BUT, we hear you cry! The X-Rays show that it is bone on bone so we must be wrong.  Whilst you are not wrong in the analogy of ‘bone sitting on bone with a reduced moving surface’, there are many of a case where people have these changes, that under X-Ray, shows ‘bone on bone’…..but they have no pain.  The question then is, ‘well why do they not have pain if we know they have ‘bone on bone?’.  (Disclaimer: WE DON’T KNOW EITHER….AND NOBODY ELSE DOES FOR THAT MATTER :/)

The other fascination thing is that the three most common areas of osteoarthritis are the knee, the hip, and THE HAND!  We often hear it is ‘wear and tear’ of the joint that has led to this ‘bone on bone’ formation so we avoid things which logically make sense that would overload the joint (ie, running, jumping activities).  However, if the hand is one of the most common areas of joint osteoarthritis then how do we explain that?  There are explanations to it which we will share at some point, but our paragraph section here isn’t quite ready for that just yet!

And why are we saying all this now? Well, as mentioned at the start of this text, we may be doing the two things quite regularly in our lives right now which is aggravating this and making your situation worse.  If osteoarthritis is an inflammatory condition, then controlling inflammation is key.  Exercise, believe it or not, can be an excellent way to do this as stronger muscles around the joint area protect and support the area, the same way we might wear a brace or strapping round our ankle if we were to roll it, the muscle strength is more real and long term though!  On the flip side, too much exercise can itself create inflammation which leads to painful experiences.

The bottom line is this. Osteoarthritis does not have to be self-limiting condition. It is actually a very natural occurrence in most of us; we just need to better understand what it is and how it occurs whilst also ensuring we know how to manage it appropriately through a variety of interventions.