This is the area around the joints that gets red and puffy, feels hot and is tender to the touch. In fact, many people don't realize that the pain of arthritis is caused by inflammation. Inflammation is the reaction your body undergoes when something goes wrong in your joints. The inflammation response of your body causes the area around the joints to swell and become painful. The types of pain caused by inflammation are acute and chronic.
Acute inflammation causes pain that lasts a short time, but is intense.
Chronic inflammation causes constant pain and swelling that can last for years. It is caused by joint weakness, injury to a joint from a mechanical trauma or autoimmune diseases, as well as a life's worth of use. Acute inflammation leads to chronic inflammation. Over time, loss of function occurs and the activities we love to do such as gardening, playing piano, writing a letter or taking a walk becomes unpleasant because of the pain and stiffness. Chronic inflammation weakens a substance called collagen, and the connective tissue molecules associated with collagen.