Causes of/ risk factors for arthritis in the knuckles and other joints

Normally, the ends of bones are covered with a tissue called cartilage. This cartilage allows the two ends of the bone to glide over each other smoothly. The cartilage also acts as a shock absorber so that there is less impact and pressure on the bone when you walk, jump or put pressure on your joints in any way.

When the cartilage is damaged, worn down or absent altogether at the ends of the bones, the bones rub together causing pain and swelling of the joint. Whenever there is a breakdown of cartilage from any cause, then arthritis occurs.

The body tries to make up for the lost cartilage by producing more fluid in the joint to allow the bones to move smoothly over each other. Unfortunately, this results in the knuckles swelling up due to excess fluid. The swelling stretches the joints leading to knuckle soreness. The swollen knuckles also make it difficult to move the fingers and bend or straighten them making them stiff.

Risk Factors for developing arthritis in the knuckles

There are certain things that can increase your risk of developing arthritic knuckles. These include:

Getting older – the older you are the more stress joints would have had to go through compared to a younger person
Being overweight – carrying too much weight increases the load that your joints have to carry particularly in the hip, knee and ankle joints
Injuries to the bones that make up a joint – a joint that has had any injury in the past is 7X more likely to become arthritic than one that hasn’t even if the injury was treated properly.
Genetic diseases – there may be development of arthritis in the knuckles as part of another disease in other parts of the body, these are usually inherited
Inherited abnormality of the joints and cartilage may make arthritic more common
Some jobs and sports may lead to repeated stress on the joints e.g assembling small parts in a factory or playing sports like tennis

If the arthritis in the fingers is not treated, the bones at the affected joints gradually lose their shape and become deformed. This can lead to more pain and interferes even more with normal movement of the fingers.