How Does The Immune System Affect Joint Health?

Do have a gander at 10 Nutrients That Support A Healthy Joint Function to understand what are the components that support healthy joints!

Arthritis is a common issue that plagues most people who experience chronically painful joints that have lost a fraction of their original functions.

There are two different types of arthritis — osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is an autoimmune disorder. Our immune system misdiagnoses the joint cartilage material as an evil, malignant invader, and proceeds to send inflammatory signals to recruit macrophages over to commence digestion of the joint material. During these periods of intensified inflammatory signals, there will be flare ups — the joint area will appear to be red, warm, swelling and uncomfortable.

OA, on the other hand, is a problem that is caused by the gradual degeneration of joint cartilage. The degeneration can occur as a result of many different factors, such as previous injuries to the joint or aging. One does not experience the acute inflammatory symptoms such as the redness, the warmth or the swelling, but they can tell that their joint function has been reduced, compared to what it was when they were younger.

But did you know — the mechanism for joint degeneration flows through the immune system in BOTH situations?

We need to understand how the joints get into a state of degeneration. In RA, the macrophages are the ones that are destroying the joint cartilage with extreme prejudice, because of the intense inflammatory signal that is being sent out.

---

How do these macrophages attack the joint cartilage?

To view the rest of the article, do feel free to become a Patron below:

Or do feel free to check out the original Medium article here!

Also do feel free to check out Dr J's Ebook Library: