If you’ve noticed stiffness, redness, swelling, or a decreased range of motion in your joints, you may be suffering from arthritis. This chronic disease negatively impacts your joints, affecting their health and function.
Out of the many types of arthritis, the most common are osteoarthritis, which affects the protective cartilage on the ends of the bones in your joint, and rheumatoid arthritis, which occurs when your immune system attacks your healthy joint lining by mistake.
Though arthritis doesn’t have a cure, there are several ways to manage it so you can enjoy your life doing what you love.
At University Pain Medicine Center, we diagnose and treat patients with arthritis daily. Here are five recommended ways to help get this painful condition under control.
5 recommendations for managing your arthritis
Based on our expertise and experience, we provide the following treatments for arthritis:
1. Medication
Several types of medication can provide temporary relief that helps manage your arthritis pain and inflammation, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). These medications can reduce inflammation and slow down the progression of the disease.
Please note: You should always use medications as prescribed to avoid the risk of side effects that could damage your stomach and kidneys.
2. Physical therapy
Physical therapy can help improve your range of motion, flexibility, and strength. It also helps reduce pain and improves your overall joint function. When you visit our onsite physical therapy facility, we also show you specific exercises to perform regularly to help manage your pain and stiffness.
3. Viscosupplementation
Viscosupplementation involves injecting hyaluronic acid into the targeted joint where you have pain and inflammation. Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance found in your joints that helps lubricate and cushion them, which increases your mobility and helps reduce your pain.
4. Joint injections
Though taking oral medications can help, you may need joint injections that go directly into the area of pain to give you the relief you need. When we administer the medication directly into your joint, it can help reduce inflammation and pain. The injections provide temporary relief and can be repeated as needed.
5. Regenerative medicine
Regenerative medicine involves using stem cells or other biologic materials to help repair damaged tissues and promote healing. We offer platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which comes from your own blood, to prompt your body to regenerate healthy joint tissue and bone and ease pain and inflammation.
We also provide prolotherapy, which involves injecting natural irritants into inflamed joints, which causes your body to begin the healing process.
Regenerative medicine has shown promising results in reducing pain and improving function in people with arthritis.
Natural remedies
In addition to our treatments, you can take a proactive role by making certain lifestyle changes, such as exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and getting enough sleep. These natural ways of enhancing your daily routine can improve your arthritic condition.
If you’re ready to manage your arthritis so you can enjoy a pain-free life, book an appointment online at one of our six locations in New Jersey, or call the office nearest you today.