Knowledge combined with some adjustments to your lifestyle may help you to avoid Arthritis disease or minimize its impact on your quality of life.
Becoming obese or even overweight is one of the lifestyle factors that may partially explain how you get arthritis, especially osteoarthritis, the most common form of this disease. This is a wear and tear disease that involves a progressive deterioration of the cartilage, which provides a cushion between the bones of the joints.
Excess body weight places additional burdens on the weight bearing joints as the bones of the joints slide back and forth over the cartilage. As the cartilage wears and eventually disappears, bones of the joints rub against each other.
Imagine walking home from the store while carrying several heavy bags of groceries. Think of the difference between taking a walk without carrying any bundles versus walking a long distance, up and down hills or stairs while carrying the added burden of the packages. Then imagine the relief of placing the bundles down. This image may give you an idea of the kind of additional stresses and strains that an overweight or obese person subjects their body to.
Every task of life is more difficult on the body because of the extra baggage that is carried around. The joints are punished when extra, unnecessary weight is carried during every activity of life.
How Do You Get Arthritis? Poor Nutrition, Prior Injury, Heredity
A poor diet might also partially answer the question, how do you get arthritis. The healthy diets that promote ideal bodyweight by focusing on natural foods may also provide nutritional support for healthy joints. Foods like fish, nuts, and seeds are sources of omega-3 fatty acids that are believed to prevent or reduce joint inflammation.
Natural chemicals in garlic and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli are also suspected by some to prevent or slow the degeneration of joints. In general, diets rich in a high variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices can provide nutritional support for a healthy body, while a lack of good nutrition may partly explain how you get arthritis and other adverse health conditions. As Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine believed, “let food be they medicine, thy medicine will be thy food”.
In some cases, the onset of arthritis may be a result of a prior injury. Bone fractures or injuries to the muscles, ligaments, or tendons may make a person more likely to suffer from arthritis later in life. There is some suspicion that there may be a heredity component to the explanation of how you get arthritis.
In some forms of arthritis, like rheumatoid arthritis, the cause of the affliction is not known. It is understood that disease occurs when the immune system turns against a healthy body, but the cause and mechanism of how you get this arthritis is not known.