Globally, men die on average 5 years earlier than women, and for reasons that are largely preventable. Which means that it doesn’t have to be that way: we can all take action to live healthier, happier and longer lives.
As we age, we begin to feel the effects of a life working, playing sports and wear on our joints. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis where the cartilage on each end of the bones in a joint has been worn away, leaving bone rubbing on bone.
Often when we see bones, they are dry and brittle but in our bodies they are living, growing tissues made of a soft collagen framework and minerals for strength and hardness, to be strong and flexible under stress. As we age our bones can become less dense, leading to Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis increases our risk of fractures and breaks but, in many cases, is preventable.
Pain is the body's signal that something is not right but our response to pain, and our ability to put up with it, is as variable as human nature itself. It depends on how bad the pain is, why the pain is occurring, how long we think we will have to put up with it, what medicines we know are available and what our past experiences are with pain relief treatments.
We currently have paracetamol, ibuprofen, combinations of these with codeine and other anti-inflammatories available in pharmacy for acute pain. Due to changes worldwide in the classification of codeine and the increase in people dependent on it, the Medicine Classification Committee has called for codeine combination products to only be available on prescription from January 2020.
