Arthritis and Heredity?

One of you asked whether arthritis is hereditary so I decided to try to find some information on it. Discovery Health posted an article titled “Arthritis and Heredity” in which it talked about the many forms of arthritis and which ones tend to run in families. The most common varities of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis with arthritis affecting one in seven Americans. While the article did not talk very much about the heredity of arthritis too much it did provide a lot of information on how arthritis can develop and what types of people are most affected. In osteoarthritis may be due to inactivity caused by muscle weakness and obesity. This form of arthritis is more common in women and in older people. Rheumatoid arthritis involves the body’s immune system attacking its own tissues. Women are much more likely than men (2 times more) to have this form of arthritis. Unlike osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect people of all ages and can travel throughout the body.

Here is the link to the site:

http://health.discovery.com/centers/arthritis/arthritis_qa/arthritis_hered.html