Is Arthritis Inherited?
When I tell patients they have arthritis they often say that they are not surprised because their mother has it. Or they may say that their father just had a hip replacement, so it was a matter of time before they got it.
Arthritis is not inherited. Sort of.
Since arthritis is not one disease there are probably some arthritis syndromes that are inherited and others that are not.
We need to get an understanding of a few things here:
1. What is the difference between direct inheritance and genetic?
2. How does a genetic predisposition express itself as a disease?
3. If something is genetic then what hope is there of fighting it once you have it?
You inherit your eye color from your parents in a direct way. If both of your parents have blue eyes then you better have blue eyes. If you do not, then introduce yourself to your father the milkman.
Think of this though -- if everything you have that makes you your unique self was a direct result of direct inheritance then you and all your brothers and sisters would look exactly the same. We obviously don't. Ants all look the same -- even to ants. We don't. The reason is that while we each collect 23 chromosomes from each of our parents, adding up to the 46 chromosomes we carry around with us, genes have a unique behavior pattern. Genes, based on a trillion complex factors express themselves differently based on reasons even the smartest amongst us barely understand. It's sort of like when you follow a recipe in a cookbook from a restaurant and the food tastes nothing life the way the chef prepared it in the restaurant. Something gets lost in the sauce.
Therefore, if your parents had a joint replacement your chances of getting one are probably not much different than the guy next to you whose parents did not get a joint replacement.
On the other hand, there most probably is a genetic predisposition to getting arthritis. Whether this is generalized joint pain type of arthritis or actual joint destruction seen on an x-ray, if you get arthritis you were probably predestined to get it in your genes. We just don't know enough about the genetic code to predict this or figure it all out. What is also theoretically sound is that what you throw at your body during the decades before the beginning of your arthritis may do something to turn these genes on or off. Do we know what these things are? No way. These can be any or all of the following: nutrition, trauma, overuse, viruses, stress, other diseases, medications, and more.
One thing we know for sure...all those years of you being an amazing athlete did not destroy your knees unless you had a specific injury. There are too many amazing athletes around that never get arthritis. If you are overweight or obese that will not cause your joints ot wear out. The distribution of joint replacements in a surgeon's practice is not filled with fatter people.
Anyway, you get what you get and then have to deal with it. Our current model of medicine works primarily on dealing with disease when we get it. We have been fairly successful in this regard. Hip and knee replacements are generally just short of remarkable. Shoulder replacements are good. Many anti-rheumatoid medications have benefit and so do antiinflammatories.
In the area of disease prevention we are lost in space. It is not because we don't care or mainstream medicine is hiding truths from the public. It is because we just don't know. A ton of neutraceutical and herbal medicine concoctions are making claims about cartilage growth properties and disease prevention. Who knows?
I know one thing for sure -- they are not correct in their claims. I do not know if they are wrong. There is a big difference here. Because we can't prove a claim is wrong does not make it right. Billions of dollars are spent of glucosamines, bicosamines, tricoamines, and other comical variations of snake oil. The problem is that this stuff is poor ammunition against the genetic pool in action. Eventually, real answers will come with extensive research into gene therapy and understanding the gene pool and how arthritic genes get expressed. In the meantime, count your blessings if you don't have much pain and follow evidence-based advice if you do.
Dr. K.
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: arthritis, genes, joint replacement, hip replacement, knee replacement, shoulder replacement
Arthritis is not inherited. Sort of.
Since arthritis is not one disease there are probably some arthritis syndromes that are inherited and others that are not.
We need to get an understanding of a few things here:
1. What is the difference between direct inheritance and genetic?
2. How does a genetic predisposition express itself as a disease?
3. If something is genetic then what hope is there of fighting it once you have it?
You inherit your eye color from your parents in a direct way. If both of your parents have blue eyes then you better have blue eyes. If you do not, then introduce yourself to your father the milkman.
Think of this though -- if everything you have that makes you your unique self was a direct result of direct inheritance then you and all your brothers and sisters would look exactly the same. We obviously don't. Ants all look the same -- even to ants. We don't. The reason is that while we each collect 23 chromosomes from each of our parents, adding up to the 46 chromosomes we carry around with us, genes have a unique behavior pattern. Genes, based on a trillion complex factors express themselves differently based on reasons even the smartest amongst us barely understand. It's sort of like when you follow a recipe in a cookbook from a restaurant and the food tastes nothing life the way the chef prepared it in the restaurant. Something gets lost in the sauce.
Therefore, if your parents had a joint replacement your chances of getting one are probably not much different than the guy next to you whose parents did not get a joint replacement.
On the other hand, there most probably is a genetic predisposition to getting arthritis. Whether this is generalized joint pain type of arthritis or actual joint destruction seen on an x-ray, if you get arthritis you were probably predestined to get it in your genes. We just don't know enough about the genetic code to predict this or figure it all out. What is also theoretically sound is that what you throw at your body during the decades before the beginning of your arthritis may do something to turn these genes on or off. Do we know what these things are? No way. These can be any or all of the following: nutrition, trauma, overuse, viruses, stress, other diseases, medications, and more.
One thing we know for sure...all those years of you being an amazing athlete did not destroy your knees unless you had a specific injury. There are too many amazing athletes around that never get arthritis. If you are overweight or obese that will not cause your joints ot wear out. The distribution of joint replacements in a surgeon's practice is not filled with fatter people.
Anyway, you get what you get and then have to deal with it. Our current model of medicine works primarily on dealing with disease when we get it. We have been fairly successful in this regard. Hip and knee replacements are generally just short of remarkable. Shoulder replacements are good. Many anti-rheumatoid medications have benefit and so do antiinflammatories.
In the area of disease prevention we are lost in space. It is not because we don't care or mainstream medicine is hiding truths from the public. It is because we just don't know. A ton of neutraceutical and herbal medicine concoctions are making claims about cartilage growth properties and disease prevention. Who knows?
I know one thing for sure -- they are not correct in their claims. I do not know if they are wrong. There is a big difference here. Because we can't prove a claim is wrong does not make it right. Billions of dollars are spent of glucosamines, bicosamines, tricoamines, and other comical variations of snake oil. The problem is that this stuff is poor ammunition against the genetic pool in action. Eventually, real answers will come with extensive research into gene therapy and understanding the gene pool and how arthritic genes get expressed. In the meantime, count your blessings if you don't have much pain and follow evidence-based advice if you do.
Dr. K.
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: arthritis, genes, joint replacement, hip replacement, knee replacement, shoulder replacement
9 Comments:
does anyone know if predonizone,caused them to have hip replacement due to the medication causing avseculor neur. or bone dead if this has happened to anyone please write back. thank you Dedra Koehn k.c. dkoehn5@hotmail.com please write.
Dear Doc,
my husband has continuous low fever for one to three days weekly. With all tests done by many docs, the fever persist. Do you have any view?
Sleepless wife
Doris yiu asked about her husband running a low fever for one to three days weekly. My husband has been running one for over a year now. The docs have ran every test they can think of and can find nothing. He has severe osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylosis of the entire spine and has had a hip replacement and a knee replacement. He is bent over from the waist. Would the arthritis cause the fever?
I was recently diagnosed with carpal tunnel in both hands. Does anyone know what kind of tests are done to see how long I have had CTS? Other than a nerve conduction study, I already had that. If you've not ever had any problems with your hands how can you prove it is work related? Which mine is. email me at crumproger@bellsouth.net
My mother has been showing little signs of possible dementia/memory loss for a year and ahlf.(approx) She had TKR in June. Had intensely frightening sundowning, halllucinations, and extreme dementia in the hospital, and for 5 days after surgery. It is now 9/8 and her sundowning/dementia/ forgetfulness/hallucinations are still with her. All are considered a little less intense than when in the hosp, but easily twice as bad as before surgery. She's seen a neurologist who did a CT, and scheduled the next appt for 6 mos away. We are very unhappy with the lack of info on this trend, and the extreme lack of info from her drs on it. the hospital staff acted as if this were an everyday occuranc--if so, why did nobody prepare us for this/ We were terrified & nearly histerical! I've found info online that states up to 40% of elderly people showing moderate signs of dementia will get worse following tramatic surgery. Why wee we not given any information on this prior to her surgery? It would've been a huge factor in her decision on whether to go through the surgery. She had no pre-op pain and was having the procedure because her dr insisted she should (due to the bone on bone status of her knee). she was getting around just fine! Now they want to do the other knee!?!?! Not it it'll cause this extent of mental deteriation again! We're scared--HELP!
I have arthritis in my neck due to trama caused some 21 years ago. It hasn't caused any mobility problems, BUT it does have a nagging persistance to cause me tension headaches. Aleve will help some, as do chiropractic adjustments. Any comments?
H
yes ive had a complete knee replacesment and they tell me that the blood flow is cut off to my tibia bone but its not serious i need another opinion can you share some advise.
There's currently a study being conducted at Brigham & Women's in Boston about possible genetic components to rheumatoid arthritis. I'm one of the participants, since I do have relatives with RA. It will be interesting to see the results.
can a fall to the knee cause rheumstoid arthritis.
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