VITAMIN D AND OSTEOARTHRITIS

Report #6914; 10/1/96

When a person's cartilages in joints wear away and all the blood tests for arthritis are negative, doctors often diagnose osteoarthritis.

Arthritis means that you have pain in your joints. Your doctor bases his treatment on the type of arthritis you have. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor prescribes drugs to suppress your immunity/ or long-term antibiotics. If you have gouty arthritis, your doctor prescribes drugs to reduce blood and joint fluid levels of uric acid. However, if you have osteoarthritis, your doctor often prescribes only pain medicine because he doesn't know the cause. The ends of bones that come together to form joints are really quite soft, so nature covers them with a thick white gristle called cartilage that helps to protect the ends of bones from damage. X rays in osteoarthritis often show the ends of bones/ closer together than normal/ because the cartilage is worn away.

A recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that people with osteoarthritis often have low blood levels of vitamin D and can be treated with extra vitamin D. Other studies show that lack of estrogen hastens damage from osteoarthritis in post-menopausal women. As a person loses increasing amounts of cartilage from bones, the pain increases and becomes more constant. Doctors usually do not recommend joint replacement surgery until a person feels pain all the time. Hip and knee joint replacements are not permanent and usually last only around 10 to 12 years.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News