Pain from arthritis can cause you misery and interfere with how you carry on with daily activities. Arthritis causes stiffness and pains in joints that make movements difficult to operate normally. Luckily, the condition is manageable through medical and home treatment options. If you don’t note an improvement after using the home tips, you need a medical professional to assess your condition and advise you on the best treatment plan. Book an appointment with a physician assistant in Gaithersburg, MD for customized treatment. Below are the treatment options available for arthritis:
Weight Management
Arthritis affects the joints making joints the most affected parts of your body. Therefore, overweight people suffer most from this condition as the excess weight exerts pressure on the leg joints. Experts recommend weight loss for patients living with osteoarthritis to reduce its symptoms. Weight loss helps you to move better, decrease pain, and prevent further joint damage.
Exercise
Regular exercising can help patients living with arthritis to manage the condition. It is essential to losing weight, keep joints flexible, and strengthen muscles around affected joints. It does not necessarily have to be rigorous exercises; simple walks, swimming, cycling, and water activities will be extremely helpful.
Medications
Sometimes you will require medications to help deal with the pain if it is preventing you from performing essential activities. These drugs have a relaxation technique that lowers inflammation to help you cope with arthritis better. Experts recommend that arthritis patients combine medications with relaxing techniques such as yoga to enhance results. These measures help reduce stress, depression, and anxiety caused by chronic arthritis pain.
Diet
A healthy diet with various fruits and vegetables can be beneficial for people living with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Such diets contain antioxidants that reduce inflammation caused by arthritis. Additionally, you should stay away from processed foods, saturated fats, added sugars, and too much red meat as they aggravate inflammation. Also, an unhealthy diet will result in obesity, heart problems, and high blood pressure that increases pain for people with arthritis.
Massage
Massage is more than just recreation. People who have a massage as a treatment therapy have testified to various other benefits, including pain management. Therefore, people living with arthritis have reduced stress and less pain from massage therapies. Alternatively, a therapist can advise you on the various ways to massage yourself at home to achieve similar results.
Acupuncture
This form of treatment has an ancient Chinese origin and works to restore balance and rerouting energy in the body. It involves a process of inserting tiny needles in various body parts to treat arthritis pain. The procedure also has minimal health risk to patients.
Hot and Cold Therapy
Doctors recommend that arthritis patients mix cold and hot treatment methods to manage pain. Examples include taking warm showers, using an electric blanket, and using ice bags to relieve joint and muscle pain.
Early diagnosis is essential for effective treatment of arthritis. Specialists at Doctors First chose a treatment option depending on which type of arthritis is affecting your joints and its severity. They may also refer you to another professional for long term pain management. You can book an appointment online today.