**PAINS CAUSES ARTHRITIS**

As we all know, arthritis, the leading cause of disability among people over 55, causes pain. But new research suggests that pain also causes arthritis. Pain should no longer be thought of just as a symptom of arthritis, according to the study in the October issue of the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism. Pain signals originating in arthritic joints, and the biochemical processing of those signals as they reach the spinal cord, worsen and expand arthritis, the researchers say. In addition, the researchers found that nerve pathways carrying pain signals transfer inflammation from arthritic joints to the spine and back again, causing disease at both ends. Technically, pain is a patient's conscious realization of discomfort. Before that can happen, however, information must be carried along nerve cell pathways from, say, an injured knee to the pain processing centers in dorsal horns of the spinal cord, a process called nociception. The current study provides strong evidence that two-way, nociceptive "crosstalk" may first enable joint arthritis to transmit inflammation into the spinal cord and brain, and then to spread through the central nervous system (CNS) from one joint to another. Furthermore, if joint arthritis can cause neuro-inflammation, it could have a role in conditions like Alzheimer's disease, dementia and multiple sclerosis. Armed with the results, researchers have identified likely drug targets that could interfere with key inflammatory receptors on sensory nerve cells as a new way to treat osteoarthritis (OA), which destroys joint cartilage. The most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis eventually brings deformity and severe pain as patients loose the protective cushion between bones in weight-bearing joints like knees and hips. About 27 million Americans have osteoarthritis and 1.3 million have rheumatoid arthritis, according to the Arthritis Foundation.