How many health care professionals have you consulted about your arthritis, and how many different answers have you received? Do you just want the straight dope about how to cope with your arthritis? If this is true, you can utilize the advice given here to cope with your arthritis symptoms better.
Learn as much as you can about the disease. The more you know about the symptoms and treatments for arthritis, the more of an active role you can play in your treatment plan. It can also help you to feel less alone, to read about what others with the condition are going through and what they’ve been trying.
Make sure you don’t smoke. Smoking has been shown to increase your risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. Not only that, but if you do develop it, smoking has been shown to worsen the joint damage. Patients who smoke most often have much more severe symptoms than those patients who don’t smoke.
For people who suffer from arthritis in their hands or fingers, try wearing a hand brace. This is especially helpful for those who are on the computer often. These hand braces will help to keep joints in your hands and fingers supported, even when they are being used a lot.
Cold packs can numb localized pain and heat can relax muscles while increasing blood flow to the area. Trading off between cold and hot treatments is a great way to reduce the swelling and relax your joints. Make sure that you are not using these types of treatments too much, because over-heating or over-icing can bring more problems for you. At most, do this twice a day.
In order to help ease some of the pain associated with arthtis in your hands or fingers, you may want to consider using topical creams. Many of these creams helps joints to relax, which helps to ease arthritis pain. Just be sure you consult with your doctor before using these creams.
Talk with your doctor and see if joint surgery is an option for you if everything else fails. This highly effective surgery can reverse mobility and flexibility problems.
Go to occupational therapy. Many arthritis sufferers have problem spots in certain areas of their everyday home lives, but they let these go unchecked for different reasons. Visiting with an occupational therapist will let you address these concerns, and get help with working out proper solutions, rather than just ignoring the problems at hand.
Exercising regularly will do wonders for your energy levels when you are dealing with psoriatic arthritis. Try to aim for 15 to 30 minutes of exercise a day to give you more energy and keep your body healthy and your bones strong. Make sure to not overdo it and end up tiring yourself out.
Budget your energy wisely. If you know you will have an important task to take care of later in the day, be sure to remind yourself not to get too tired beforehand. Knowing how you are going to expend your energy during the day can help to make sure you get the things most important to you finished.
Use musical therapy in order to ease the pain when you are suffering from severe inflammation. While it isn’t a permanent fix and is far from medication and serious pain relief, there are studies that have proven classical music and other soothing types of music to be therapeutic when treating pain from arthritis.
Make sure to wear supportive footwear and braces if you are dealing with swollen or tender joints. These supportive items can help reduce your pain which will get you out and about and active again. Do not just accept the pain, work to reduce the symptoms as much as possible.
Add Epsom salt to your bath water. Epsom salts relax the body and help relieve stiffness, swelling, and pain. Combining these great benefits with a warm bath in the morning hours can easily increase flexibility and reduce pain, allowing you to have a more energized and relaxed day ahead of you.
Be sure to stay fit and active to help keep your arthritis at bay. You can always try water aerobics, if you cannot handle weight bearing exercises. The water will give you support and will massage your muscles as you are doing the exercises. You will find that water therapy is very effective in controlling arthritis pain.
Be sure to establish a proper balance between exercise and rest in your daily life. When you get plenty of exercise, as well as plenty of rest, you will find your arthritis is less bothersome. Remember that even very fit athletes need to give their bodies time to rest and recuperate between workouts, and so do you.
If you suffer from arthritis, do your best to use diet and moderate exercise to lose any unnecessary weight you are carrying. Excess weight puts more stress on bones and joints and causes them to wear out more quickly. Losing weight will not only lessen the stress on your back, hips and knees, but also make it easier to engage in more physical exercise.
If you are having trouble walking because of arthritis pain in your legs, ankles, and hips, try using a cane. Using a cane will help take almost 20 percent of your body weight off of your lower body joints. Some people will associate a cane with having a disability, but if it will reduce your pain, who cares what anyone else thinks.
Try to recycle your shoes if they are in really poor shape. By wearing old shoes, you increase the amount of pressure on your joints, as such giving you little support and comfort. When this is the case, it is time for new shoes.
Make sure you get enough sleep. Not sleeping enough will cause fatigue and stress, which can make arthritis worst. You should get at least eight hours of sleep every night and keep a regular schedule. Do not hesitate to take naps during the day if you feel you need to.
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