Webinar, Osteoarthritis 1

This degenerative condition of the joints is the bread and butter of general practice, with an estimated 1 in 10 adults symptomatically affected and prevalence increasing. Curiously, over the last few decades, there has been a particularly marked increase affecting hip joints in younger people, along with an epidemic of osteoarthritis (OA) in our canine companions! OA is often referred to as disease of ‘wear and tear’, as a means to distinguish it from other forms of arthritis that more explicitly involve an inflammatory or autoimmune process. This colours the understanding of OA as a somewhat mechanical condition, an almost structural inevitability as we age. But is it… inevitable? And has it always been thus?