Arthritis is a condition that is linked to inflammation and pain in the joints.
Is arthritis a degenerative health condition that its symptoms tend to worsen over time or arthritis is an autoimmune disease that is linked with a chronic clinical course or inflammatory flare?
The rheumatologists in Karachi define these two types of arthritis as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or osteoarthritis. Your doctor can prescribe the medication for arthritis, but they also recommend natural remedies.
Make sure to talk to your doctor before you opt for any activity for managing arthritis if it includes any medication or not.
Now, let’s talk about the tips to manage the pain of arthritis. In order to manage arthritis, movement is necessary. A person suffers from joint stiffness or muscle weakness due to too much sitting. This can in turn put further stress on the arthritis hip or knee and causes more pain.
So, we have compiled a list of tips and tricks that you can try at home to manage arthritis.
1. Painful Joints- Strengthen the Muscles
For an arthritis joint, even a gentle and mild exercise can help in strengthening the muscles. Now you must be thinking about how can you opt for a simple exercise for muscle strengthening around the arthritis joint. Right?
Well, you can simply raise your legs in a straight manner if you are in a sitting position or lying down. It is one of the common exercises that is recommended for people with arthritis to strengthen the muscles around the knee especially.
2. Non-Impact Cardio for Arthritis
Cardio exercises put extra pressure and stress on your joints so you need to avoid these exercises. Instead, you can opt for non-impact cardio or other exercises such as walking, bicycling, and stationery exercises.
3. Avoid Excessive Physical Exercise
If you are someone who is suffering from arthritis and is thinking of going on a cleaning spree or might want to declutter the closet, you need to think about your joints. Too much kneeling, bending, or lifting can make your pain even worse. One of the best ways to tackle this is you can simply to work in a manner that you perform small tasks throughout the week or a month instead of doing it in simply one day.
4. Few Trips of Going Up and Down Stairs
You need to be mindful of moving a lot if you are suffering from arthritis. If going up and down stairs make you feel pain, you need to avoid them. In case, you need to use stairs make sure you take one step at a time.
5. Over-the-Counter Medication
Make sure to follow the prescription that your doctor has provided you for arthritis. There are medications for arthritis that can cause stomach issues. In this case, you need to talk to your doctor about other over-the counter medicines for arthritis.
6. Heat and Cold Therapy
Cold and heat therapy has been one of the recommended remedies that can help you with the pain of sore joints. In order to relax the muscle around the joint, heat therapy is good. However, if the joint is swollen and hot, you can choose cold therapy. Make sure to place the thin towel or cloth between your skin and the cold pack.
7. opt for the Motility Aid
You can also relieve pain by using a motility aid such as a crutch, crane, or even a walker. Using this can really help in relieving pressure on your knees or hip. But, you need to make sure that you use a crutch or crane on the opposite hand of the affected joint of yours. For example, if you have an arthritic knee or hip on the left side, then you can hold the crutch or crane in the right hand.
8. Healthy Diet for Healthy Joints
You become what you eat. That’s why food is an important ingredient in maintaining your lifestyle. Keeping your weight in check can really help you with the joint pain and stress on your joints. In fact, if you are going up and down stairs or getting in and out of a chair, it can approximately put stress of about 5 times more on your body weight across the joints of the knee and hip. For this very reason, you need to lose weight to help your joints.
9. Beware of the Hazards in your Home
You need to remove any hazards in your home. Make sure that rugs should be placed properly on the floor. Maintain good lighting at home and be very careful of getting out of bed in the middle of the night. To perform daily life activities without any hassle you can adopt some lifestyle habits such as grabbing the bars in the bathroom and other devices while walking as it can help you with an arthritic joint.
10. Take Care of Yourself
Last but not least, be gentle with yourself. You need to be very mindful of your mental and physical health. To make yourself better, you can opt for relaxation therapies, mindful breathing, or try meditation to make yourself relax and feel better.
