Is Joint Pain Slowing You Down?

From Your Therapist at Dynamic Training & Rehabilitation

Many conditions, such as osteoarthritis, rheumatism, or other injuries, can lead to joint pains.  Joint pains can affect any part of the body from shoulders to ankles.  It can be a knee, shoulder or hip pain.  This is common, especially for aging people.  It may occur frequently or just for a moment, and it can last for a long time. No matter what, you should not let joint pains stop you from doing what you love most.

If you are one of those joint pain sufferers, doing short sport activity will never be easy. It will definitely stop you from achieving your goal to become fit and sociable.  Maybe even engaging yourself to a short distance walk is not possible and there will be days when you can’t just do anything and miss almost every single event in your family occasion.

What Are Joint Pains To You?

Joint pain is characterized by soreness that arises from any joint – the area where two or more bones meet. Joint pain is at times called arthritis or arthralgia. Pain can start from being mild, and is felt only each time you move. But joint pain can be severe, too. It will be almost impossible to mobilize and do simple activity.

Joint pains may indicate that you should be paying more attention to your body. A doctor will first try to diagnose and treat the condition that is causing the joint pain. The goal is to maintain joint function and reduce pain and inflammation. 

Overcoming Joint Pains

Nowadays, joint pains can easily be prevented by exercise such as stretching or low-impact exercises. Exercising is not only good for one’s health, but it also helps to reduce or maintain your ideal weight. Walking is the easiest exercise. No equipment or materials are needed for this type of exercise.  Parking a bit further from a building’s entrance is a good way to get some exercise. Using the stairs instead of an elevator is another.  Exercise not only improves flexibility of joints, but it also helps you to lose weight to reduce pressure in the joints that carry your body, preventing joint pains. 

How To Manage Joint Pain?

In some mild cases, joint pain can be managed at home with some simple home remedies or sometime relieved by using topical ointments available in the market. But in some cases, sufferers see this as an emergency – especially when the pain is severe and causing the decrease of the quality of one’s daily living condition.

Four important things to remember when suffering from severe joint pain:

Never self-prescribe medicine – Actually, there are some people that take pain relievers as Mefenamic drugs to reduce the pain at the onset of the pain. They take it every time they feel pain and it is becoming a habit for them already.

Never try to do a workout exercise. -  This will worsen your condition. The more you stress the area, the pain will become more severe and the condition may worsen. Get some relaxation instead of adding pressure to the area.

Consult your physical therapist – If you feel that the pain attack is becoming more frequent, you must visit your doctor to assess or evaluate pain. There could be an underlying medical condition that needs to be addressed first to better manage your condition.

Follow your therapist’s advice – Some sufferers would tend to forget their regimen after they feel some comfort in the area and some would tend to “over-do” the instruction. Follow the advice properly.

Another way to help decrease joint pains is stretching.  Before stretching, make sure to consult a physical therapist to learn about the best stretches to use.  Ask for special stretches for areas where joint pains usually occur. It is always advisable to stretch before and after working out.