Arthritis And The Aging Population, How To Cope

If you are living with arthritis, you know that this is a chronic condition that becomes more complicated as the disease progresses. It is a challenge to deal with the daily pain, limitations in your range of motion and fatigue that come along with arthritis. The tips in this article can help you to cope.

Reduce the stress in your daily life. Stress causes your body to release the neurochemical cortisol, while causes inflammation. People with arthritis should know that inflammation is the main cause of the pain and stiffness of arthritis. Reducing stress reduces your bodys production of these chemicals, which relieves your symptoms.

Thinking positive thoughts can help you to cope with arthritis pain. It might sound silly, but a strong mind/body connection does exist. If your mind thinks positive, it is difficult for your body to feel negative. Fill your life with happiness and you might just find that your pain quickly diminishes.

Stretch your symptom-free joints every day. A warm shower followed by a gentle stretching routine will cause you to feel looser for the rest of the day. Warm, loose muscles will cause less stress on your joints, which means that you will suffer from fewer flare-ups and less pain throughout your day.

Exercise

In order to prevent joint stiffness, incorporate low-impact exercises into your day-to-day routine. Doing too much exercise can cause arthritis to flare up. However, light-to-moderate low-impact exercise can help to keep your joints from stiffening up, giving you more freedom of movement. Some exercises you can do to stay limber include walking, swimming, or bicycling.

Exercising can help you manage your arthritis symptoms by helping you to lose weight. Weight loss can help your joints function more efficiently and help keep those symptoms under control. Talk with your doctor about setting up an exercise plan that you can do safely on a routine basis.

Get in the water. Water aerobics is a great low impact exercise for arthritis sufferers, because not only does it put minimal strain on joints, it also provides resistance for strengthening. If you are uncomfortable with doing these in large groups, learn a few moves and take to the pool. You will quickly become more comfortable.

Nutrition

Take control of the situation by educating yourself about your condition. You can easily find resources on pain management techniques to help you maintain a high quality of life. By learning more about arthritis, you could find certain foods, workouts, and treatments that reduce your symptoms.

Dont give up on finding a way to manage your arthritis pain. Dealing with a debilitating condition can leave you feeling frustrated and hopeless - particularly if you are having trouble finding any treatment options that work. If what you are doing is not working, talk to your doctor about other treatment options or explore alternative treatments such as acupuncture, nutrition or holistic medicine until you find something that helps.

Nutrition is essential for a healthy lifestyle, and this is especially true for a person that is dealing with arthritis. Diets filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, essential oils and legumes can dramatically improve your health and vitality. Feeling more energetic can increase the resources one has to devote to self-care skills including good nutrition and fitness, which will reduce symptoms over time.

The longer you live with arthritis, the more you are going to have to find new ways to accommodate your condition. In order to continue doing as many of the things you love to do as possible, some changes may become necessary. If you apply some of the pointers you learned in this article, it will make your journey a lot easier.