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Arthritis Prevention and Managing Arthritis Pain 1. Stay in your weight class -- Carrying extra pounds puts more strain on your joints and increases your risk for osteoarthritis. The cartilage separating the bones in your joints wears down allowing those bones to rub together. 2. Get up and move -- Even if you don't need to lose weight, you still need to exercise. Light aerobic exercise and strength conditioning will keep the muscles and ligaments that provide physical support to your joints strong and flexible. 3. Stretch -- Every physical trainer will tell you how important it is to stretch prior to any exercise routine. Not only will it help prevent exercise injuries and keep you on your routine, but also helps to tone the muscles and keeps joints flexible. 4. Take it easy -- High impact sports risk joint injury, increasing your chances for osteoarthritis. Let's face it, we all get older, so listen to your body. You can still play backyard football but at a certain point you'll need to give up full contact for two-hand touch. 5. Use heat and cold -- Both heat and cold can ease arthritis, the trick is to know which one to pick and when to pick it. If you feel sore and achy, use heat. Wrap a heating pad or hot pack in a towel and apply it to your painful joint for 20 minutes. Repeat three times a day. But if you feel a sudden flare-up of joint pain, wrap a plastic bag filled with ice or a bag of frozen vegetables in a pillowcase and apply to the pain for about 20 minutes. Wait at least 45 minutes before reapplying. 6. Use good posture -- Poor posture can put too much stress on certain joints and cause bone and cartilage to wear down. When sitting, hold your head and upper back straight, your knees level with your hips, and your feet flat on the floor. When standing, stand so your shoulders are vertically in line with your hips and your hips are vertically in line with your knees and feet. 7. Vary your exercise pattern -- The idea here is similar to working different subsets of the same muscle groups. By working in some variation, you won't be repeatedly putting the same stress on the same joints. Running or walking change the direction, or the scene entirely. When lifting weights, switch up your grips. 8. Eat plenty of fish -- Oils in certain fish contain omega-3 fatty acids. Not only are these oils good for your serum cholesterol but also for your joints. Enough of these oils in your diet, and you can lower the level of inflammatory substances in your body and reduce pain from rheumatoid arthrits. Herring, salmon, mackerel, and tuna are excellent choices. (Our personal nomination for sainthood are the scientist who recently tweaked the fatty acid gene in a pair of pigs to produce omega-3. They're working on this to breed true, so don't expect to see that heart and joint healthy sausage in your grocery anytime soon.) 9. Antioxidize yourself -- Studies suggest that vitamin C reduces the progression of the disease by as much as 75%. Green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, and potatoes are good sources for the vitamin. 10. Don't eat like a king -- Gout, known as "The King's Disease", is caused by eating foods rich in purine, such as red meat, aged cheeses, and alcohol. The purine raises levels of uric acid in the body, which eventually settles into the joints. Recomended reading: The
Arthritis Helpbook: A Tested Self-Management Program for Coping with
Arthritis and Fibromyalgia |
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A thoroughly revised and updated edition of the book strongly recommended
by both the Arthritis Foundation and the Arthritis Society The Arthritis
Helpbook is the world's leading guide to coping with joint pain, and
has been used by more than 600,000 readers over its twenty years in
print. It succeeds because of its tested advice, its hundreds of useful
hints, and its emphasis on self-management-helping people with arthritis
and fibromyalgia to achieve their own health goals. Chapters allow
readers to: Learn proven techniques to reduce pain and increase dexterity
Build a calcium-rich diet and maintain a healthy weight Design an
exercise program that matches their needs Find tips and gadgets that
solve common problems, big and small Overcome fatigue, depression,
and other troubling feelings associated with these health issues Learn
about all available arthritis medications and surgeries 