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How Can Pain of Osteoarthritis be Treated?

By John Bradstreet

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Published: 24Sep2009
Word count: 829
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Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis that affects people. There are over 30 million people that have pain associated with arthritis or joint inflammation. Osteoarthritis is the breaking down of cartilage in our joints. This causes the bones in our joints to rub together and varying degrees of pain.

There are treatment programs that can be adopted to decrease joint damage, minimize the pain and improve joint movement. People that have osteoarthritis do not always experience the same amount of pain. Some people with a severe case can experience little or no pain while others with a more mind version can have very intense pain. This is the reason that each treatment plan has to be designed for the individual. One plan that works for one individual may or may not work for another. This is true even if the disease is in the same joint.

REDUCE YOUR WEIGHT

Being overweight has many negative affects on your overall health. It is also one of the risk factors associated with osteoarthritis. In younger people being overweight or obese can dramatically increase the chance of developing the disease later in life. The good news here is that even a small reduction in weight can have a dramatic affect on the symptoms and pain that people have. Good weight management is a combination of nutrition, exercise and supplementation. Do not jump on the next fad diet or program that is out there. Evaluate your lifestyle and make the proper changes. You are more likely to stick with it over the long term.

START AN EXERCISE PROGRAM

Before starting any exercise program you should speak to your doctor and he or she can help devise a program that reflects your abilities and restrictions. That being said, exercise is essential to your program to control osteoarthritis. Exercise has two benefits: the first being that it relieves pain by improving mobility of the joint and secondly it increases the muscle around the joint and protects it from further damage.

An exercise program will be tailored to the individual to increase the range of motion of the particular joint and increase the muscle around it. Your doctor may want you to do stretching, aerobic or isometric exercises or a combination of these. They will all have different benefits.

For people with arthritis of the knee and hip water exercise is often recommended. This does not put as much strain on these joints. These same people should also avoid running or tennis that does put added strain on weight bearing joints.

People with osteoarthritis may have to rest several times a day as activity will increase pain. On the other hand too much inactivity can increase stiffness. A good treatment plan will balance rest with activity.

HOT AND COLD TREATMENTS

The use of hot and cold treatments can relieve pain, stiffness and swelling associated with osteoarthritis. This is not a long term solution but temporary. Heat works better for some while for others they will get more benefit from cold treatment. This can be done with cold packs or heating pads. Always remember to let the skin go back to normal temperature before repeating and never apply more than 20 minutes at a time.

PAIN MEDICATION

There are many medications that can be used to treat pain from osteoarthritis, some must be prescribed by your doctor and others are sold over the counter. Treatment of pain needs to be specific. A person suffering from unexpected severe pain may benefit from pain medication or muscle relaxants. One the other hand for people suffering from chronic pain these medications are usually not useful or appropriate. For this population exercise, joint protection and weight control is more in order. Both prescription drugs and over the counter medications carry side effects that you want to be aware of.

Some people have reported good results with natural methods including Glucosamine and Chondroitin combinations. These can give you the building blocks for new cartilage production over time.

REDUCE THE STRESS IN YOUR LIFE

Stress, over prolonged periods, can deplete our bodies of vitamins and nutrients that are needed. Emotional stress can also cause arthritic symptoms to worsen. With osteoarthritis, pain may develop after stressful events. We all have a certain degree of stress in our lives and trying to minimize it is important. The fact that a person suffers from osteoarthritis may in itself trigger stress.

There are many ways to reduce stress in your life. Trying some of them such as deep breathing, yoga, and meditation will give you an idea of what works for you. Over time try to avoid situations that cause you stress.

In conclusion, as you can see there are a number of things that we can do to relieve the pain of osteoarthritis. Some will work better than others for certain individuals. It is a matter of trial and error to determine this. In cases where none of these help injections or surgery may be in order.

John Bradstreet is an experienced Biochemist with extensive knowledge in nutritional supplementation. He is committed to a healthy lifestyle through natural means. To learn more about how to control arthritis pain we have included additional links at the bottom of the page to help educate you on the subject. Or you can subscribe to our Vitamin and Supplement Blog where you will find information on topics concerning natural supplementation.

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