6 Ways To Make Living With Arthritis Better

Living with arthritis can be disruptive to normal life. The stiffness and pain can make it difficult to perform normal daily tasks, things that most people take for granted. Simple tasks like cooking dinner, putting your socks on or walking upstairs can be exhausting. If you have arthritis, it’s especially important to take good care of yourself. It can help improve function, relieve pain and help you to cope with difficult emotions. It’s not only medication that is recommended for arthritis, weight loss, acupuncture and physical therapy are few of the others.



It obviously makes sense that shedding the pounds if you’re overweight, eating healthier foods, strengthening your muscles, and learning methods of moving your joints safely are helpful for living with arthritis. Paying attention to your lifestyle also has a positive impact on preventing heart disease.

Have a look below at some the ways you can help yourself at home which will help to preserve your energy, protect your joints and complete daily tasks more easily:

Keep Moving 
You should try not to hold one position for too long. If you have to work at a desk you would get up and move around every fifteen minutes so you should be doing the same while sitting at home watching television sewing or reading. Joining specialist exercise clubs such as Tai Chi or swimming are go ways to keep active.

Try To Avoid Stress
You need to try and avoid any extra stress on your joints. Avoiding positions and movements that do this is the best thing you can do. Things like opening a tight bottle or jar lid can be difficult for someone with arthritis, think about purchasing a jar opener that can help make it easier to open.

Find Your Strong Points
You need to discover your strength and then use your strongest muscles and joints as support. If you have bad hands, using the side of your arm or shoulder to open heavy doors can be a great help. When walking on the stairs, always lead with the weakest leg coming down and the strongest leg going up.

Plan Ahead Of Time  
Planning ahead will enable you to simplify life as much as possible. Remove any unnecessary activities such as buying clothing that doesn’t need ironing. Organize storage areas and keep the items you use regularly within easy reach. It can also help to keep duplicates of certain items in several places in your home.

Use Adaptive Aids And Tools To Make Life Easier 
Anything that you can use to make your life easier is good. Think about using an automated toilet cleaner, electric tin opener, leave on sprays that stop you from scrubbing etc. There are also other items available on the market that can help you avoid bending, stooping or reaching unnecessarily

Modify Your Home
You should make use of home modifications where you can. Although it can be hard to accept that you need to adapt your home to help to have things like a bar over the tub, putting a seat in the shower or putting casters over the sofas are all minimal but great ways of alleviating some stress on your joints.

These are all really easy ways of living with arthritis a little easier, don’t forget to ask for help if you need it. Do you have any other things that you have done to make it easier? Could you share them in the comments below? 


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