All About Osteoarthritis and Women

By Jeanie Lerche Davis

WebMD Feature

Reviewed By Charlotte Mathis, MD

If you've just been diagnosed with osteoarthritisosteoarthritis (OA), you're not alone. Many women past age 50 discover OA is the reason for their creaking knees, aching backs, and sore fingers. Suddenly life is all about osteoarthritis -- but luckily, arthritisarthritis doesn't have to take control.

Arthritis is "the most common form of disability. It's also a natural part of aging," says Primal Kaur, MD, director of the Osteoporosis Clinic at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

In the U.S., one in five adults has osteoarthritis -- 24 million women and 17 million men, according to the Arthritis Foundation. Continue Reading ...

New Drug for Arthritis?

New drug for arthritis?: Merck seeking FDA approval for Arcoxia, a chemical relative of Vioxx, which was linked to heart attacks

Kathleen Kerr, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Mar. 21, 2007 -- In a bid to recapture a piece of the arthritis pain-relief market, Merck & Co. is seeking government approval for Arcoxia, a chemical relative of Vioxx, the drug pulled off drugstore shelves in 2004 after being linked to heart attacks.

In its last full year on the market, Vioxx brought in about $2.5billion in sales. If the Food and Drug Administration approves Arcoxia, Merck could recoup some of those sales.

On April 12 an FDA advisory panel will consider approval of Arcoxia for osteoarthritis; it is already sold in 62 other countries. The FDA usually follows advisory panel recommendations. Continue reading ...

Don't Ignore Early Signs of Arthritis

Rutland Herald, Vermont, CT
July 24, 2006

Dr. T. Glenn Pait, associate professor of neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute at UAMS, thinks that treatment for arthritis should be multipronged.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, more than 42 million Americans have been diagnosed with arthritis of some form; another 23.2 million people live with chronic joint symptoms but have not been diagnosed by a doctor.

Contrary to popular belief, arthritis isn't a disease that affects only older adults.More than half of the cases involve people younger than 65, including nearly 3 million children.

The term arthritis is used to describe more than 100 rheumatic diseases and conditions that affect joints, the tissues that surround the joint and other connective tissue.

The pattern, severity and location of symptoms can vary depending on the specific form of the disease. Some forms of arthritis include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, ankylosing spondylitis, juvenile arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosis, scleroderma and fibromyalgia.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, a chronic disease that causes a breakdown of the cushioning cartilage in joints and the formation of new bone at the margin of joints.
Read more ...