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Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects the joints. This disorder can affect more than one joint, and also other parts of the body, such as the eyes, skin, heart, blood vessels, and the lungs. It is an autoimmune disorder, which means that it occurs when the body immune system mistakenly attacks the body tissues. There are other conditions that share some similarities with this condition, such as osteoarthritis.
However, as opposed to osteoarthritis, which causes the wear-and-tear damage of the joints, rheumatoid arthritis affects the lining of the joints, leading to painful swelling and deforming the joints and bones. This condition can be quite unpleasant. Some of the symptoms that people affected may present with include the following:
- Tenderness of the affected joints.
- Swelling of the joints.
- The joints may become abnormally warm.
- People affected may experience fatigue, fever, and loss of appetite.
- Stiffness of the joints that is usually worse in the morning, and after inactivity.
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The signs and symptoms of this condition usually vary in severity. Patients typically experience a period of flaring, in which the activities of the disease heightens, which alternates with a period of relative remission, which is when the swelling and pain reduces significantly. There are a lot of medications that could help improve the symptoms of this disorder. However, there are also a lot of things that can be done, to also reduce and even prevent pain. As rheumatoid arthritis is a life-long disease, it’d be beneficial and vital to learn how to live as comfortable as possible. Below are some of the ways of easing your rheumatoid arthritis pain:
- Protect your Joints: This is one of the most important ways of preventing and reducing pain. You should always consider your joints when engaging in physical activities, even with the small tasks. As an example, instead of lifting a heavy table, you might want to push it, or better still, ask for help. Other things that could help include not opening a door with your hand, but making use of your shoulder. Other things include holding books in the palm of your hands, and not with your fingers.
- Exercise: This is one of the best ways of preventing joint pains. Asides from keeping your joints in good shape, exercise also gives one more energy and improves mood. Examples of the exercise people affected with this condition can engage in include swimming, cycling, lightweight training. All these can be done 3 times a week. However, it’s important to consult your physician before engaging in these activities. Your physician would determine the best type of exercise you should engage in. You should avoid lifting heavyweights. Might be best to start with light weights, and increase it as you get stronger. You should stop anytime you feel pain. Some of the precautions that you should consider when exercising include the following:
- Avoid exercising when your joints are inflamed.
- You should take a break when you feel pain.
- You should change your positions when carrying out tasks, such as cooking or gardening.
- Endeavor to Rest: It’s important to take some time out to rest. The importance of rest, in our everyday life, cannot be overemphasized. This goes beyond taking physical rest but also relaxing your mind. The amount of rest you need varies from persons to persons. However, it’s also not good to take too much rest. A sedentary lifestyle can have some adverse effects on human health.
- Stretch it Out: Studies have shown that it’s beneficial to stretch the joints each day to the extent that it doesn’t cause any pain. One of the best ways of doing this is by employing the service of a physical therapist or other physicians. They can help to create a special stretching program for your need. Persons affected with rheumatoid arthritis tend to have stiff joints in the morning, which is usually worse than other times of the day. Another way to improve the stiffness is by taking a warm bath, and then stretch to help loosen the joints.
- Have a Warm Shower: Studies have shown that moist heat seems to penetrate the joints, and help improve the rheumatoid arthritis pain. It’d be beneficial to take a warm shower or bath. Other methods include soaking the affected hands in warm water, applying moist heat pads, which can be gotten at pharmacies. These heat pads can be applied for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, to help improve the pain.
- Get a Walking Aid: Contrary to what a lot of people believe, a walking aid, such as a cane, doesn’t signify disabilities. They can be quite helpful in reducing joint pain. Walking aids work by helping to take some bodyweight off the legs, hips, and ankles.
- Hot Wax: One of the ways of improving pain in joints is by making use of a hot wax bath. This is a good way of improving inflammation.
The hot wax works by finding its way entirely around the fingers and the toes. Hot wax is preferred by a lot of patients, mainly because of its efficiency.
- Lose Weight: One of the reasons why people experience pain in their joints is excess weight. People that are obese or overweight tend to have pains in their joints, especially in joints that bear the weight of the body such as the knees, back, and hips.
One of the ways of improving this is by losing excess weight. It has been shown that fat tissues may produce chemicals that could increase inflammation.
- Making use of Special Tools: There are some special tools that are important in making everyday tasks less painful. Tools such as pens, knives, zipper pulls and so are available to help protect your joints. The good news is that these tools can be easily gotten from stores around.
- Make a Proper Plan: It might be challenging to know when one would develop flare, especially in individuals affected with rheumatic arthritis, which makes it important always to plan ahead. One way of planning is by breaking up your tasks into sections, as an example, you don’t necessarily have to exercise for half an hour at a time, but you can break it into 3 parts, on exercise 10 minutes, 3 times a day.
References
“Handout on Health: Rheumatoid Arthritis.” National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. August 2014. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
Majithia V, Geraci SA (2007). “Rheumatoid arthritis: diagnosis and management.” Am. J. Med. 120 (11): 936–9. PMID 17976416. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2007.04.005.
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