Sunday, April 1, 2012

Pain Relief Tips For Arthritis

By Larry Oaks


If you're experiencing arthritis pain, you already know how severe it can be. What you also know is how much you struggle just to find solace from all the pain. Even though this disease doesn't have a formal cure, there are tips to help you achieve pain relief from arthritis.

A great form of pain relief that will warm you right up is moist heat. Heating pads and hot packs can be bought for around $10-$30. A homemade heating pad is something you can also make as they work the same way.

If you want to make your own, grab a towel. What you want to do with the towel is dampen it with warm water. Afterwards, you can either heat it up in your microwave for 10 seconds to a minute or heat it in an oven.

The oven should be set at 300 degrees. Depending on the type of oven you have, you'll want to do this for about 5-10 minutes. Test the towel's temperature on the inside of your forearm like you would with a baby bottle in order to restrict burns.

Also a good form of arthritis pain relief is taking baths. Besides being described as hydrotherapy, it's also a regular part of many routines of physical therapists.

At home in a hot tub or bathtub is where you can perform hydrotherapy. Closely resembling the type of warm water massage that's done by professionals is a bathtub with water jets. If you don't have an over-sized whirlpool tub (like most of us), then a 15-20 minute dip in a warm bath will do the trick.

Allowing your muscles that carry your weight to relax is the heat from the bath as it exposes your body to the warmth. To get a much needed bubble bath, this would also be the perfect excuse.

There's another form of hydrotherapy you can do in your shower if you don't have a bathtub. Having one of those shower massagers can work as well.

All you need to do is set the temperature to warm or hot - whichever you prefer, and choose a speed and pulse rate that's best for you. When you decide on the perfect settings, you want to hold the massager 4-6 inches away from the joint affected with pain.

If you live in any part of the country that isn't chilly New England, you may not want more heat. You may, instead, want a breath of icy fresh air to relieve your pain on a hot day.

Icing your pain away has many effects that are similar to those who use heat. Using an ice pack on your aching joints relieves lots of pain. Instead of straight ice, use gel-filled cold packs because it's more refreshing and less frigid.

Inexpensive and available in many shapes and sizes are cold packs which you can use for areas that are hard to reach. At most grocery or local department stores, cold packs costs $10-$15. It's recommended that you use a few in the freezer if you want arthritis pain relief at your fingertips.




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