How to Control Arthritis Pain

Arthritis affects people from all walks of life and can strike at any age. Whilst it may limit your participation in some activities, the pain does not have to control your life. One of the very first steps toward managing your pain is to have a positive attitude. Your mind will play a very important role in how you react to pain and its debilitating effects. If you can laugh at yourself and keep a sense of humour, you will go a long way to winning in this first line of defense against pain.

There are other ways to help control your arthritis pain. One of the most important of these is exercise. There is the old saying that says "use it, or loose it"! Whilst it is not wise to exercise during times when a joint is going through a "flare-up" i.e. it is swollen, red and painful - exercise does help to maintain a joint's mobility and range of movement. Exercise also helps to strengthen muscles surrounding the joint and to therefore keep it stable. This is extremely important for later stages when, due to wear and tear, the joint itself becomes less and less stable. If the muscles surrounding the joint are kept strong this will go a long way towards stabilising the joint itself and thus controlling pain levels.

Exercise will help to maintain general health, which in turn will help with that all important positive attitude. One of the best forms of exercise for people suffering from arthritis pain is swimming because this allows for movement without the effects of gravity. Even those sometimes swollen joints can be gently moved in water so that there is no loss of range of movement.

The final two things to mention in this short introduction, are relaxation techniques and getting adequate sleep. It is very important to learn some relaxation techniques - simple ones -  like progressive and targetted relaxing of muscle groups. This will help tremendously when muscles have been tensed to try and hold an aching joint in place. The muscles themselves can eventually go into a spasm which will only add to the pain burden.

And then finally, the importance of adequate sleep cannot be stressed enough. Arthritis is a very debilitating condition and this combined with inadequate sleep will only exacerbate the situation and that positive attitude that you have worked so hard at cultivating, can so easily fly out of the window and leave you in a negative frame of mind. This will rob you of the energy that is so necessary to cope with longstanding pain.

By:  Des Jackson