Types of arthritis

I know on this blog I talk mostly about JIA and my journey with it but there are many forms of arthritis, infact, there are over 100 different types of arthritis! Arthritis is a general term used to describe joint inflammation. Rheumatoid, Osteoarthritis, Gout, Lyme's Disease, Lupus, and Psoriatic Arthritis are just a few. Osteoarthrhtis and rheumatoid arthritis are the two most common types of arthritis.

The most common type of arthritis is Osteoarthritis which is due to the wear and tear of joints and most commonly happens with age. When people hear the word "arthritis" they are typically thinking of Osteoarthritis. This type of arthritis is most commonly found in people over the age of 65.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease just like JIA. In fact, JIA used to be called juvenile rheumatoid arthrhtis (JRA). The reason they changed the name of JRA to JIA is because JRA sounds like a minature form of RA when infact it is much more complicated than RA. The word idiopathic means of unknown origin and was chosen because no one knows what exactly causes JIA.