How Arthritis Pain Spreads and How to Prevent It

A research team led by Dr David T. Felson of the Boston University School of Medicine has just confirmed what arthritis sufferers have believed for a long time.

Arthritis pain spreads from one joint to another.

It may start with the knee and then spread to the hip or hands. And it’s not just rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis and other types spread just as much.

Before proceeding to the specifics of the study, it is important to understand that rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic condition, meaning that your immune system does attack all your joints. For that reason, it is unsurprising that this type of arthritis spreads between joints.

This is not the type of spreading the researchers are interested in, however, as it is just a tad too obvious to study.

They were more interested in cases where the pain spreads from an arthritic joint to ones that are not arthritic.

They used information collected by two previous American studies, the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study and the Osteoarthritis Initiative. The former collected information from people between ages 50 and 79, and the latter from people between 45 and 69.

Both studies gathered data on people with or at risk of knee pain and osteoarthritis, the former over 84 months and the latter over 72 months.

The information they gathered consisted of subjective pain reports and Knee X-rays at an initial visit and at frequent follow-up visits. They collected pain reports on the patients’ feet, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hands.

Researchers found that it was very common for pain to spread between joints, especially for people with knee pain. 49% of those without knee pain later developed pain in other joints.

On average, the number of joints that later became painful totaled 2.3 in knee pain sufferers and 1.3 in non-sufferers.

Strangely, there was no clear pattern to which joint the pain would spread.

They speculate that people with knee pain change the way in which they walk, putting strain on their other joints.

But, since the lower joints were no more likely to inherit pain, this probably means that people with knee pain put pressure on other joints while performing tasks other than walking too, for example, using their arms instead of their legs to lift themselves out of the bath. Or carrying themselves differently.

But biggest difference lies in genetics and lifestyles of arthritis sufferers. People who are prone to arthritis cannot eat sudden foods everyone else can. And they need to consume more of other foods that healthy individuals can.

Inflammation starts in one joint and while the wrong lifestyle patterns are continued, it will keep on spreading throughout your body.

I managed to completely reverse my lifelong arthritis in 28 days – using nothing but simple lifestyle changes. Here is the exact step-by-step strategy I and hundreds of others used…