Symptoms: the primary complaints of individuals who have arthritis are joint pain and stiffness. The discomfort from arthritis is due to joint inflammation and muscle fatigue caused by forceful movements against stiff, painful joints.
Your spine comprises 24 individual vertebrae stacked on top of each other. There is a cushion, or “disc,” between each pair of vertebrae to allow for flexibility and movement. These discs can wear as we age, becoming progressively thinner over time. This leads to a cycle of arthritic changes, including bone spurs and narrowing the opening where our nerves exit the spine. Sometimes, your nerves can become “pinched” in these narrowed openings. Spinal degeneration is widespread, affecting people as young as 20 and becoming extremely likely by age 70. How quickly you develop arthritis is largely genetic. Other factors include a history of trauma, smoking, continually operating motorized vehicles, being overweight and/or performing repetitive movement.
Symptoms: Symptoms include pain or stiffness in your neck or back. Sometimes, symptoms can radiate into your arms or legs. Most researchers believe the symptoms of osteoarthritis are not the direct result of the disease but rather from the conditions preceding the disease and those that developed after it, like joint restrictions and muscle tightness.
Our goal is to get you back to normal as soon as possible. To do that, we will likely recommend one or more of the following:
Reach out and see how Air One Chiropractic can help with your back pain!
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