Arthritis: Lifelong Effects

Studies have shown that if you have single joint arthritis, such as the knee, lower extremity arthritis, that has some impairment on mobility and it's not reversed in some way, it shortens your lifespan by 1.8 years if you're a normal weight, and 3 1/2 years if you're obese. That's substantial. You know, imagine if you could take a pill that could extend your life by 1.8 to 3.5 years. And if we have somebody with arthritis that's severe, they do things like joint injections of steroids. Well, the steroids just accelerate the time at which the arthritis will become problematic to get a joint replacement. So that's not a good practice. Then they inject hyaluronic. Hyaluronic acid works a little bit. Some people can benefit with that, but it doesn't really reverse the arthritis.