The Center of Disease Control in the United States has reported that arthritic conditions are the leading reason behind disability. A research study conducted by the institute found that every year in the United States, 9,500 people die as a result of arthritis. In addition, 750,000 people are expected to be hospitalized per year, and 8 million people will suffer some physical limitations due to the disease. The scope of the problem is quite wide-spread, with the study also showing that 49 million people in America have been clinically diagnosed with some form of arthritis and a whopping 86 billion dollars being spent to curb issues with arthritis.
One study places the risk of getting arthritis for the average person in the United States to be about 13.60%. This means that approximately 1 in 7 people in the United States will be diagnosed with arthritis at some point in their lives.
Approximately 70 million Americans suffer from some form of arthritis, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And while arthritis strikes three out of five people aged 65 and older, you’d be amazed at the number of younger people who show signs of this disease. Arthritis affects more than two out of every five individuals between the ages of 45 to 64. And of those between the ages of 18 to 44, one out of every five people suffers with arthritis. More amazing than that, nearly 300,000 children have some form of this disease as well.
In fact, that’s only the first of many misconceptions about arthritis. The next is that many of us think of it as the result of the normal wear and tear of our joints. And that’s true – as far as that description goes. But arthritis goes so much further than that.
When we talk of arthritis, most often we’re referring to osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease most notably distinguished by the slow breaking down of the joint cartilage. While this disorder can affect any joint in your body, it most often affects fingers, hips, and knees. Initially, you may only notice that one joint is affected. Eventually, though, you’ll discover that other joints in the area will be affected as well.
But, arthritis is really a collection of nearly 100 different forms of osteoarthritis that include a multitude of different diseases from gout and rheumatoid arthritis to fibromyalgia, scleroderma and bursitis.