Dr. Cush:
I have many patients (men and women) who are not overweight and have not sustained trauma to provoke the development of OA. Through genetic factors and other triggers (yes, including aging), these patients have painful, erosive OA of the hands, polyarticular OA, or even pauci/monoarticular disease through no apparent fault of their own. Weight control is not a panacea, and DMOADs are desperately needed for the most common type of arthritis we see. Further research is definitely the key to management, and I agree there needs to be a much stronger focus on OA among our rheumatology community.