Here’s How You Can Help Keep Joint Pain At Bay
You’re clearly thinking about dropping by the best osteopath Manchester has to offer (why else would you be here?). It might well be because you are suffering from a touch of pain around your joints caused by arthritis. It’s one of the biggest reasons we see patients walk through our doors every day and, in truth, it can be horrible to live with.
While we can help improve your circulation to reduce swelling and pain, and give you greater mobility back in your joints, the work doesn’t end there and there’s plenty you can be doing at home to help us help you. Try these little tricks just for starters (excuse the trashy tabloid).
When you’re feeling a little bit stiff or sore, exercise might feel like the last thing you want to do, but studies have shown that the right exercise really can help.
Depending on how you feel in a swimsuit, swimming can be great as the water helps support your body weight on your joints, while still exercising them in ways that any landlubber exercise just can’t. Just be careful to do all the strokes properly, any ‘short cuts can cause further pain! Walking will help too, so maybe take some time to find a beautiful route to keep you motivated to put one foot in front of the other.
Food
Now you’ve worked up an appetite, time to tackle diet. You probably know that any extra weight you’re carrying will be putting pressure on joints, causing you more pain, especially if you’re already living with arthritis, but it’s not just weight loss you should be factoring into what you eat.
Pop some foods with anti-inflammatory properties into your shopping basket next time you’re at the supermarket, such as omega-3 rich oily fish, as well as garlic, cherries, citrus fruits, nuts and dairy. We don’t, however, recommend you try to make a meal out of all of these combined (that’s only for Heston).
In the end, it’s the little things that help. If your day to day life, whether that’s at home on the sofa or in the office, can be a little sedentary (basically, you don’t move a lot), try to figure in breaks every twenty minutes or so to keep those joints feeling free and easy.
