By the age of 40 almost all persons appear to evidence some arthritic deterioration in the joints bearing the bulk of their bodily weight. By age 70 virtually everyone is believed to have at least intermittent symptoms of arthritic pain and stiffness in at least some joints. Men on the average seem to develop such symptoms at earlier ages than women. The prostate in men is frequently subject to hypertrophy, which can interfere with urination. The cause for this enlargement, often confusingly called hyperplasia, is unknown.
Rare diseases involving hypertrophy A number of very rare diseases also exhibit hypertrophy.
For example, one called Dejerine-Sottas disease appears in childhood and is at first marked mainly by increasing weakness and loss of sensation in the legs. In the disease parts of the nervous system grow larger by hypertrophy. Any one of a wide variety of diseases and conditions may produce problematic symptoms due to hypertrophy. Such symptoms may accordingly be relieved by carrying out the most effective treatment for the particular disease or condition involved.