Often, we confuse the terms arthritis and osteoarthritis - that or we may even come to think that they are the same condition in our joints. The truth is that they are two different diseases, so it is important to differentiate between them and to know how each one affects us. To do this, we explain in detail on OneHowTo what is the difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Where does the injury occur?
First, it should be noted that these are two different diseases and injury occurs in different parts of the joint:
- Arthritis is a disease that occurs with the inflammation of the synovium joint, one that feeds, protects and covers your cartilage.
- Osteoarthritis also appears to cause cartilage wear. Cartilage is the elastic tissue that lines the ends of bones and joints.
Who is affected?
Furthermore, these normally affect people of different ages. This is another difference between arthritis and osteoarthritis. While the latter is usually associated with the elderly (over 40 years old), due to the progressive wear of the joints caused by aging; arthritis can also affect young people, from 25 years upward.
Osteoarthritis occurs due to the degeneration of cartilages that cause friction between bones whilst arthritis is classified as an auto-immune disease, which is why several joints can be affected by it at any time in someone's life.
Location on the body
It is also common that injuries due to these diseases occur in different locations.
- Rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect the wrists, knuckles and fingers, feet, elbows, shoulders, hips and the knees or ankles.
- Osteoarthritis appears on the hands, spine, hip, knees and the big toe. It hardly appears in other joints.
Types of pain
Pain and joint diseases are also different and although the pain of osteoarthritis can be improved and treated with medication and rest, pain caused by arthritis does not improve with rest and it can get worse, for example at night.
People suffering from arthritis will feel stiffness in their joints, swelling, redness and difficulty to move that particular joint.
On the other hand, people suffering from osteoarthritis will also feel stiffness but this will commonly appear in the morning or after repeating a certain activity that involves that joint.
This article is merely informative, oneHOWTO does not have the authority to prescribe any medical treatments or create a diagnosis. We invite you to visit your doctor if you have any type of condition or pain.
If you want to read similar articles to What is the Difference Between Arthritis and Osteoarthritis, we recommend you visit our Diseases & secondary effects category.
- If you are unsure whether you have arthritis or osteoarthritis you should always check with your doctor as you will need different specific treatments both each of them.