Projektinformation
Beskrivning
Osteoarthritis (OA) and osteoporosis (OP) are two very common diseases. OA is chronic joint pain caused by reduced cartilage in the joint. It affects 25% above the age of 40, and increases with age. OP is reduced bone density resulting in a fragile skeleton. It causes an increased risk of fragility fractures, ie fractures due to minimal trauma. Around 50% of middle aged women and 20% of middle aged men will have a fracture due to osteoporosis. Both diseases causes a lot of suffering, and burdens the individual as well as society.
Both OA and OP are unfortunately increasing rapidly globally, also in younger persons. This can partially be explained by the fact that we live longer, giving us longer time to develop cartilage damage and reduced bone density. Repetitive, hard work and sports injuries are also an explanation for the increase in OA. The most important lifestyle risk factors for OA however, are obesity and inactivity. For OP inactivity and limited exposure in the sun are important. Since OA and OP cannot be cured, the only way of managing the diseases is to prevent or delay the onset.
But how do one prevent a disease? Well, first we must understand how it develops. To explain this we made a study to find out whether OA and OP are degenerative diseases, ie caused by ageing. One way of measuring ageing is to measure how much mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) an individual has in the blood. Mitochondrias are the so called power plant in the cells, providing energy. The older we get the less mitochondrias we will have. In our study we analyzed mtDNA in 1978 middle-aged women in Lund, Sweden. Surprisingly we could not find any significant associations between a diagnose of OA or OP and the number of mtDNA, suggesting that neither diagnosis is age-related.
If ageing is not a significant risk factor, we next wanted to find out how common it is to have a familiar risk of OA or OP. Could this explain why we see increasing cases and younger patients? We made two different studies about the familiar patterns of OA and OP to find out how common it is among twins, siblings, half-siblings and cousins. We used the entire Swedish born population of 6,5 million people, which makes it the largest study of familiar risks in OA and OP respectively. We found very strong familiar risks that could explain early onset of disease, in line with previous smaller studies.
With the result from these studies we can now easier evaluate the risk for an individual to develop OA or OP, thus being able to recommend lifestyle changes early, such as weight control and physical activity, to prevent or delay the onset of disease. In summary with the right information OA and OP can be prevented for those at risk.
Both OA and OP are unfortunately increasing rapidly globally, also in younger persons. This can partially be explained by the fact that we live longer, giving us longer time to develop cartilage damage and reduced bone density. Repetitive, hard work and sports injuries are also an explanation for the increase in OA. The most important lifestyle risk factors for OA however, are obesity and inactivity. For OP inactivity and limited exposure in the sun are important. Since OA and OP cannot be cured, the only way of managing the diseases is to prevent or delay the onset.
But how do one prevent a disease? Well, first we must understand how it develops. To explain this we made a study to find out whether OA and OP are degenerative diseases, ie caused by ageing. One way of measuring ageing is to measure how much mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) an individual has in the blood. Mitochondrias are the so called power plant in the cells, providing energy. The older we get the less mitochondrias we will have. In our study we analyzed mtDNA in 1978 middle-aged women in Lund, Sweden. Surprisingly we could not find any significant associations between a diagnose of OA or OP and the number of mtDNA, suggesting that neither diagnosis is age-related.
If ageing is not a significant risk factor, we next wanted to find out how common it is to have a familiar risk of OA or OP. Could this explain why we see increasing cases and younger patients? We made two different studies about the familiar patterns of OA and OP to find out how common it is among twins, siblings, half-siblings and cousins. We used the entire Swedish born population of 6,5 million people, which makes it the largest study of familiar risks in OA and OP respectively. We found very strong familiar risks that could explain early onset of disease, in line with previous smaller studies.
With the result from these studies we can now easier evaluate the risk for an individual to develop OA or OP, thus being able to recommend lifestyle changes early, such as weight control and physical activity, to prevent or delay the onset of disease. In summary with the right information OA and OP can be prevented for those at risk.
| Status | Pågående |
|---|---|
| Gällande start-/slutdatum | 2023/01/01 → … |