Millions of people, and especially the elderly, frequently encounter joint pain in the mornings when they rise out of bed. While there can of course be a number of reasons for this, osteoarthritis is by far one of the most frequent causes.

If you are getting on in years, you could well have found that you typically feel joint pain in the mornings immediately after you arise. Unfortunately, we can't continue to be young forever. The older we become, the more aches we are likely to experience. Nonetheless, you can also find numerous senior citizens who do not get out of bed to tender joints day in and day out.

Joint trouble can be the result of lots of things, including things like past accidents; too little physical exertion; substandard diet and so on. Nonetheless, if you have noted that your joints only ache for an hour or two once you get up, or after a few hours of inactivity, then it is possible that you could have first stage osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is frequently seen as being a condition which only affects elderly people. Consequently, some people think it is actually an inevitable part of the natural aging process. In actual fact however, osteoarthritis does not only affect the elderly, even though the elderly are more vulnerable.

To put it briefly, osteoarthritis can strike at any time in a person's life. When the cartilage in a person's joints starts to break down, they then get this incapacitating disease, which interestingly enough, is actually the biggest cause of disability in the United States and many other developed countries all over the world.

There is no infallible evidence as to what actually causes this ailment, and there is currently no known cure. Having said all of that, we know of a lot of things which can and do aggravate the condition. Fortunately, this also means there are some precautions you can take in order to minimize the risk of getting osteoarthritis. Taking a number of preventative steps might also go a long way in minimizing the seriousness of the condition.

The most obvious precaution would be to avoid being overweight or even worse, obese. For example, the cartilage in the knee joints of an obese individual is going to fall apart considerably faster than it will in an individual who is not chronically overweight. Let's face it; it is merely common sense. In fact, obesity is nowadays believed to be the biggest cause of osteoarthritis.

If you are actually encountering joint pain in the mornings after you get up, then you really should go and have it checked. If you find out you have got osteoarthritis, then I advocate that you employ a few changes in lifestyle.

Firstly, you must think about starting a daily exercise program. You might also need to make some changes to your diet. For example, you should consider including more foods that are packed with omega-3 essential fatty acids. In fact, the majority of medical professionals will suggest lifestyle changes as a first line of defense, and will only want to give prescribed medications if all other possibilities have failed.

Article Tags: Joint Pain