The Bottom Line on Arthritis

Those of you who have arthritis, think you may have it or know someone who does, will have a few more helpful ideas of how to deal with this disabling disease. Here is a brief list of important points:

1. Pay attention to your symptoms, see your doctor and get an accurate diagnosis. Find out if you have arthritis earlier rather than later —the earlier an accurate diagnosis is made and treatment started the better. Early diagnosis can often mean less joint damage and less pain.

2. Protect your joints; if you are having joint pain when performing an activity, stop what you are doing or do it another way that does not cause pain.

3. Stay close to your recommended weight.
 
4. Get moving—exercise helps lessen pain, increase range of movement, reduces fatigue and helps you feel better overall.
 
5. Products are available, such as: jar openers, sock puller and buttoner that are easy to use and make small activities doable again. Talk with your doctor, physical therapist, pharmacist or contact the Arthritis Foundation, www.arthritis.org or call 800-568-4045, about free information.
 
6. Take your medication just as your doctor prescribes. If you are tempted to stop because you feel it is not working or you believe it is causing side effects, call your doctor first. It can take weeks or months for the full benefits of a medication to become apparent and some side effects to ease over time.
 
7. Finally, face facts, learn something new about arthritis. Build an understanding of your disease. The more you know about arthritis, the more empowered you will be to help yourself or someone you care about.

De-Conditioning another Key Issue of Arthritis

One of the biggest problems arthritis sufferers must battle is not moving around a lot because you anticipate pain. This is easy to understand, you want to be still and not move the painful part. With osteoarthritis you need to move. If you don’t move, muscles become weak and joint lubrication decreases. When muscles become weak and joint lubrication decreases, arthritic pain becomes worse. Move! Swim! Dance! Walk the Mall! Walk the dog! Get up, get out and move! 

Movement is the best thing you can do for your muscles, joints, your mood and perception of pain. Movement will make muscles and tendons stronger and more supportive. The longer you go without using a painful joint the more difficulty you will have getting it to move again without pain. So, if you have not been moving around much, start out slow but move and keep moving.

Here are a number of suggestions for activity made by the Arthritis Foundation:

• Stretch your legs to keep joints and muscles flexible and keep your calf muscles strong and flexible. 

• Take a hike—choose your favorite spots and make plans to walk them at least once a week. Walking is the ideal exercise for most people with arthritis—it burns calories, strengthens muscles and builds denser bones all without jarring fragile joints.

• Listen to your favorite music—it can lighten your mood and may even help you forget your pain for a little while. Make a tape of your favorite upbeat tunes and listen to it when you need a lift.

•  Exercise in water--the water’s buoyancy reduces wear and tear on sore joints. 

•  Sign up for a class that makes exercise fun, for example: country line dancing, ballroom dancing, swimming, Yoga or Tai chi.

•  Play in the dirt—buy seeds for three of your favorite vegetables or flowers and plant a garden.

•  Have a good laugh—read a book of jokes, rent a funny movie or watch your favorite sit-com or stand-up comedian

•  Play it safe in the sun: wear sunglasses, a hat and sun screen as some types of arthritis and certain arthritis medications can leave you more vulnerable to the sun’s harmful rays.

 
You can contact your local chapter of the Arthritis Foundation (www.arthritis.org or 800-568-4045) or other organization (http://aarp.org) to get plugged into activities available in your community.

Pain: A Key Issue with Arthritis

Not surprisingly, people with arthritis can have chronic pain in their feet, knees, hips, back, shoulders and elbows. This pain can lead to poor quality of sleep. Poor quality of sleep can lead to tension and more pain and so on and so on. One way to reduce joint pain and support refreshing sleep is to soak in a warm bath before bed. It can relieve muscle tension, ease aching joints and help you get a good night’s sleep. 

If you are waking up every few hours in pain and you are on a medication to relieve pain, you need to call your doctor, because it is not working. Tell him or her when you have pain, what you are doing and how long you have pain after your last pill. Ask your doctor if a different pain medication would work better or if you should change the time or the amount that you take. You may want to keep a pain and sleep journal for just a few days or a week to give the doctor and you more information. What this means is that you write down every day how you slept, when you had pain and what you did to make it go away. You’ll also want to include any ideas you have about what seemed to cause the pain or poor quality of sleep.

An important point about managing your pain is knowing what medications you are on. If you are on a medication for pain, be sure that you are taking the medication as instructed by your doctor. Also, consider taking your prescribed pain medication before you get out of bed in the morning if your pain is worse at this time. Give yourself an extra half hour to allow your pain medication a chance to work before getting up. Keep water and crackers next to your bed if pain medication bothers your stomach.

Pain relief through massage in another way to relieve your Arthritis. Treat your muscles to a gentle massage from a certified massage therapist. The therapist’s gentle movements will help mobilize muscles, ligaments and joints that have been used infrequently. Results vary from person to person but may include decreased pain and increased circulation, energy and flexibility. You should check with your doctor before beginning regular massages.
 
The use of heat or cold treatments can be used to manage pain that is localized to one area of your body. Be very careful to follow your doctor’s directions in the type, amount and length of time for any applications of heat or cold. Heating pads, ice packets and products you can purchase without a prescription at the drug store can cause injury if not used properly, so be sure to get guidance on the use of heat or cold from your doctor. 

Also, look at your wardrobe; do your shoes fit; are they comfortable to your toes, heels and bunions? A well padded, well fitting shoe with plenty of room for your toes and their imperfections can make a world of difference in the way your arthritic feet (and the rest of you) feel.

The Impact of Diet, Diet Sensitivities and Nutritional Supplements on Arthritis

Research is currently being done to establish the relationship of arthritis to diet. Many people with arthritis want to know if the foods they eat can cause arthritis or affect their arthritis symptoms from varying from one day to the next. In fact research to date has shown that what you eat may affect certain kinds of arthritis. If you identify something you eat and believe it may be causing your arthritis pain to be worse after you’ve eaten it, tell your doctor. Your doctor may want you to avoid this food for a few days and then re-introduce it into your diet to see what/if any effect there is on your arthritis.

In exciting new research a connection has also been found between nutritional supplements and certain types of arthritis. The most studied area so far is the relationship between knee  osteoarthritis and the use of Glucosamine and Chondroitin. A very large study recently showed that these supplements have a positive effect on cartilage in the knee. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are being used to relieve pain from osteoarthritis and may reduce the loss of joint cartilage that occurs with the disease. Consider taking this nutritional supplement only with your doctor’s approval, as there can be interactions between supplements and other medications or food that you eat. Tell your doctor, even though so-called natural medications or supplements have the potential to cause side effects or cause interactions that could put your health at risk.
 
Arthritis research, just as research for other long, term chronic diseases, consistently recommends that you eat a healthy, well-balanced diet including: plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole-grain products. In particular eat oranges they have vitamin C and other antioxidants that reduce the risk of osteoarthritis and its progression.

Preventing More Damage

Your doctor may recommend a combination of treatments to prevent further damage to your joints and reduce your discomfort. These can include medication, use of heat or cold, weight management, exercise, and therapy. While you can't prevent your risk for getting arthritis such as inherited genes, gender, or past injuries you can take advantage of factors you can prevent. 

One factor in preventing further joint damage is getting early treatment. Research has shown that you will help yourself more with early treatment than if you wait. Your doctor may prescribe physical or occupational therapy and not medication as the first step. The therapist can teach you how to make a movement or complete a task in a manner that is less taxing to an arthritic joint. This is a way to avoid further injury to that joint and less pain in your daily activities. Your occupational therapist might also give you suggestions about tools that you can use that may make certain tasks easier. Tools such as a jar opener, cane, walker, phone dialer, buttoner and sock puller can be helpful in getting everyday tasks done while minimizing your pain.

A second important factor in preventing joint damage is to control your weight. Think of it in this way: pounds put on in your 20s and 30s can build up years of pressure on your joints. Imagine sitting with a 30 pound weight on your neck for the next 20 years. That would increase joint stress in every joint below that extra weight: your neck, back, shoulders and hips. This stress can cause more wear and tear on your joints which can result in osteoarthritis. Even a few extra  pounds have an impact. Being only 10 pounds overweight increases the force on the knee by 30-60 pounds with each step.

Assessing Your Risk of Developing Arthritis

If you are:

• a woman
• over the age of 60 and have used your joints in any type of repetitive motion for prolonged periods such as jogging, bending, stooping, lifting
• you’ve sustained a joint injury in an accident or fall
• you have a close relative with osteoarthritis
• you are or were overweight

Your risk of developing osteoarthritis is increased. 

If you are already experiencing joint stiffness, joint pain with movement or you wake up with joint pain in the morning, you may already have arthritis. Make a point to tell your doctor about these symptoms on your next visit. Pain and stiff joints are not just a normal part of aging that you must endure.

Causes of Osteoarthritis

Three things typically cause osteoarthritis. 

• Genetics
• What happens to you during your life
• How you live

Genetics is important in determining whether you get arthritis. If your parents or other close relatives have or had the disease you are more likely to develop arthritis. 

However, what happens to you during your life is also important because there is a relationship between your activities and developing arthritis. For example joggers, high school and professional athletes in high impact team sports (e.g. football) and people who have had joint injuries or fractures are more likely to develop arthritis later in life in areas that were injured. Also, repetitive bending, stooping and lifting in your day-to-day life can lead to cartilage loss and pain in the hips and knees.
 
Other aspects of how you live your life can impact the disease as well. If you are overweight or were overweight for a significant amount of time in your life, you are more likely to develop arthritis in the knees, back and hips from the pounding your joints took. Even if you were never overweight, played impact sports, jogged, had a broken bone or your close relatives never had arthritis, sometimes osteoarthritis hits people without a known reason. How do you know if you have or may get arthritis? You should assess your risk and assess your symptoms.

Types of Arthritis

There are more than 100 different types of arthritis, but most types have common features. You might be interested in the fact that even dogs can have arthritis. One in five adult dogs have the disease! Not surprisingly the symptoms between humans and dogs are the same. Here are a few of those common symptoms:

• Favoring a limb
• Difficulty sitting or standing
• Sleeping more
• Stiff or sore joints
• Hesitancy to climb stairs, run or jump
• Weight gain due to inactivity
• Decreased activity
• Attitude or behavior changes: might be more preoccupied or irritable due to pain

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, but first, let’s talk about normal joint construction. The normal joint has a covering of cartilage that is very durable and somewhat elastic. Cartilage is the soft bendable tissue that we can feel on our earlobes and nose. Cartilage provides a sort of shock absorber for our joints. It allows the ends of bones to move smoothly past one another without rubbing or grinding. After certain types of injuries the cartilage is destroyed and bone begins to rub on bone. When the ends of bone rub against each other, it causes osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis causes pain, loss of movement and stiffness and swelling in or around your joints. The pain of osteoarthritis is what makes it hard to move your body in the way that you rely on every day for taking care of yourself and your family. Movements such as stooping to pick up the newspaper, peeling back the lid of a medication bottle, opening a can of soup, washing your back or walking to the mailbox are painful and hard to do.

Introduction to Arthritis

Arthritis which is pronounced by many as Arthur-i-tis, is the nation’s leading cause of disability in Americans. It causes pain, loss of movement and sometimes swelling of the joints. Arthritis limits everyday activities such as walking, dressing and bathing and is one of the most prevalent chronic health problems in our population. 

The number of people who have arthritis is rising. In 1985 there were 35 million people with the disease. In 2006 that number was 46 million. A continued dramatic surge in arthritis is predicted, due to the Baby Boomer Generation’s increased awareness of the disease and greater likelihood of diagnosis. 

Chances are that you or someone you know has arthritis. A diagnosis of arthritis can change your life but it does not have to be as bad as you might think. One half of Americans who have arthritis do not think anything can be done to help them. 

In this blog series we will be offering some practical suggestions about how to manage the disease for those of you that have it, in order for you to make the most of your life. Future posts will cover the signs and symptoms of arthritis, so those who suspect that they have it can take action early.