Osteoporosis, joint tenderness and inflammation are generally known as osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease or osteophytes, which mainly involves two aspects, one is bone and one is cartilage. The main pathological changes are osteoporosis, osteophytes, cartilage destruction, and inflammation of the bones and joints. The main clinical manifestations are joint pain, joint swelling, joint sound, joint stiffness, and in severe cases, joint deformity, and in some patients, even inability to walk, to the point of requiring artificial joint replacement. The incidence of the disease is mainly in the elderly, and most common in post-menopausal women; the prevalence is 10%-17% in people aged 40, about 50% in people aged 60 or older, and up to 80% in people aged 75 or older. Of course, arthritis in some areas, such as knee osteoarthritis, can also be seen in young people, mainly as a result of damage to knee cartilage, menisci and ligaments caused by over-exercise and inappropriate exercise. Osteoarthritis is mainly three major problems, and the resulting various problems, if we tightly grasp these three problems, solve these three problems, osteoarthritis is not terrible, but preventable and treatable. The first problem is osteoporosis. In older people, the lack of calcium, phosphorus or vitamin D makes the bones osteoporotic and much less hard and strong. The bones become softer, it is difficult to support our body weight, so the bones of the weight-bearing joint surface bone due to pressure and Peng out and appear “bone spurs or bone superfluous”, like a screwdriver screwed hair. The second problem is cartilage wear, destruction and thinning. Because the cartilage after a long time of use, especially some friends are more fat, or often climbing stairs, climbing, cartilage wear is very strong, some places and even broken cartilage, can not play a role of a soft cushion. As you know, it is important to put a softer pad between two hard things, such as faucets if there is no rubber pad will not screw tight, it will leak. And between two bones if the cartilage cushion is bad, the bones directly rub, it will be quite painful. The third problem is derived from the first two problems and is the main reason why patients come to see the doctor. It is the joint pain, joint swelling and joint deformity due to repeated irritation of the surrounding tissues by bone spurs, or local inflammation of the joint induced by broken cartilage. What should I do if I have osteoarthritis, how should I treat it, and how should I protect my joints? In four simple words: reduce the load and strengthen the bones, nourish the cartilage, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, and appropriate exercise. Reducing the burden on the bones means reducing the burden on the bones, such as reducing weight, climbing less hills and stairs, and carrying less heavy objects; and strengthening the bones so that they become stronger. Since the main component of the bones is calcium phosphate, so we should not forget to supplement calcium with phosphorus, if only calcium without phosphorus, the body will form a stone of calcium carbonate, but not the formation of calcium phosphate bones. Of course, it is also necessary to determine whether the body’s vitamin D is appropriate, if vitamin D is not enough, even if you eat more calcium tablets, can not be absorbed, not to the bones, but just lost with the stool. But one thing to note, vitamin D should not be too much, too much is not worth the loss, the bones will not become hard, but may become softer (please refer to my article “Is it necessary to test vitamin D in the elderly?”). . Nutritional cartilage means giving drugs that can nourish cartilage, promote the activity of cartilage cells, make more cartilage matrix in the joint, and repair the damaged and worn cartilage, such as glucosamine type drugs. In addition, some joint lubricants can be given to make the joint less damaged to the cartilage during weight-bearing. Anti-inflammatory and analgesic treatment is the most common treatment used by the majority of patients, because it is the inflammation that directly causes the pain, swelling and dysfunction of the joints, so it is not possible to go without treatment and thus you have to come to the hospital. The main treatment at this time is the use of various anti-inflammatory and pain relieving drugs such as Cilpro, Fotarine and Ampicillin. And there are some drugs such as Yunque, which have both anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects, as well as phosphorus supplementation and the inhibition of osteoclasts and are welcomed by the majority of patients, but the disadvantage is that hospitalization and injection are required to do so. Appropriate exercise means that the movement of the joints should be appropriate and moderate. Some people think that osteoarthritis is mainly caused by strain and excessive exercise, so they refuse to exercise in order to protect their joints, while some people think that osteoarthritis is caused by less movement and joint immobility, so they must climb more mountains, run more and exercise more. Different patients should estimate the capacity of their joints according to the severity of their condition, and start with a small amount and progress gradually. If joint pain and discomfort occurs after exercise, reduce the intensity of exercise, shorten the duration of exercise, and adjust your exercise program in a timely manner. For osteoarthritis of the spine, appropriate front and back, left and right activities, such as tilting the head, turning the neck, forward and backward, left and right side bending, etc., to increase the range of motion of the joints; for hip and knee osteoarthritis, non-weight-bearing exercise should be chosen, preferably swimming, cycling, walking, jogging, as appropriate, should avoid weight-bearing, climbing, hiking, squatting, jumping and other activities. However, for people with osteoarthritis in the small joints of the cervical spine, swimming is not suitable. Other, you can use some physical therapy including acupuncture, massage, tui na, heat therapy, hydrotherapy, etc., mainly by enhancing local blood circulation to reduce pain and improve joint function. To sum up, the disease “osteoarthritis” involves both “bone and cartilage”, and there are three major problems such as “osteoporosis, cartilage wear and tear and local inflammation”, as well as There are four countermeasures, such as “reduce the load and strengthen the bone, nourish the cartilage, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, and appropriate exercise”, which are easy to remember. Proper understanding of the prevention and treatment of osteoarthritis, as well as early specialist treatment, is very important for middle-aged and elderly patients.