Arthritis is a type of a joint disorder that revolves around one or more joints suffering from inflammation. More than a 100 forms of arthritis exist, with the most common one being osteoarthritis, which is caused either due to age, a trauma to a particular joint or a joint infection. The most common complaint among individuals suffering from arthritis is of joint pain. The joint pain can be quite taxing on everyday life and be an obstacle for everyday routine activities.
There are many therapies focusing on relieving joint pain. However, there are certain simpler easier tips as well that can be incorporated into daily life, in order to help in living with arthritis. Here are some tips that can be acted upon to make everyday living with arthritis easier.
Cramming into a car and getting out of one can be a painful ordeal if you are living with arthritis. In order to make the task less painful for yourself, what you can do is, instead of climbing into a car, sit down first on the seat and then swing your legs in. When it’s time to get off, swing your legs out first and then get off the seat. This way you will be exerting less pressure on your joints and be able to limit the pain.
When living with arthritis, especially osteoarthritis in the fingers, pushing of buttons, holding cutlery, opening doors and anything at all can be extremely painful. Since, these every day activities cannot be ignored any way, a better solution is to make them more comfortable. What you can do is use a sponge roller and wrap that around your cutlery and other things you may need to hold for a more confined, better grip. For pushing of buttons, you can take a stick and put a rubber stopper on one end and use that to push the buttons to electrical appliances, the remote control, the microwave and others!
The feet can be a high pain zone when living with arthritis. In order to keep the feet off pain you will need shoes that are well arched to fit your feet and have a comfortable cushioned sole. Furthermore, considering bending is difficult living with arthritis, tying of shoelaces can be challenging. The solution is to either wear slip on shoes or get a pair of shoes with elastic shoelaces which don’t need to be tied and untied over and over again!
In order to distract the pain from the more hurtful joints, you can take assistance from the larger joints. For example, when pushing a door or a drawer shut, instead of applying force to your hands or your fingers, which can be excruciating living with arthritis that is severe in nature, what you can do is use your hips or the sides to shut them close. Also, instead of carrying a hand clutch for a purse, you can use a shoulder bag or a satchel so that the fingers don’t have to bear the brunt of the weight and it can be carried off by the larger joint in the shoulder.
When you want to reach something that is at a low height, living with arthritis, it is better to squat than to bend. This is because squatting actually builds up strength in the hip and the legs, which actually ends up leading to more stabilized joints. However, in order to make the squatting easy on the knees, try clutching on to a sturdy piece of furniture or a support of some sort when you bend down and pull yourself up with the support of the muscles in your arm and your buttocks.
Climbing up and down a flight of stairs can be very exhausting if you are living with arthritis. If you have osteoporosis in your knees, then a ride up and down the staircase can be highly painful! In order to make this task easier on yourself, try to take one step at a time in a slow fashion, holding the hand railing by the staircase to ease the pain and to exert less pressure on the joints in the knees.
A warm bath can be very relaxing and help you seek relief from joint stiffness and joint pain! Feel free to splurge in a nice relaxing warm bath, and draw one up using your best bubble baths and body salts with exotic flavorings and smells for that added touch of luxury and comfort!
