Living With Arthritis: Tips to Help Reduce Arthritis Pain

Since there is not a cure for arthritis, but only ways to minimize its advance, a big part of treatment often involves finding a way to live with arthritis. This means discovering ways of going about your daily life in a manner that does not increase the joint pain or discomfort caused by arthritis.

There are many different ways that people learn to cope with arthritis, which involves identifying a problem, determining the cause, and then finding a way to reduce the cause. Other arthritis suffers can provide a number of great ideas, but they will not always work for everyone. However, even if an idea does not work, it can often provide valuable assistance in terms of how to address problems, while helping the individual think outside the box.

While everyone is different, there are a number of tips that work for many arthritis suffers when living with arthritis. Most of these techniques revolve around using the body and joints efficiently, so they work together, instead of only relying on a single joint.

• Try to spread out weight between several joints, instead of only relying on a single joint.
• Try to find ways to avoid grasping or pinching objects tightly, as these actions can cause your hands to become stiff.
• For example, instead of using your fingers to push a soap dispenser, use the palm of your hand.
• When carrying groceries, hold them across your chest with both arms, rather than by your side.
• Instead of gripping the hand-holds of a rolling pin, place your palms on the top of the rolling pin.
• Attach a strap to your refrigerator door that you can stick your arm through, so you can open the door with your arm instead of grasping the handle.
• Hold your coffee mug with both hands around the sides of the cup, instead of by holding the handle
• Do not maintain a single position for an extended period of time or continuously use the same joints.
  • Do not remain seated for too long, instead periodically get up and stretch your legs.
  • When writing or doing other tasks with your hand, alternate between using your hands and relaxing.
  • When seated, move your legs and knees, preforming light stretching.
  • Don’t just exercise once a day, but instead incorporate stretching into your daily activities, such as while watching TV, reading, or walking.
• Maintain good posture, while standing sitting, standing up, and lifting objects.
• For those that are overweight, try to loose weight and maintain a healthy body weight.

Finding a way to live with arthritis often means finding the most effective and efficient way to preform your daily routine. It is important to focus on working smartly and spreading out tasks among multiple joints, so no single joint is overworked.