Arthritis-Pain as to Pain-Arthritis

Individuals over the age of 55 are prone to suffer from arthritis. Worse, arthritis may even cause permanent disability, not to mention the pain one endures from it. These results are not new to science. What is new is the fact that arthritis is also caused by pain as new research had suggested.

According to a study under the Arthritis and Rheumatism journal (October issue), pain should not anymore be considered as a “symptom of arthritis”. Arthritic joints produce pain signals. These signals are being processed by a biochemical which worsens the case of arthritis as it reaches the spinal cord.

According to researchers, these pain signals are being carried by nerve pathways. Inflammation is being transferred by the latter into the spine from arthritic joints. Worse, the process becomes to way (vice versa) – the reason why disease is being caused in both ends.

One’s consciousness on discomfort realisation is the so-called pain. Prior this, pathways of the nerve cell carry the information to dorsal horns centers (spinal cord) where pain is processed. The process is known as “nociception”. As a result, inflammation is being transmitted from joint arthritis to the brain and spinal cord. This often spreads all through the central nervous system hopping in every other joint.

Following the idea that neuro-inflammation is caused by the joint arthritis, scientists believed that the latter may be somehow responsible in the conditions eminent in dementia, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers were confident that they will be able to identify drug targets to counter main inflammatory receptors in nerve cells which may eventually treat osteoarthritis (OA).