Tips on Controlling Joint Pain
Joint pain has many causes, the most common being rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, bursitis and injury. It can be bothersome and painful. While the suffering can be long-lasting, there are things that you can do to control your joint pain at home.
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Anti-Inflammatory Medications
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Take naproxen, ibuprofen or aspirin. This can help stop the swelling and keep the pain manageable for both arthritis and non-arthritis pain.
Heat
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Apply heat to the joint. This is good for arthritis joint pain at 15 minute intervals, especially at the beginning of the day. Do not apply heat and creams at the same time.
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Icepack
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Put an icepack on your joints for 15 minutes every few hours on days when you have persistent pain or swelling. This is good for both injury or arthritis pain. In the case of arthritis, since cold can cause stiffness, a heating pad in the morning and then a ice pack at night to relieve swelling is a great remedy.
Exercise
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Use light exercise to keep the joint from hurting due to lack of use. Stretching exercises should help non-arthritis pain.
Prevention/Solution
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Watch how you use the joint and avoid any activity that puts undue stress on it. Both inactivity and too much activity can cause your pain to recur. This is the same for arthritis and non-arthritis joint pain. Watching how you move the joint is especially important if you are having pain with hypermobile joints, since you may not realize that they are moving the joint too far and causing yourself more pain.
Considerations
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See your doctor if your pain is accompanied by tenderness, redness or swelling if you have had a recent injury or have not yet been diagnosed with arthritis.
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