Research on arthritis in modern times

According to the CDC, arthritis accounts for 18% or nearly 9 million reports of disability, making it the number one cause of adult disability. Rheumatoid arthritis and gout are two types of arthritis. Both types affect the joints, causing pain and inflammation.

In 1715, William Musgrave British physician was credited with the earliest description of arthritis. He published the second edition of his most important medical work, De arthritide symptomatica, which concerned arthritis and its effects.

De arthritide symptomatica and Musgrave later work De artritide anomala (1707) were included in Sydenham’s Opera medica, volume II, as Dictionary of National Biography notes.

Augustin Jacob Landré-Beauvais, a 28-year-old resident physician at Saltpêtrière Asylum in France was the first person to describe the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Landre-Beauvais, working under Philippe Pinel, titled his doctoral dissertation 'Doit-on admettre une nouvelle espece de goutte sous la denomination de goutte asthenique primitive '(should one acknowledge a new kind of gout under the name of primary asthenic gout?).' He described a chronic deforming polyarthritis characterized by remissions and exacerbations.

He had examined and treated a handful of patients with severe joint pain that could not be explained by other known nosological entities at the time, neither rheumatism, nor osteoarthritis. Unlike gout, which was the disease of the upper class, this condition mainly affected the poor.

Though Landré-Beauvais' classification of rheumatoid arthritis as a relative of gout was inaccurate, his dissertation encouraged others to further study the disease.

The term rheumatoid arthritis was first suggested in 1859 by Alfred Baring Garrod, who emphasized the differences from gout and rheumatic fever. At a public lecture on 8 February 1848, reported in the Medical Chirurgical Transactions, he demonstrated the increase in uric acid in the blood of patients with gout, whereas there was no such increase in acute rheumatism or Bright's disease.

In 1859, Alfred Garrod wrote his Treatise on Nature of Gout and Rheumatic Gout, wherein he describes his observations. This work differentiated arthritis from gout and also categorized rheumatoid arthritis as a distinct condition, which he referred to as “Rheumatic Gout.”
Research on arthritis in modern times

History of Arthritis

History of Arthritis

Perhaps the oldest known type of arthritis, gout or gouty arthritis has been described since Hippocrates in the 5th century B.C. At one time, the term “gout” was used to describe all types of arthritis. Known as the “Disease of Kings” due to its association with rich foods and alcohol consumption, Colorful depictions of gout can be found in art and literature often with commentary on the moral character of the gout sufferer.

Review of medical and archaeological papers reveals that arthritis has been common in humans and hominids since Paleolithic times.

In the British Isles, there was a particularly high prevalence in remains from Romano-British and Saxon burials suggesting that, whatever genetic factors there may have been, there was an extremely high level of physical activity.

The prevalence of the condition was lower in late Medieval times; and, in at least one study of subjects from the 18th and 19th centuries, lower than in the current population. In early times, there was a reduction in bone density when there was a change from hunter gathering to

agriculture which may have resulted from a change physical activity. Severe cases of osteoporosis have been identified from individual skeletons dated to the Bronze Age.

In the Early Medieval period of Nubia there was progressive bone loss in women. Multiple pregnancy, prolonged lactation and dietary deficiency may have been factors. Though women from the 18th and 19th centuries experienced post-menopausal bone loss, this was not as severe as in the present day.
History of Arthritis