National Arthritis Awareness Month: What Causes Arthritis Pain?

Transcript

Dr. Austin Hewlett

This is the second installment about arthritis. May is National  Arthritis Awareness  Month. Last week we talked about  osteoarthritis. Well today we're going to  go a little bit deeper; so remember  osteoarthritis is wear and tear  arthritis. It can also result from a  fracture. So first of all, what does a  normal joint look like? Well a normal  joint has cartilage on cartilage  articulating with each other, and you get  pain free movement. What is  cartilage? We're gonna look at cartilage a s simply being this spongy stuff that's  at the end of our bones, and that's what allows the bones to glide without pain. When that cartilage becomes eroded from  wear and tear or from the fracture, we no  longer have cartilage on cartilage, but we have  bone on bone which leads to pain. S o today let's conclude by saying that  osteoarthritis and the pain involved  with it is the result of bone on bone.