While you can’t always prevent pain, there are steps you can take to lessen it. The Arthritis Foundation offers these suggestions for those with arthritis pain:
- Exercise regularly. Through exercise, you can improve your overall health and fitness, as well as your arthritis symptoms.
- Protect your joints. Using your joints wisely means doing everyday tasks in ways that reduce the stress on painful joints.
- Get enough sleep. Sleep restores your energy so that you can better manage pain. It also rests your joints to reduce pain and swelling.
Pittsburgh-area anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist Doris K. Cope, MD also notes that maintaining a healthy weight and working on good abdominal tone and aerobic fitness can improve circulation and significantly reduce the stress on your joints.
Dr. Cope encourages people with any kind of pain to seek help. “There are so many options these days that fall somewhere between Tylenol and surgery. It’s definitely worth a discussion with your doctor.”
Resources
- » Chronic Pain—You Don’t Have to Suffer
Pittsburgh-area anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist Doris Cope, MD, discusses chronic pain and what questions to ask your doctor.