I am a Zimmer Hipster, so I find myself on their website trying to discover my genealogy.  I’m happy Zimmer-Biomet, as a hip manufacturer, are building a patient website, as I feel device and pharma companies should be doing.  Anyway…here is some important information from their site that I found well written.

Hips are a prime target for arthritis. The first sign may be an occasional ache, but over time the pain may become too much to ignore. 52.5 million adults in the United States just over 1 in 5 adults have more than 100 different types of arthritis, and osteoarthritis, the most common type, is a leading cause of hip pain.1,2 Joints like the hips are simply places where bones meet and join together. Those meeting places are cushioned by shock-absorbing cartilage, so the bones don’t rub directly against each other. But when the cartilage is worn away— which is actually the definition of osteoarthritis— the result is a bone-on-bone grinding. That grinding hurts. You can feel it walking, sitting, or even lying down trying to sleep.

via Hip Pain | Zimmer.