Question: What can I do to help manage, or reduce my arthritis pain?

Answer: Learning to live with arthritis pain can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. With the right mix of therapy’s and treatments, many people are able to live perfectly normal lives while coping with the disease.

The first challenge for an arthritis sufferer is maintaining basic joint mobility. Your doctor may prescribe a physical therapy routine that’s designed to keep you moving effectively. This kind of therapeutic treatment has been shown to help reduce the potentially crippling long-term effects of arthritis.

The second thing to cope with is the pain. To some extent, this can be handled with drugs. Since arthritis is a disease based around inflammation, the first line of attack is the use of NSAIDS (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). These include Ibuprofen, and Aspirin, along with several more specialized drugs that are specifically for arthritis sufferers. NSAIDS aren’t necessarily the strongest kinds of pain medication, but they are much less dangerous than opiates, and because they work by fighting inflammation, they are particularly well suited to arthritis.

The price of all these medications can sometimes be an issue, and for that reason, many arthritis sufferers take aspirin as their first line of defense. Aspirin is quite strong if taken in high doses, but it also has a tendency to cause stomach problems. Some people simply can’t stand aspirin on a daily basis, and for those people, other drugs are more popular.

Another important issue is the mental side of chronic pain. If you have to suffer every day, on a constant basis, it can be very depressing. Some people have trouble coping with the burden. There are whole books devoted to teaching mental strategies for dealing with chronic pain, and many arthritis sufferers can benefit greatly from them. In some cases, people may even get a prescription for anti-depressants, but it’s better if you can learn to manage your own mental state.

As a final line of defense, alternative therapies like acupuncture have always been popular among arthritis sufferers. Many patients swear that they’ve received great benefits from exploring herbal and dietary treatment plans. Whether or not alternative therapy works is always going to be debated, and medical science certainly doesn’t back up many of the claims, but it’s hard to argue with a patient who says acupressure has made his life easier. You may want to try it out and see if it works for you.

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