Four arthritis pain management tips to help improve quality of life

Arthritis Pain Management

Arthritis is a serious problem for the people that have it. Unfortunately, this condition affects a large number of U.S. residents. It’s estimated that more than 50 million Americans are living with some form of arthritis. Arthritis also leads to higher medical costs for those that suffer from it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that $140 billion of the nation’s medical costs can be attributed to arthritis. Additionally, arthritis can make it hard for people to pay for the care they need. Support for this idea comes from an estimate that arthritis caused $164 billion in lost wages in 2013. 

Finding ways to better manage your arthritis pain can help you in many ways. Obviously, less pain makes it easier to move around, but it can also reduce your personal medical costs. It might also help you take less time off work. In turn, this can lead to less of a loss in wages. Here are several tips that can help you manage your pain and achieve these other benefits:

Four tips for natural arthritis pain management

Often, doctors rely on prescribing pain medication to manage arthritis pain. However, there are four tips you can use to manage this symptom in a more natural way. These tips are: 

  1. Move around more — People often hesitate to move around when they have arthritis for fear it will increase their pain. However, studies show that a home exercise program can reduce knee osteoarthritis symptoms by 26%. 
  1. Lose some weight — Studies show that one pound of extra weight causes four pounds more pressure on arthritic knee joints. Another study reports that one pound of additional weight creates 10 pounds more force on the lower back when bending at the waist. Losing weight can help reduce these pressures on your arthritic joints. 
  1. Use cold and heat — Applying heat and cold to your joints at the right time can help ease pain and other symptoms. Heat can help when your joints are stiff. One study shows that using heat on arthritic joints can decrease their stiffness by 20%. Studies also show that applying cold to arthritic joints for about 10 minutes can help reduce inflammation temporarily.
  1. Try physical therapy — Physical therapists seek to help arthritis patients reduce pain. They can also help you improve your ability to do normal daily activities. One study shows that manual therapy and therapist-supervised exercise helped reduce knee osteoarthritis symptoms by 52% in just four weeks. This study also reports that therapy helped participants increase how far they went in a six-minute walk by 10%. 

Find effective natural arthritis pain management at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy

You don’t have to face the challenge of managing your arthritis pain alone. Our team at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy is primed to assist you. We offer free screenings that can reveal how arthritis is affecting you. Our team can then build you a personalized therapy plan designed to reduce your pain. Our plans can also offer benefits like improving joint range of motion and increasing your ability to do normal daily tasks. 

Contact our team today for more arthritis treatment information or to schedule your free screening.