Managing Joint Pain
Arthritis is a condition that results from inflammation of the joints, or points where bones meet various areas of the body. There are over a hundred types of arthritis, but one symptom common to all is joint pain.
If you are experiencing joint pain, you have probably noticed how the stress can build up and affect your overall disposition in life. If you have to go through this stress consistently, you will feel a mix of emotions from anger to frustration and sometimes even depression. To make things worse, it won't just be you who will be affected by your pain, but also people around you, people you love such as your family and friends.
How can you manage joint pain? The first thing you must do is to seek help. The earlier you take action, the better you will be able to handle the different effects that come with a chronic disease such as arthritis. When you learn to manage stress, you will be able to maintain positive outlook in life and of course, better physical health.
A mental health care provider can devise a plan for you that will suit your individual needs. The objective of this plan is to give you back control over your life and improve its quality. Different types of help can be given to you as a person with a chronic illness, and these may include individual counseling and support groups.
The goal of using a support group is to help you learn new ways of handling your condition. It also provides an environment where you can exchange ideas with other people who are dealing with the same pain as you are. Aside from that, you can also become stronger in your battle against the illness just from knowing that you are not alone.
On the other hand, you will also benefit from one-on-one counseling sessions where you will be given the chance to express your most private feelings about your experience with the illness and its impact on yourself, your lifestyle and your relationships.
On the physical side, there are medications that may be prescribed to manage joint pain. These include acetaminophen or hydrocodone which are great at reducing the joint pain, but not for decreasing the inflammation. Nonseroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs work to control both the pain and the inflammation. Because NSAIDs have been linked to increase risks of heart attack or stroke, they are prescribed sparingly. When taken orally, these drugs also have the tendency to cause stomach upset.
Another method of managing joint pain is with the use of menthol or capsaicin creams which help the condition by blocking the transmission of pain signals. If your joint pain is due to rheumatoid arthritis, you may be prescribed disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or DMARDs or corticosteroids which cause immune system suppression.
Other joint pain management methods include joint replacement surgery (usually done during hip or knee surgery), joint fusion (surgery that joins bones together) for joint pain originating from fingers or wrists, physical therapy and plain and simple weight loss.
