Massage –not the areas that hurt
Some experts think that arthritic conditions or pain conditions in general aggravate and flare up trigger points, and that one can get additional relief to arthritis symptoms trough self massage.
The idea is not to massage the area where it hurts, but to find pressure tender areas in your muscles near the actual pain area, and massage them instead.
For example, if your arthritis pain is in your knee joint, then you would find and massage tender points from your quadriceps muscles.
Exercises -lose it or use it
Not moving will only make matters worse in the long run, it’s important to maintain as active lifestyle as possible.
Besides maintaining functionality, exercise can work as a natural pain medicine, because it helps to release endorphins, body’s natural pain killers.
Just a half an hour long walk, can be all what’s needed to release enough endorphins to make a difference.
Nutrition – dietary supplements may help
While not everybody agrees that supplements are useful, there is quite a lot of anecdotal evidence to support them.
Couple of most hyped and maybe the best supplements for osteoarthritis include: glucosamine - amino sugar that may have a major role in cartilage repair, and chondroitin - component of cartilage that works very much similarly to glucosamine.
There’s some scientific evince that they are indeed helpful, and they might be worth trying.
But, remember that glucosamine & chondroitin are sold as dietary supplements, and supplements aren’t regulated with the scrutiny of drugs.
So, make sure to purchase from reputable sources, or better yet, buy a branded product, and you’ll minimize the risks of ending up with an unworthy product that doesn’t even have a change to work.
Written By: Karri Koivula
