Understanding Osteoarthritis
The "wear and tear" model of OA misrepresents the biology of the condition and leads to the nihilistic management approach leaving most patients without meaningful options until their joints reach end-stage disease.
Contemporary understanding recognizes OA as a disease of the entire joint organ driven primarily by chronic joint inflammation — a biochemical cascade involving elevated IL-1β, TNF-α, and matrix metalloproteinases that continuously degrades cartilage matrix while inhibiting chondrocyte repair activity.