How to Recover from Costochondritis Naturally

Costochondritis is an inflammation of chest wall due to over use injury, an infection during a major surgery, or a major trauma. Often, it may be caused by unknown factors. It seems to affect more women than men.

There are no known medicine for it and typically the pain may go away on its own over a period of time. Here are a few tips to recover faster from Costochondritis.

Instructions

1. Initial symptoms include pain in one side of the chest during any physical activity. As the inflammation worsens, the pain may extend to shoulder and even the simple act of breathing and moving your arms may become very painful. This pain resembles pain due to heart attack, so it is strongly advised to see your physician immediately. Often doctors may need to do a battery of tests before narrowing it down to Costochondritis.

2. Stop doing any physical activity that increases pain. Resume less strenuous normal activities only after the pain subsides.

3. As with other inflammatory injuries, any movement can make the pain worse. However, one can not stop breathing to avoid any movement in the inner chest wall. Therefore, taking complete rest is a very important aspect of the recovery.

4. Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) like Ibuprofen is useful to get some relief from pain. If the pain is unbearable and affects sleep, the doctor may prescribe codeine based pain relievers.

5. Applying heat/cold treatment to the affected area greatly helps reducing inflammation and relief from pain.

6. Although it is not clear, for some people cold weather and stress seem to affect Costochondritis. Therefore, stay warm (wear layers and cover yourself) and stress free.