Common misconceptions about osteoarthritis with Tonia Vincent

Despite the prevalence, impact and disability associated with osteoarthritis, it is still relatively poorly understood. New insights are affording a window into previously held strong beliefs that we now consider as misconceptions. Many people in the community simply believe that osteoarthritis is a consequence of getting older. Others believe that the joint has no capacity for repair and some have suggested that we should just use treatments widely used for other inflammatory rheumatic diseases. These misconceptions have consequences both in terms of language that is used - with terms such as "wear and tear", osteoarthrosis, and degenerative joint disease being widely used but notoriously inaccurate descriptors of this disease.

On this episode of we discuss many of the misconceptions an myths about osteoarthritis including, osteoarthritis as an inevitable part of aging, the ability for cartilage to repair, "mechanoinflammation" and much more.

Tonia Vincent studied medicine at UCL UK, qualifying in 1993. She trained as a junior doctor in London, later specialising in Rheumatology. In 1998 she took time out to do a PhD at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology under Professor Jeremy Saklatvala (awarded 2002). She continued at the Kennedy Institute as a Wellcome Trust clinician scientist and subsequently as an Arthritis Research UK Senior Fellow. In 2012 the Kennedy Institute moved to the University of Oxford and she was appointed Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology.

She directs the Centre for OA Pathogenesis funded by Versus Arthritis. Her research interests include pathways that drive mechanosensitive responses in cartilage, the role of the pericellular matrix in determining these responses and how they modulate osteoarthritis in vivo. Her work is funded by Versus Arthritis, MRC, ERC and the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research. She continues to be clinically active, running both osteoarthritis clinics and the multidisciplinary Marfan Syndrome clinic.

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