When joint pain increases, you want to have quick relief. Many times, you also gulp a pain killer to get instant relief. But we all know the side effects of these pain killers or heavy drugs on our other body parts. The medicines can give temporary relief, and so you end up searching alternative ways on how to reduce joint pain. Icing and using heat pads are good options but do not work for everyone.
Meaning of Arthritis
Arthritis is a medical condition that can cause joint pain and inflammation. There are more than 100-120 different types of arthritis & arthritis-related diseases.
The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis- a degenerative disease, wear & tear of the cushion between the joints, causing swelling, pain, and stiffness.
The other type is rheumatoid arthritis- an autoimmune disease; this typically happens when the body’s immune system attacks the healthy joints and body parts, causing inflammation, pain, and swelling.
Be it any type of arthritis, it causes intense pain and can result in damaging the joints. It is advisable to consult the best orthopaedic hospital in India if the pain is moderate to severe. And, if you start experiencing this pain at the initial stage or have mild pain, you can take home remedies, but it is recommended to consult an orthopaedic online and get quick treatment.
Ways to Reduce Joint Pain
Any type of arthritis pain can result in damage to the joints if ignored for a long period. You will come across many remedies about how to reduce joint pain. Below listed are effective natural ways for reducing the pain and treating the symptoms.
You can also take an online orthopaedic consultation who can prescribe you medicines to relieve the pain & will suggest natural ways too.
But make sure to consult your doctor before experimenting with any of these remedies at home.
- Water Exercises to Reduce Joint Pain
- Weight Loss helps to Ease Joint Pain
- Yoga for Joint Pain
- Treating Joint Pain with Hot and Cold Therapy
- Massage Therapy to Reduce Joint Pain
- Acupuncture and Tai Chi
- Breathing Exercise to Calm Joint Pain
- Vitamin D
- Water Exercises to Reduce Joint Pain
Water exercises are helpful for people suffering from arthritis. Water helps to provide buoyancy and warmth to help with exercising joints. There are many benefits of water exercises for aged people and also people with arthritis of all ages. It is easier to squat in the water rather than doing the same exercise on land. The benefits of aquatic exercises are:
a) Water exercises help to move your body in multiple directions and promote smooth movements of exercise
b) Water provides more resistance than air
c) And exercising in water puts less stress on your joints in comparison to land.
The best water exercises for joint pain are swimming, water aerobics, aqua jogging, and water polo. Water exercising is one of the preferred knee exercises in the pool and helps to relieve pain.
- Weight Loss helps to Ease Joint Pain
Maintaining a healthy weight is important for your overall body. A healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of many diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and cholesterol. But there are also many weight loss benefits for Arthritis, it eases your pain and helps to increase the effectiveness of your medicines. The other benefits of weight loss relating to arthritis problems are:
a) Eases the joint pain
b) Reduces inflammation
c) Reduces pressure on knees
d) Reduces the severity of overall arthritis disease.
The knee exercises for joint pain are walking, jogging, swimming, aerobics, and Zumba.
- Yoga for Joint Pain
If you are facing the problem of arthritis, practicing yoga is the best option to be considered. If you practice yoga for joint pain for a prolonged time, it will help to relieve the pain & stiffness. The different types of yoga pose for knees are hatha yoga, Iyengar yoga, hot yoga, Bikram yoga, and Vinyasa yoga. The benefits of practicing
Joining a yoga to strengthen knees, will also provide other benefits:
- Improves flexibility
- Strengthen muscles
- Provides relaxation with breathing exercises
- Improves the body posture
And, the best yoga to treat your arthritis pain is the one you enjoy.
- Treating Joint Pain with Hot and Cold Therapy
Hot & cold therapy are different methods but are very effective for relieving arthritis pain. Heat pads for knee pain help to soothe stiff joints, boost blood circulation and, cold therapy helps to numb the pain and reduces swelling.
Depending on the pain and the doctor’s suggestion, you can alternatively try hot and cold therapies for joint pain. But be careful with the same and monitor if it is harming your skin or so.
The different heat treatments are:
- Have a warm shower to soothe the stiffness;
- Apply warm paraffin wax to the pain area;
- And, soothe the pain with a heating pad on the aching area
The cold therapy is done for a maximum of 20 minutes or so. The different cold treatments are:
- Placing a cold pack on the aching joints;
- Take ice and wrap in a towel and apply to the paining areas;
You can purchase hot and cold compress products like heat pads, cold packs, and hot water bottles online or from any medical store.
- Massage Therapy to Reduce Joint Pain
We might wonder to consider massage therapy to reduce joint. The correct answer depends on how severe your arthritis is at present, and the type of arthritis you are suffering. Massage therapy helps to relieve the pain and improves the flexibility of your muscles. As per research conducted, with the help of authentic massage therapy, the stress hormone cortisol lowers down, is linked with pain. Massage also boosts up your serotonin levels and thereby improves your mood. There are different types of massage you can opt for Swedish Massage, Deep tissue massage, Balinese massage, Ayurveda massage therapies, and Thai massage. Take proper consultation with your doctor before taking up any massage therapy.
- Acupuncture and Tai Chi
Acupuncture is a form of Chinese medicine that involves inserting small & thin needles through your skin at particular acupoints on the body. Acupuncture for joint pain helps to restore muscles, nerves, and connective tissues act as a natural painkiller for your body, and improves blood flow. Acupuncture is beneficial for low back pain, bursitis, fibromyalgia, shoulder and neck pain, osteoarthritis, and carpel tunnel syndrome.
Tai chi is also an ancient Chinese form of mid-body exercise, a great combination of meditation & deep breathing. Tai chi improves flexibility & balance, reduces pain, reduces stress, and helps to manage chronic pain. This low-impact exercise is beneficial for osteoarthritis types.
- Breathing Exercise to Calm Joint Pain
Chronic joint pain can be stressful and also frustrating. One of the best ways to reduce stress is to learn breathing exercises. Deep breathing benefits to lower stress as deep breathing sends signals to our brain to relax and rejuvenate. It also helps to control increased heart rate and high blood pressure. The best part about this type of exercise is you can practice anywhere and at any time. The different types of breathing exercises are Rhythmic breathing, Visualized breathing, Progressive muscle relaxation, Relax to music, and Mental imagery relaxation. Diaphragmatic breathing for joints is therapeutic for chronic pain, helps to relax muscles, and promotes a good mood.
- Vitamin D
Vitamin D is important to strengthen bones and help with the proper functioning of the immune system. Lower levels of vitamin D can increase muscle and joint pain as per research conducted. The pain might start in the hips, knees, and less frequently.
Doctors advice including vitamin D supplements to reduce joint pain regulates the amount of calcium in your body, improves your immune system, and helps to strengthen your bones.
Taking vitamin D is not the treatment for joint pain, but it will help to control the pain, and other diseases like cholesterol, heart disease, and blood pressure levels.
The best sources of getting Vitamin D are direct sunlight, having foods like fish, eggs, tuna, salmon, cereals, and taking vitamin D supplements as prescribed by the doctor.
Mediflam: consult orthopedic online
Mediflam is one of the trusted medical service providers, a project initiated by Flamingo Group of Companies. The best doctors to assist and treat you are on our website. Mediflam is a cost-effective and time-saving procedure to consult an orthopedic online. You have the options for video and audio calls also to select. For more details, you can visit our website at Mediflam Pvt. Ltd.
