| Arthritis: Effective Ways to Manage Your Pain |
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By Danny Cain If you have arthritis, you know firsthand the pain and difficulty that this disease has on you every day. Attempting to lead a "normal" life is not easy and is sometimes not even comprehensible! Your personal struggles to get through each and every day can be physically and emotionally exhausting. As if the aging process doesn't present itself with enough life changing challenges and adjustments, maintaining an independent life at home with arthritis may be the biggest challenge you've ever faced. Arthritis can often effect just about every activity that we often take for granted. Daily tasks that were once performed without difficulty or much effort are now monumental activities and struggles to achieve. Whether it's bathing, putting on your clothes, eating, walking up the stairs, or removing a lid from a glass jar these so called minor chores can now become major frustrations. Not to mention that they can be very painful! Arthritis poses many physical and functional barriers in our lives everyday that we must overcome. Sometimes these are not easy. But how do we overcome living with arthritis and its associated symptoms of pain, stiffness, joint inflammation, swelling, and fatigue? For many of us the answer is not easy. One of the primary objectives of this article is to provide you with information that will allow you to make sound decisions with treatment options, life style changes, consumer product modifications and educational resources. The three primary goals of dealing with any illness or disease is appropriate diagnosis, implementing the appropriate course of treatment (individualized to address your specific needs), and educating yourself about the disease and how your personal lifestyle may effect the outcome. Let's begin by understanding arthritis as a disease and its related symptoms. Understanding Arthritis and Effective
Management The most common symptoms of arthritis include stiffness, pain and fatigue. Persons afflicted with Arthritis may exhibit different levels of these symptoms with varying degrees of severity. No two days are usually alike and in fact the symptoms can fluctuate from day to day and even hour to hour. Arthritis has multiple causes including heredity, trauma (especially if injuries related to work or athletics have been ignored), bacterial and viral infections, autoimmune syndromes and many more. It is estimated that over 40 (forty) million people in this country suffer from some form of Arthritis. It is one of the most prevalent chronic health related problems in our country and affects persons in all age groups. The annual costs associated with the treatment and care of persons with Arthritis is in the $ billions when you factor in medical costs, lost wages, and disability retirement. |