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Tackling osteoarthritis: as Americans age, the risk of developing the most common form of arthritis increases, but recent research is opening the door to a better understanding of the disease and its treatment.

Article Excerpt
An Interview with Dr. Kenneth Brandt

The most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis is muscling in on Americans. While the condition generally affects older people, dedicated athletes in the prime of life are also sidelined by the degenerative joint disease.

Osteoarthritis (OA) typically affects the cartilage, the slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint. While healthy cartilage allows bones to gently glide over one another and absorb the shock of physical movement, over time OA may break down and wear away the surface layer of cartilage, allowing bones under the cartilage to rub together, causing pain, swelling, and loss of motion of the joint.

Treatments targeting the pain and stiffness of OA coupled with regular physical activity play a key role in self-care and wellness.

Recently, researchers discovered that a common antibiotic helped slow the progression of osteoarthritis. To find out more about this exciting breakthrough, the Post spoke with the principal investigator of the study, Dr. Kenneth Brandt, professor of medicine and orthopedic surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Post: Could you tell Post readers about your recent study of a common antibiotic and its therapeutic potential in osteoarthritis?

Brandt: Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease of mankind. It is estimated that there are about 25 million people with arthritis in the United States, most of whom have osteoarthritis. Because age is the most powerful risk factor for OA, given the increasing proportion of our citizens over the age of 65, OA will become an increasingly larger problem in the coming decades.

Knee osteoarthritis, in particular. is the major cause of chronic disability in people over 65. Huge social and economic costs are involved.

Until now, treatment of OA has focused largely on relieving joint pain. No one has shown that any drug changed the progression of joint damage in OA.

Our study was aimed principally at slowing damage to the tissues in the osteoarthritic joint particularly to the cartilage, which is the main tissue in the joint affected by OA. Joint cartilage is the extremely...

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