Hi Readers!
This article is especially for the arthritis sufferers and their caregivers. For more details about the osteoarthritis disease sign and symptoms, read this article about what is osteoarthritis.
In this article, we are going to share some daily life tips for a person suffering from osteoarthritis, so that they can avoid any injuries or ailments and can live a normal life like others of their age do! (Not that you can paraglide in your 80s).
Table of Contents
Ergonomics/Modify your home
It’s just like we make our home less injury prone when our baby first learns to crawl or walk! You need to do the same for yourself or your loved one. Osteoarthritis is not a deadly disease and you need not worry a lot. Just do these changes at your home to make your daily life more easy and efficient:
- Make sure that you have comfortable chairs at your home with a wide arm-rest.
- The height of the chair should not be too low (like a bean bag), it should be minimum 16 to 18 inches.
- Keep your most used utensils and kitchen spices within your reach.
- Try to buy the kettles, mugs and other daily use accessories with big handles as they are easy to carry and provide a better grip thus releasing the load off the 2 fingers and thumb mainly.
- Get those sharp corners repaired, those slippery floor tiles inside your bathroom won’t work from now on. Change them with anti-skid tiles before you end-up on a hospital bed with hip fracture (God Forbid) (can’t help saying that as hip fractures are the most common fractures in arthritic individuals due to slipping in the bathrooms). Please don’t join the club!
- Get the hand-rails installed in your bathroom near your bath-tub and commode area, so that you can get up and sit down easily.
Change Some of your habits
- Whenever you get up from chair then don’t push all of your weight on your knuckle or fingers, push your weight on your forearms while getting up from a chair.
- If you have OA in your one knee/hip joint (let’s call it bad) and the healthy joint (let’s call it good). Then while taking stairs, ‘Always ascend with good and descend with bad that is while climbing up the stairs, then keep your good leg first followed by the diseased one and whenever you are climbing down the stairs, then keep your bad leg first, followed by the good one.
- If you are using a cane or any kind of walking assistance device, then make sure that you are using it on the good side. For example, If your right knee is aching, then hold the cane in your left hand.
Monitor your diet
- Make sure that you are taking enough calcium, protein and carbohydrates for fulfilling your daily requirements.
- If you are overweight, then reducing your weight will relieve some load off your joints. Read this(GM diet Chart) for faster and safer weight loss.
- Drink plenty of water and other herbal drinks like green tea and amla juice. They keep you hydrated and relieve stress too.
Don’t Ditch Exercise
- Your physio is your best friend during the flare-up days (the days when your joints are aching hard!)
- Whenever your joints are at ease, follow your home-exercise program religiously.All this will strengthen your muscles and keep your joints healthy and pain-free. Read this for exercises in OA.
That’s all for now, don’t forget to tell us what soothes you best during your flareup times in the comment section below.
Till then “Don’t let your joint pain stop you from doing what you love, Keep your lifestyle healthy and Do what you love to do!”
Note: The remedies or exercises provided in this article are not a replacement for a medical advice. Please consult a healthcare professional before following the solutions.
