Osteoarthritis is a condition in which your bones start degenerating due to which your everyday life can become difficult. Osteoarthritis usually shows when we grow old due to our deteriorating bone health with age. However, these days the disease has started to grow prevalent in the youth too.
Hindustan Times reported that experts say earlier Osteoarthritis used to start developing in the age group of 55-60 years. But now, signs of the disease start to be seen in the age group of 35-45 years old.
Symptoms of Osteoarthritis are:
1. Pain in joints
2. Stiffness of the joints
3. Tender feeling in joints
4. Loss of flexibility
5. Bone spurs (small bits of bones growing around the weak joints)
6. Swelling of joints
Dr. Biren Nadkarni, who is a senior consultant at the Sitaram Bhartia Institute and Holy Family Hospital in Delhi, stated that the primary cause of the disease in youth was the major shift in lifestyle due to the pandemic. Companies enforced work from home so that social distancing can be properly followed and people don’t contract Covid-19. “The sitting jobs in front of a screen for more than 6 hours, lack of exercise, weight gain, ease of eating anything, and low exposure to sunlight are the main causes of osteoarthritis among the youth,” the expert was quoted as saying.
He mentioned that if injuries remain untreated, it might become the cause of osteoarthritis in children. High oxidant foods such as junk or fried food can also be causes for this disease in people under the age of 30 as such foods are bad for cartilages.
Dr. Nadkarni further said that quite a number of patients in their 30s visit him every month. He added that he has observed an increase in the number of young patients diagnosed with patella-femoral arthritis. The reason for the aforementioned arthritis is obesity and people usually feel discomfort while kneeling or climbing staircases, he said.
Dr. Nadkarni also suggested seeking treatment as soon as one faces problems in regular activities and exercises due to joint pains.
