Sunday, October 26, 2008

Arthritis: Causes of Arthritis And How This Affects You

By Garth Hopewell

Arthritis is afflicting peoplearound the world. Even though it is a very common disease, it is painful and at the moment incurable. You can be at risk for getting arthritis and you may not even know it. Some of the causal conditions cannot be changed but there are a number of things that you can do to prevent arthritis later on in life. Take a look at the risk in your life and what you can do to prevent arthritis causing pain in your life.

First you need to understand arthritis. It can affect anyone of any age, gender or race. Even babies as young as 6 months can develop arthritis. The risk of arthritis will increase after the age of 40. There are different factors that can increase your risk of arthritis as well. For example sports injuries. When these occur, it is necessary to continue treating your injury throughout your life to prevent more serious conditions later in life.

Weight is important when it comes to having arthritis. If you are more than 30 pounds overweight, having this extra stress can affect your joints and create arthritis pain. Having a good healthy weight and exercising and eating right are important when it comes to your health.

Genetics will also play a very important part in the development of arthritis. There is not much that you can do to counteract that. However if you live a good healthy life, you can lower the risk of arthritis conditions in your body at a young age. Women are more at risk than men for getting different kinds of arthritis pain. This is because of the hormonal changes that a woman will go through. Keeping hormones in order by seeing your doctor regularly will put you at a lower risk for arthritis.

There are certain groups of Americans that are at risk for getting certain type of arthritis. African Americans are more likely to have lupus, which is an arthritic disease. Caucasians are at a larger risk for getting rheumatoid arthritis.

If you are at a greater risk for arthritis, you need to take the right steps to reduce your chances of getting a disease. Having a healthy lifestyle by eating right and exercising well is going to keep you at a lower risk. Even though arthritis can be difficult to deal with, you can prevent it from happening. - 15437

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