Causes Of Osteoarthritis
Direct and Indirect

The Causes of Osteoarthritis almost certainly not what you think they are.

For instance, your doctor will tell you that age causes osteoarthritis, or if you're younger they'll tell you that repetitive motion and bad habits cause osteoarthritis (which is only kind of true.

Doctors generally do know that car crashes or equivalent trauma (like playing football, falling a good distance, other impact injuries) can result in osteoarthritis and osteoarthritis symptoms, but they never tell you WHY.

And the WHY is really what causes osteoarthritis.

What Causes Osteoarthritis?

So, what causes Osteoarthritis?

We're going to talk about indirect causes and direct causes of osteoarthritis.

Indirect Causes of Osteoarthritis

Indirect Causes consist of factors that played a role in the development of the osteoarthritis (also referred to as 'OA') mechanism.

Yes, there is a mechanism involved. A very predictable set of factors and physical progression that move the ecology of a body part from 'healthy' to 'not healthy' in it's own particular way.

So, an example of an indirect cause is, for instance, falling off a ladder onto your head and/or shoulder.  That injury turns on a Process of Inflammation, and ramps up the Pain Causing Dynamic.  The pain causing dynamic creates acute and chronic Tendonitis.

See:  What Is Tendonitis?

Plus, with that inpact injury there is actual damage to joint structures, and unfortunately the healing process doesn't return you to 'pre-injury' condition.  So the body flares up, there is pain, eventually that settles down, but there are factors in place that then quickly or slowly lead to osteoarthritis.

If you don't know what Osteoarthritis is, first see:  What Is Osteoarthritis?  

So Indirect causes are falls, accidents, impact injuries, repetitive motion, etc.  We'll describe those below.

Direct Causes Of Osteoarthritis

Direct causes consist of the ACTUAL factors that cause OA to develop.

This is the Tendonitis dynamic, injured tissue, inflammation, the body's/brain's defensive response, nutritional insufficiency, etc.

Repetitive motion, being an indirect cause, doesn't actually cause OA.  But it DOES make muscles tighter and tighter, which causes compression of the joint, then inflammation, then more tightness, then joint damage, etc.

Even falling off the ladder is not what actually caused the OA, the fall set off a chain reaction that caused the OA to develop.  That might be splitting hairs, and it is, but if you want to make your Osteoarthritis Symptoms go away, these are important distinctions.

Indirect Causes of Osteoarthritis

Indirect causes of Osteoarthritis are what set the chain of events/actions in motion.

• falling off a ladder or other high object (well, technically it's the landing that's the problem...) like a horse, a roof, a tree, etc.
• car accidents (including whiplash injury) or equivalent
• repetitive impacts from playing football or other impact heavy sport
• poor posture
• repetitive motion

There are three basic categories there:

1.  Impact Injury:  There is a large force impact on the body, and this can be anywhere in/on the body.

The impact: 

1. jams joint structures into each other, bruising and/or scraping the tissue of the joint lining and the bone.
2. A Process of Inflammation kicks in, which releases Pain Enhancing Chemical.
3. This chemical causes muscles to tighten up to 'guard and protect'.
4. This tight muscles causes compression of the joint, decreased circulation, constrictive connective tissue, and increased nutritional digestion.
5. That all equals Tendonitis.
6. The constant inflammation and compression causes constant pressure on the joint.
7. The joint linings eventually start to wear away, and scar tissue lays down, which makes more irritation and 'injury' signal to go to the brain.
8. Repeat #2-#8 until the joint wears down to bone on bone.

#2.  Poor Posture:  Poor posture happens because some muscles are too tight and others are over lengthened.  For instance, Forward Head is a term for a posture where the head an neck are WAY forward of where they should be.  

This posture means that the muscles on the front of the cervical spine are VERY shortented, and the muscles on the back side are over stretched.

Overstretched muscles and too short muscles both result in constant compression of a joint.  See the progression above, #2-#8.

Then over time, a person develops cervical osteoarthritis because the cervical vertebrae are SO compressed into each other they just grind away at each other 24/7.

#3.  Repetitive Motion:  Repetitive motion is the official cause of 'Repetitive Strain Injury'.  Which is a fancy word for 'you used your body too many times over and over doign the same thing and now you have pain and problem.

The repetitive motion isn't the problem, the body's inability to be healthy AND perform that motion over and over is the problem. Here's why that problem develops:

1. You use your body to perform a certain action.
2. Every time you use your muscle it contracts, and when you relax that muscles retains a small amount of that contraction.
3. Over time, muscles get tighter and tighter.  And you keep doing the same motion.
4. That tightness compresses the joint. The joint eventually gets irritated and inflammed.
5. See #2-#8 above.  See the pattern?  It's a lot of the same process over and over....

Direct Causes of Osteoarthritis

Now here is the key to the doorway that unlocks an effective Osteoarthritis Pain Relief.

OA doesn't just appear out of nowhere.  It develops over time due to the following predictable factors.  It basically comes down to the following three causes, all working together to cause pain and problem.

OA Cause #1: Inflammation

Inflammation causes fluid to be trapped in an area, and inflammation causes the release of Pain Enhancing Chemical.

Pain Enhancing Chemical increases pain levels, both for you (to feel) and your brain (to respond to).

Inflammation can also cause your joint to swell.  This swelling causes more pressure and compression in and on the joint anatomy.

OA Cause #2:  Tight Muscles And Connective Tissue

Pain causes your muscles to tighten up and guard.  And using your muscles causes your muscles, over time, to get tighter and tighter.

So whether you were in a car accident or your fingers hurt from years of keyboarding, inflammation kicked in and muscles got tighter and tighter.

The tighter a muscle is, the more it compresses the joint.  And the tighter it is, the tighter the connective tissue shrink wrapping it gets, so muscles get stuck tight, and that compression on the joint is 24/7.

The compressed joint grinds on itself, wear and tear happens, scar tissue builds up and gets worn away, as everything gets tighter and tighter and more and more grindy.

OA Cause #3:  Nutritional Insufficiency

Inflammation eats up Vitamin B6. 

See:  Inflammation Causes Vitamin B6 Deficiency

Muscle contraction (rember those 24/7 too tight muscles?  They're constantly contracting!) eats up Magnesium.

See:  Magnesium For Tendonitis

Over the years of inflammation and muscle tightness that you live through before you feel any actual joint pain, your body eats up more and more nutrition.  Generally you end up with NOT ENOUGH nutrition.

Without enough B6, pain from inflammation gets worse.  Without enough Magnesium, muscles literally get stuck tight because they can't relax without enough magnesium.

And then there is all the joint-specific nutrition required to keep a joint healthy.  When was the last time you ate anything other than the steak cut of a piece of meat/animal part?  We no longer eat the bone marrow, the tendon, the joint.

That's why Bone Broth is SO good for you and your joints.  See:  The Best Tendon Supplements

Causes Of Osteoarthritis Summary

In short, various events happent that trigger Inflammation, Muscle Tightness, and Nutritional Insufficiency.

Those three factors are what cause Osteoarthritis.  Everything else is related, absolutely, but if you have a Whiplash Tendonitis and get rid of the inflammation, the tightness, and the nutritional lack, then you won't get the Osteoarthritis (and the Whiplash will be gone too!).

If you have finger joint pain and get rid of the inflammation, the tightness, and the nutritional lack,  you won't get Osteoarthritis in your finger joints.

And if you do have Osteoarthritis symptoms and want to reduce them partially or totally, guess what you need to do?

You need to get rid of the inflammation, the tightness, and the nutritional lack!

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