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An overview
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease of the joints characterized by progressive destruction of articular cartilage and articular structures such as bones, synovial and fibrous joint capsules, as well as a destruction of peri-articular muscles.
Primary (idiopathic) osteoarthritis
The actual cause of the disease is still unknown. Genetic predisposition, structural weakness of tissues and nutritional disturbance of bradytrophic articular cartilage, for example, are considered as possible causes.
Secondary osteoarthritis
This is the result of previous damage or another disease. Secondary osteoarthritis therefore features a wide variety of symptoms, a factor of prime importance as far as preventive treatment approaches are concerned.
Risk factors
- Age
- Sex
- Mechanical stress on cartilage through occupational demands, top-level sports or malposition
- Traumatic injuries
- Obesity
- Skeletal deformity and abnormal joint position
- Inflammatory joint diseases
- Crystal-induced arthritis
- Other metabolic or neurogenic diseases
- Genetic factors
- Lack of exercise and lack of stimulating stress
Osteoarthritis – facts & data
- Arthritic joint changes can be detected in 50 % of all people over 35 years of age
- Almost all people over 60 have some form of osteoarthritis
- Epidemiology: Osteoarthritis affects 39 million Europeans, in the UK 8 million people have arthritis and osteoarthritis, over 16 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis
- Osteoarthritis is the eighth most common cause of disability worldwide – in the USA, it is first
- Annual socio-economic costs (direct + indirect): in Germany approximately 8 billion €, in the USA roughly $ 33 billion
- Due to the epidemic nature of the condition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this decade (2000-2010) the “Bone and Joint Decade“
Treatment
Despite decade-long research, osteoarthritis cannot be cured. At best, analgesics and antirheumatics can relieve pain and suppress concomitant inflammatory changes. The following therapeutic applications are currently used:
- Weight reduction recommendations and measures
- Physiotherapy
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- Analgesics
- Low-potency opiates
- Intra-articular injection of steroids
- Surgery (only where individual joints are affected and as a last resort)
- Collagen hydrolysate - a new and promising nutritional alternative
Collagen hydrolysate
Experimental and clinical studies conducted in the last decade seem to suggest a beneficial effect of collagen hydrolysate on the preventive and supportive treatment of osteoarthritis:
- Stimulation of type II collagen synthesis (Oesser et al.)
- Pain reduction
- Reduction of consumption of analgesics
- Improvement in physical joint function
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