General Health Information

Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis and this
degenerative joint disease found mostly among older people, primarily
affects cartilage. A study conducted by an international team supported
in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has discovered that
shorter people are more prone to arthritis.
According to the researchers a variety of factors that include
genetics, prenatal environment and diet, work in coherence to determine
how tall someone grows. It was predicted that genetic variants that
reduce production of the GDF5 protein may affect the amount of
cartilage in the spine, the proportion of limbs and/or the angles of
joints, resulting in both a modest decrease in height and increased
susceptibility to osteoarthritis.