BALTIMORE — 58.5 million Americans have arthritis, according to the CDC. That's nearly 25 percent of the population.
May is National Arthritis Awareness Month. The Arthritis Foundation is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
WMAR-2 News spoke to Dr. Laura Cappelli, who works for the Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Rheumatology, about the symptoms and treatment for arthritis and the ways to prevent it or delay the symptoms.
There are several different types of arthritis, the most common one being osteoarthritis. Dr. Cappelli said while arthritis can affect people of all age groups, it is most prevalent in people ages 50-70 and is slightly more common in women.
"Unfortunately a lot of patients with arthritis are not able to work in certain jobs that they may have done in the past or aren’t able to do other things that they enjoy, hobbies or care giving kind of responsibilities," she said. "So it really is a huge impact on patients and their families."
According to the CDC, arthritis is the leading cause of work disability, with an annual cost of medical care and lost earnings around $300 billion.
Dr. Cappelli said genetics does play a role in whether a person will develop arthritis, though the medical understanding is not as clear in each type.
"We know particular genetic features that make you pre-disposed to rheumatoid arthritis," she said. "Osteoarthritis does appear to run in families but the genetics are probably a bit more complicated and there aren’t as clear genetic risk factors."
As far as treatments go, Dr. Cappelli said again, it depends on the type of arthritis. It can range from medication, to physical therapy, to surgery in more severe cases.
"There’s a lot of research though for osteoarthritis for more medications to give patients relief and to potentially try to reverse the changes in the joint of arthritis because we don’t really have any good drugs to do that yet unfortunately in osteoarthritis," she said.
Dr. Cappelli said there are ways to prevent, or delay, the symptoms of arthritis including regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking.
Johns Hopkins has a virtual series called Rheum-TV, where they post videos about symptoms, treatments and resources connected to arthritis and other rhuematic diseases.
