What You Can Do
Maintain A Healthy Lifestyle
Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle: Leading a healthy lifestyle is always important, and improving your overall health can have a great impact on relieving your arthritis pain and lessening recovery time from any sort of medical treatment. To improve your overall health, consider the following:
- Reduce your weight with diet and exercise
- If your arthritis bothers you during regular exercise, try low-impact activities like aquatic therapy, walking or cycling.
- Wear well-cushioned shoes.
- Increase strength and flexibility with yoga, resistance training, or Pilates.
- Other measures may include applications of heat or ice, water exercises, liniments or elastic bandages.
Remember that excess weight is putting excess strain on your joints. Getting yourself closer to your ideal bodyweight may be just the relief that your joints need. Each step is four times your body weight against your hip or knee. A normal adult walks 1-3 million steps per year.
Are you overweight? Evaluate your Body Mass Index
Drug Treatment For Arthritis
Several types of drugs can be used in treating arthritis. Because every patient is different, and because not all people respond the same to medications, Dr. Caillouette will work with you to develop a strategy that is unique to you and your condition. Common drug treatments for arthritis include the following:
Anti-Inflammatory Medications to help reduce swelling in the joint.
- 1st Generation: Motrin/Advil; Naprosyn/Aleve
- 2nd Generation: Celebrex, Mobic
Viscosupplementation:
Viscosupplementation consists of a series of injections designed to change the character of the joint fluid.
- 1, 3 or 5 injections; 1 per week
- Lubricates the joint
- Reduces pain ~ 50-70% of patients
- Lasts for 6 months or longer
Corticosteroids are powerful anti-inflammatory agents that can be injected into the joint.
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Are You Overweight?
Below is a weight ranking according to the body mass index, which relates weight to height. Find your height along the left axis, then move to the right to find your weight. The index may overestimate body fat for atheletes or those with muscular builds and may underestimate body fat in older persons. The goal being a Body [...]
