 Good morning. I am Dr. Benjita Pinto. I am a consultant rheumatologist in Manipal Hospital. Today I am going to talk to you about an extremely common clinical problem which is joint pain. So the first thing is what is arthritis and what is joint pain? So the first thing to note here that not all joint pains are due to arthritis. Joint pain are extremely common in clinical practice and it could be due to various other conditions such as fibromyalgia. It can also be due to vitamin D deficiency. All these things can present as joint pains. On the other hand, when we talk of arthritis, it means pain and swelling of the joint. So what causes arthritis? So arthritis may be either inflammatory or non-inflammatory. When we talk of inflammatory arthritis, we refer to conditions that lead to pain and swelling of the joints due to immune dysregulation. Some of the common forms of inflammatory arthritis are rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritis, gout. So these disorders are called inflammatory arthritis which are due to autoimmune or immune dysregulation. They can occur at any age group and they can occur in both genders. Certain arthritis, for example rheumatoid arthritis is more common in women. Spondyloarthritis on the other hand is more common in men. Gout usually occurs in men and occasionally in postmenopausal women. But arthritis can occur even in children and can occur at extremes of age also. So unlike what is commonly believed that arthritis only affects older individuals, it is wrong and it can occur at any age. How do we diagnose arthritis? So arthritis is primarily to assess whether it's inflammatory or non-inflammatory. It is a clinical assessment that we do and patient needs to see the doctor and a clinical examination will be done to examine the joints and the diagnosis will be supported by certain investigations. So what is the treatment? Treatment of course depends on the diagnosis and the earlier you are diagnosed, the much better will your outcome be and that is why there is an emphasis on early diagnosis of arthritis. Arthritis if left untreated can damage the joint and lead to deformities and after the joint is deformed, we cannot reverse the disease. So that is why early diagnosis and treatment is extremely important. Thank you.