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
