Obesity may lead to arthritis in the elderly, and the incidence rate of osteoarthritis increases with age. Why are elderly obese people prone to osteoarthritis. Arthritis is the most common chronic disease, there are more than 100 types, of which the most common are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The patients with severe osteoarthritis can lose all activity, while the patients with rheumatoid arthritis for two years have a bone destruction rate of 50%, and the life span of patients with severe disease is shortened by about 10-15 years.
The etiology of primary osteoarthritis is still unclear. It is generally believed that it is related to obesity, age growth, trauma, endocrine, cartilage metabolism, immune abnormalities and genetic factors. Among them, obese patients are easy to increase joint weight-bearing and induce osteoarthritis.
In order to maintain the center of gravity, obese patients are prone to varus deformity of the knee, which makes the weight-bearing imbalance between the two sides of the knee joint, leading to degenerative diseases. In particular, the accumulation of small damage (such as sliding down stairs), can cause subchondral bone sclerosis changes, affect the resistance of articular cartilage to joint load, leading to cartilage degeneration, and then osteoarthritis.
The incidence rate of osteoarthritis gradually increases with age. Incidence rate of incidence rate is less than 5%, and the incidence rate is 25.3% for 45~64 years old group, while the incidence rate is higher than 60% for people aged 65 and over, according to the research. The incidence rate of the 15~44 year old group is less than 5%. Especially the elderly obese patients are high risk group of osteoarthritis.
Therefore, if some joints of the body do not feel comfortable, we should think of the possibility of suffering from osteoarthritis, and may also be in the early stage. The common symptoms are: joint stiffness, osteoarthritis patients often feel stiff hands and feet. Some people after sitting for a long time, suddenly feel the joint like a lock can't move, often get up in the morning after obvious symptoms. In the later stage of osteoarthritis, due to articular cartilage degradation and spalling, the subchondral bone will be exposed.
When the joint moves, the exposed bones under the cartilage at both ends will make a sound when touching each other. There are many nerve endings distributed in the synovium of the joint, which are used as pain sensors. After the pain information is transmitted to the cerebral cortex, the synovium will secrete more synovial fluid to lubricate and nourish the injured synovial tissue. If the joint space effusion increases, the swelling will aggravate the pain, and even the joint is difficult to rotate.
In addition, gender is also closely related to the occurrence of osteoarthritis. Before menopause, the incidence of osteoarthritis in women is similar to that in men, but after menopause, the incidence of osteoarthritis in women is significantly higher than that in men.
In special occupational groups, such as miners in squatting or squatting position for a long time, it is easy to cause knee and elbow osteoarthritis; hand joint inflammation is also more common in cotton picking or factory textile workers; occupational sports and excessive strain can also cause osteoarthritis. A small number of patients with osteoarthritis have a family history, which may be caused by genetic abnormalities in cartilage matrix synthetase, thus promoting the occurrence of osteoarthritis.