Reversing osteoarthritis?

Recent research explains the roles of inflammatory cytokines and cartilage breakdown.

Latest article…

Understanding Osteoarthritis

Key takeaways:
~ Osteoarthritis causes joint pain, stiffness, and joint instability in the knees, hands, hips, and spine.
~ Elevated inflammatory cytokines cause cartilage degradation in the joints.
~ Genetic variants in inflammation and collagen-related genes increase the risk of osteoarthritis.
~ Understanding which variants you have may help you to target the right pathways.

Osteoarthritis: Underlying Causes

Osteoarthritis is a condition that causes chronic joint pain. Affected joints often include the knees, hands, hips, and spine.

The joints most commonly affected are the knees, hands, hips, and spine.

More than one-third of adults over the age of 60 show evidence of osteoarthritis on X-rays, but not all will experience significant joint pain.[ref]

Risk factors for osteoarthritis include certain genetic variants, age, weight, and joint misalignment.

Symptoms of osteoarthritis include joint pain, stiffness, joint instability, and narrowing of the joint space on x-ray.

Current treatment options usually include exercise, weight loss, and pain medications. For more severe cases of osteoarthritis, hip or knee replacement surgery is an option.

I’m going to dive into what is causing the joint problems, looking at the pathophysiology driving osteoarthritis.

Goal:
By understanding the processes and genes involved, my hope is that you can figure out which natural solutions (Lifehacks section) will work best with your genes to alleviate the pain and hopefully reverse the arthritis processes.

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What I've been reading:

1. Alzheimer's disease  - or - Cancer
This is a neat Mendelian randomization study showing that there is an 'inverse causal relationship between Alzheimer's disease and cancer'. In a nutshell, some of the genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's may have a protective role in preventing cancer cells via a tumor suppressor pathway. 

2. Enhancing olfaction by smelling different odors improves memory

A study in older (age 6--85) adults found that being exposed to different odorants for 2 hours at night improved scores on a learning test. Participants in the study were exposed to different essential oil scents at night while they slept. There were seven different essential oils used, and the study lasted for six months. The study built on animal research showing that olfactory enrichment improves brain function and neurogenesis in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb.