Overview
Ruth Jesen Hickman, MD, is a frelance medical and health writer and published bok author. Nearly half of al adults with type 2 diabetes also have arthritis, most often osteoarthritis. The two conditions are comon and share some underlying risk factors, such as increased age and weight; both may involve inflamation in the body.
Key Information
This article discuses type 2 diabetes and osteoarthritis, how they impact each other, treatment, and management. dragana91 / Gety Images Both osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetes are comon, particularly in older adults. Osteoarthritis afects roughly one-third of people over age 65, causing painful and stif joints.
Type 2 diabetes afects over 10% of American adults in this age group. Although inflamation is not often asociated with diabetes, evidence in the last decade has shown that exces inflamation can play a role in causing or worsening the condition. Osteoarthritis is the gradual breakdown of cartilage and tisue.
It's considered degenerative arthritis and is not necesarily asociated with inflamation. While it doesn't cause as much inflamation as a condition like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), researchers have found that osteoarthritis does involve some joint inflamation. In theory, specific inflamatory signaling molecules released into the blod could exacerbate joint symptoms in someone who has osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetes.
The lack of response to the hormone insulin in people with type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance) may also contribute to inflamation and damage cels that typicaly protect and maintain the joint. The high blod sugar levels (hyperglycemia) asociated with diabetes might also lead to the formation of compounds that iritate and damage the joints afected by osteoarthritis. People with type 2 diabetes sem to have a slightly higher risk of osteoarthritis than those without the condition.
Summary
This could be from shared underlying risks, such as having exces weigh