help improve your symptoms. Research published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that even light exercise can help ease the pain of arthritic knees and give you wider range of motion.
Therapies for arthritis include massage, acupuncture, biofeedback and cognitive behavioral therapy. The foundation also recommends working with a physical therapist to improve your posture and range of motion.
Iversen, who is also dean of the College of Health Professions at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., points out that when physical therapists create an exercise plan, they consider the type of arthritis you’re diagnosed with, where in the body it manifests, its severity and whether you’re in remission or are experiencing a flare-up.
“All of that is taken into account, into the individual exercise programs that a physical therapist would prescribe,” she explains.
Iversen suggests several physical activity programs that are supported by APTA to help improve arthritis pain and other symptoms, including those offered through the Arthritis Foundation.
“The YMCA has a long, long history, at least in my 30-year career, of partnering with the Arthritis Foundation to offer aerobic programs for patients with arthritis,” she notes. “There’s also a walking program [and] we are fortunate nowadays with mobile apps where you can download a health app.”
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Arthritis surgery treatments
Dr. Paul DeMarco, Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program Director at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), explains that “surgery can be very helpful in the right situation, and especially important before joint pain affects sleep, results in an inability to exercise or causes the joint to be limited.”
You have several surgery options to choose from to help treat your arthritis pain, depending on how it affects your body, according to the Arthritis Foundation:
- Arthroscopy: surgeons use a camera and a small incision to find and repair damaged tissues, cartilage and ligaments around the knees, shoulders, hips and other joints
- Total joint replacement (arthroplasty surgery): a joint (typically in the hip or knee) is replaced with an implant
- Joint resurfacing or partial joint replacement surgery: part of a joint is replaced with an implant
- Joint revision surgery: a damaged, malfunctioning or infected implant is replaced
- Arthrodesis or fusion surgery: hardware such as pins are used to join two or more bones together to keep the joint locked in place
- Osteotomy: a wedge is added to a bone or the bone is partially or completely removed to move weight off of an area that’s been damaged by arthritis
- Synovectomy: the lining of a joint is partially or fully removed to help limit the damage to surrounding cartilage.
If you’d like more information on arthritis treatments, Iversen recommends the APTA’s ChoosePT and Find a PT resources. You can also check out Arthritis Foundation’s Treatment Guides for additional therapies and surgeries to help improve your arthritis pain.