If your joints feel stiff when you wake up in the morning or you feel pain when you are sitting at your desk for a few hours, it may be due to arthritis.
It can turn into an extremely pain and restrictive condition. The good news is that arthritis pain need not stop you from enjoying a normal life. Working directly with a physiotherapist to create a tailor-made therapeutic exercise plan will do wonders to improve the painful joints. If you want a break from pain, contact us today to schedule an appointment and talk about how physiotherapy can be used to treat arthritis at SwaHealth Physiotherapy.
What is Arthritis?
It is an inflamed and painful joint. Either a single joint, such as knee or hip may become painful. As a person ages, multiple joints may be affected like an older person finding several joints in the hands being painful.
While it may develop in any joint – fingers, elbows, shoulders, lower back, hips, and knees are among the most common. There are in general two forms of arthritis.
- Osteoarthritis, the most common form, is basically caused by “wear and tear” on the joints.
- Rheumatoid is an autoimmune condition which is known to be more common in women than in men.
Regular physiotherapy and therapeutic exercise help in both conditions.
How do you know the pain is due to Arthritis?
- The joint (or joints) are stiff, especially in the morning
- Increased pain with certain activities
- “Noisy joints” – All sorts of snaps, crackles, and pops are heard when bending the affected joint
- Joint is sensitive or painful to touch
- Decreased range of motion in the affected area
- Abnormalities in gait, such as limping
- Pain in the affected region, which may spread to surrounding body parts
- Persistent stiffness
- Swelling
- Muscle spasms
- Joint weakness
- Warm sensation in the affected joint.
Joints on both sides of the body can be affected at the same time in Rheumatoid. One can also suffer from fatigue and loss of joint use, in this condition.
Causes Of Arthritis
Osteoarthritis is caused by severe “wear and tear” on a joint when the protective cover of cartilage around the bones at joints, break down. This results in the bones “grinding” against one another at the affected joint, inflammation, stiffness and pain. While this happens to all of us to a certain extent as we age, there are some additional factors that can contribute to arthritis.
- Injury: In case a weight bearing joint like the hip or knee is injured, it can lead to osteoarthritis later — even though you recover from the injury at the time.
- Repetitive Job: When your job demands a lot of repetitive motion, such as bending, twisting, squatting or kneeling, it can lead to early onset of arthritis
- Sports & Dance: Sportsmen and dancers also need to put a lot of repetitive strain on their joints and are more prone to osteoarthritis.
- Weight: Being overweight can lead to arthritis as well because it puts extra strain on weight-bearing joints.
While these are the causes of osteoarthritis, we are yet to know much about rheumatoid because it is an autoimmune condition. Its cause is believed to be a combination of genetics, environmental and hormonal factors.
Physiotherapy for Arthritis
Regular physical exercise is the number one approach to dealing with arthritis pain. But where to begin? This is where a physiotherapist is your best help.
A trained and licensed physiotherapist will recommend specific therapeutic exercises for your age range, ability level, and symptoms. This will improve the range of motion in the affected joints. Your therapist can teach you the types of strengthening and exercises that will best benefit your condition.
A physiotherapist can even point out the changes to make in order to improve your posture and reduce your symptoms. Do not compromise on pain thinking it to be “a part of life.” physiotherapy can help you!
To get arthritis pain relief, contact SwaHealth Physio Rehab Clinic today! Visit us at New Alipore, Kolkata center or schedule an appointment.
Frequently Asked Questions
While cure for arthritis is not there physiotherapy treatments go a long way to considerably alleviate arthritic symptoms by improving your range of joint movement, muscle strength, balance and coordination.
In some cases, physiotherapy may even help to eliminate symptoms entirely. For best results, please consult with a physiotherapist as soon as you begin noticing arthritic symptoms. The sooner it is treated, the easier and better will be the relief. Whatever type of pain you may be suffering from, physiotherapy is one of the best avenues of treatment, without resorting to continuous pain-management drugs or invasive surgical corrections.
Whatever be the cause of arthritis, physiotherapy plays a major role in its treatment and keeping the pain under control. Your physiotherapist will conduct a physical assessment to analyze strength, movement range and function to find out the source of your pain. You will then be prescribed a customized therapy plan,
focused around your specific requirements. In addition to targeted therapeutic exercises, specialized methods such as manual therapy, cryo therapy, electrical stimulation, or ultrasound, laser may form a part of your treatment plan aimed at relieving your pain and improving your function.
