Arthritis refers to a range of conditions that involve pain and inflammation in the joints.
Is it a degenerative condition, which means the symptoms tend to worsen over time, or is it an autoimmune type of arthritis with associated extra-articular symptoms, characterized by inflammatory flares and a chronic clinical course?
These two types of arthritis include osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
OA mainly results when wear and tear of cartilage causes bones to rub together, leading to friction, damage, and inflammation.
RA is a systemic condition that triggers symptoms throughout the body. It’s an autoimmune disease and happens when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy joint tissue.
Doctors can prescribe medication to relieve the pain of arthritis, but they often recommend natural approaches, too.
1. Manage your weight
Your weight can have a big impact on arthritis symptoms. Extra weight puts more pressure on your joints, especially your knees, hips, and feet.
Guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology and Arthritis Foundation (ACR/AF) strongly recommend losing weight if you have OA and overweight or obesity.
Your doctor can help you set a target weight and design a program to help you reach that target.
Reducing the stress on your joints by losing weight can help:
- improve your mobility
- decrease pain
- prevent future damage to your joints
- manage your weight
- keep your joints flexible
- strengthen muscles around your joints, which offers more support
- walking
- cycling
- Tai Chi
- water activities
- Swimming
- Heat treatments can include taking a long, warm shower or bath in the morning to help ease stiffness and using an electric blanket or moist heating pad to reduce discomfort overnight.
- Cold treatments can help relieve joint pain, swelling, and inflammation. Wrap a gel ice pack or a bag of frozen vegetables in a towel and apply it to painful joints for quick relief. Never apply ice directly to the skin.
- Capsaicin, which comes from chili peppers, is a component of some topical ointments and creams that you can buy over the counter. These products provide warmth that can soothe joint pain.