It is a fact that there are no cures for arthritis, especially the one that affects the knees. However, the good news is that there are some treatment modalities available that can really help mitigate the pain. While doctors will be able to best guide you through a course of treatment, there are also some effective and safe ways you can treat this type of arthritis from the comfort of your own home.
Arthritis is responsible for causing inflammation in multiple joints. The main symptoms include swelling, pain, stiffness, and tenderness. This condition is a particularly painful one and it can severely affect your ability to walk properly and to climb stairs and steps. Studies conducted on the topic have been able to show that it is one of the most common causes of disability and also lost time at work.
While any and all joints can be affected by arthritis, the knee is the one that is the most commonly affected. The two primary causes of arthritis in the knee are rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). While these two are the most common causes of arthritis in the knee, there are about 100 different types of arthritis and any one of them can affect the knees.
Let us know take a look at some of the things that you can do at home in order to mitigate the pain caused by arthritis.
Physical Activity
If you are physically inactive, it can make your joints hurt a lot more than normal. If you avoid moving the joint which is affected by arthritis, the muscles around your joints can be weakened which can then cause excessive stress on that particular joint. Exercise can really help in this regard (just like it can with almost all health related things). The best part is that while exercise can help, it really poses no adverse effects such as aggravating the joints ever more or making the symptoms of the condition worse. There are a whole host of benefits of exercising for people with arthritis. Below we have listed some of them:
Making sure the muscles surrounding the joints are strong enough
Maintaining proper bone health
It will give you a lot more energy
Assist you in maintaining a healthy weight
Will make it easier to sleep
Improved balance
Enhancing the overall quality of life
Is it really that surprising that exercise can help with arthritis? Exercise really does have the potential to really turn the life of a person around if they just do it properly and consistently. The problem that a lot of people face with exercise is that they set unrealistic goals for themselves in the very beginning. After they fail to meet those ridiculously ambitious goals, they feel as though they have failed and they give up exercising completely. This is absolutely not the way to go about things. If you want to make exercise a regular part of your life, then make sure you set yourself realistic goals. It would also be wise to consult with your doctor if you are thinking about getting into really high intensity exercises.
Low Intensity, Low Impact Might Be Just What You Need
When you perform cardiovascular exercise that is low intensity and low impact, you increase the rate at which your heart beats. This type of exercise can be done without ever causing any damage to the joints. These exercises include things such as bikinis, walking, and using the elliptical machine.
It is completely up to you how you want to fit these exercises into your lifestyle. You can take daily strolls around the neighborhood park for example or maybe you can do it in your lunch hour. Maybe walking isn’t for you and you like biking. A perfect time to bike would be early in the morning before you set off to work. That is when you will also be able to get a lot of fresh air as well. Just make sure that you set a goal that keeps you moving.
Some types of low-intensity exercises where the heart rate is not raised too much can also be of great help. Studies have shown that these exercises can improve both the physical health and also the cognitive health of the older adults. These studies were also able to determine that it had a dramatic improvement in balance, flexibility, the strength of the muscles of the lower limb, and as well as symptoms of depression.
Light therapy
Light therapy is one of the most popular therapy models out there in both the beauty world and also the fitness world. In fact, the list of benefits that light therapy, or red light therapy as it is known as well, are way too long to list here and is definitely beyond the scope of this article.
There is a reason that this type of therapy has gotten so popular that you can even see your favorite celebrities using light therapy products like the red light therapy bed. This is because it works and it is extremely safe and does not pose any adverse side-effects.
The way it works is by simulating light outdoors in an indoor setting. This light is concentrated light and is usually around 10,000 lux units strong. The main idea was to be able to get bright light into spaces in regions of the world where sunlight can be scarce.
Light therapy also has numerous benefits for managing arthritis as well. The main way it does this is by enhancing the production of new cells within the body and also increasing the energy production of the body. This particular process has been termed as being photobiomodulation and it can really do wonders for your pain from arthritis.
