What Symptoms Are Associated With Osteoarthritis
Listed below are the symptoms commonly reported by people who have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis . If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, especially if you have previously injured your knee, it is important that you talk to your doctor about OA.
Pain or discomfort in your joints that may reduce mobility, making it difficult to get up and out of chairs, use the stairs or walk long distances. The pain may be deferred or even appear in other areas of your body, such as back pain, which could be caused by osteoarthritis.
Joint swelling may also be an indicator of OA as the inflammation could lead to effusions in the joint. These are often related to acute worsening of the overall osteoarthritic condition.
Stiffness, usually due to inflammation, may be common, especially in the morning or after sitting for a long period of time.
Creaking, crackly and popping sounds when the joints move has also been reported by people suffering from OA.
What Type Of Injury Do You Have
The type of treatment needed depends on the type of injury you have. Not if its your ankle or elbow, but whether the injury is acute or chronic. An acute injury is one that occurred in the last 48 hours. In athletes, this usually results from a fall or collision. A chronic injury is one that develops slowly, usually through overuse or because a previous injury has not healed properly. Think of how you may feel knee pain when you run more than 5 miles, ever since you had a bout of tendinitis. Chronic pain might not make you inactive, but it is nagging and bothersome.
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It may seem hard to believe, but our Knee TShellz Wraps® is intended to assist you in recovering from your injury by reducing your swelling and inflammation induced pain and maximizing blood flow where it’s needed most.
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Instructions To Do Ice Therapy At Home
You can use cold packs, a bag of frozen vegetables, or frozen peas for this.
If its not uncomfortable, you could apply the cold pack directly to your skin. But if it is, place a thin towel or pillowcase between the ice pack and your skin to prevent burns.
In fresh injuries, its best to do this for 10 minutes, three times per day tops. Studies suggest that more than that may suppress the proper healing of the tissues.
For chronic conditions like gout or rheumatoid arthritis, you can leave the ice for longer.
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Better Together: Alternating Hot And Cold Therapy
Alternating hot and cold therapy offers benefits above and beyond ice or heat alone, although its important to avoid this treatment if you have an acute injury or certain medical conditions. For most people, contrast therapy offers an easy and cheap way to lower inflammation, loosen muscles, and enjoy natural pain relief.
Perseverance is key to effective contrast therapy. If youre seeing benefits, keep up the treatments until you are fully healed.
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Can Hot Baths Or Spas Help Arthritis Pain
Many people with arthritis find relief from pain and stiffness with hot baths or spas. The moist heat increases muscle relaxation, boosts blood supply to the site of pain, and relieves rigidity and spasms in the muscles. But avoid spending more than 10 minutes at a time in a hot tub if you have high blood pressure or heart disease, or if you are pregnant.
Use A Cold Compress Or Ice Pack:
- 24 to 72 hours after your initial knee injury or when you first notice pain and swelling to stop tissue damage, relieve pain, and .
- After exercise, workouts or activity of any kind to prevent re-injury.
- Before and after surgery during rehabilitation to control pre and post-surgery pain and swelling.
- Anytime you feel your knee is tender, painful or you’re having a flare-up of an older knee injury.
- Anytime you have swelling, sharp throbbing pain or inflammation in your knee.
- Any other situation where you need to draw the pain and inflammation out of your knee.
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The Benefits Of Heat For Injury
Heat therapy works in the opposite mannerit is a vasodilator, which increases circulation by expanding the blood vessels. This reduces pain and relieves cramping or aching muscles.
It also draws nutrients to the injured area, aiding the healing process, while helping the bodys cells get rid of waste products.
Unlike ice, heat can make inflammation worse.
What Are Heat And Ice Therapy
Simply put, heat therapy and ice therapy also known as thermal therapy mean applying something hot or cold to an affected area, which can affect how your body responds to pain, stiffness, and other arthritis symptoms.
Many arthritis patients swear by both heat and ice as part of their treatment plan whether for osteoarthritis, which is wear and tear to a joint that occurs when the cartilage breaks down, or inflammatory types of arthritis, which is when inflammatory chemicals from an overactive immune attack the joint.
For Eddie A., who has psoriatic arthritis, warm baths are a go-to part of his self-care routine. In fact, before he was diagnosed with PsA, he would find himself needing to sit in the tub for 30 to 45 minutes each morning before work just to loosen up my hands, he recalls.
Heat and ice are everything for me, Deanna K., who also has psoriatic arthritis, told CreakyJoints.
In its latest treatment guidelines for the management of osteoarthritis, the American College of Rheumatology conditionally recommends thermal interventions for osteoarthritis in the knee, hip, or hand, for example. In other words, theres likely little harm in trying it, but its not a magic bullet.
Even though heat and cold are opposites, they can both reduce inflammation and ease pain and stiffness around the joints. They do so in different ways and may have different uses. That said, there is little scientific research on when to use one form over another.
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Have You Tried Cold Therapy For Knee Pain
One of the best treatments for combatting knee pain is hot and cold therapy. Heat can relax and alleviate sore muscles, while cold therapy can numb areas andreduce inflammation. These therapies are especially helpful if you experience arthritis, pain after exercising, or just went through knee surgery.
One of the great things about these methods is that it doesnt involve taking medications that could cause additional issues or a possible substance addiction.
Specifically, cold therapy reduces blood flow, nerve activity, swelling, inflammation, and chronic pain. As such, it is a recommended method when dealing with pain management. There are different types of cold therapies. One of the most effective being cold therapy machines as they have the power to alleviate pain quickly by numbing affected areas. Coldtherapy compression in combination with ice therapy is a recommended method for combating aches and pain, related to your muscular system. It is backed bymedical professionals and sport rehabilitation specialists.
Heat Therapy For Joint Pain
After a long day, soaking in a steaming shower or bathtub, sipping a cup of hot tea, or cozying up in a warm robe can make you feel comforted and soothed. Theres a reason you reach for heat when you need relief from pain or stress: Heat is relaxing. Stiff, tense, and sore muscles can be relaxed and relieved with a little heat, and joints affected by arthritis pain are no different. Not only does heat relax muscles, it also stimulates blood flow and improves circulation, helps increases range of motion, and reduces stiffness in painful joints.
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Alternating Heat And Cold
In some cases, alternating hot and cold therapy has the best outcome. Some neuralgia patients have reported that alternating hot and cold packs work best, so you should experiment to determine what works best for you. If several treatments with one type of therapy do not work, try using the opposite therapy.
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When To Use Ice For Joint Pain
For the most part, ice is appropriate to use within 48 hours of an acute injury or a flare-up of joint pain that comes with inflammation, experts explain. Examples include tendinitis, bursitis, soft tissue injuries, and inflamed joints, Dr. Bose says.
How to Use Ice for Joint Pain
The rule of thumb for icing down an inflamed area is up to 10 minutes on, followed by about 10 minutes off, several times if needed. Dont put ice or a cold pack directly on the skin, unless the cold pack has a built-in barrier, to prevent skin damage. Pay attention to how your body is responding to the cold. Listen to your body, Dr. Bose says. I tell my patients: Use an ice pack, put it on the knee, and once it starts getting uncomfortable, give it a break.
Types of Ice Therapy
You have a lot of options when it comes to icing a joint. At-home solutions like filling a plastic bag with ice cubes and a little water, using a bag of frozen vegetables, or putting a damp towel in the freezer are time-tested for a reason. You can purchase gel packs and other types of cold packs at drugstores or supermarkets. Whatever method you choose, use something large enough to cover the whole area where the pain is located, Dr. Smith says.
Safety with Ice Therapy
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Whats Better To Treat Your Knee: Ice Or Heat
Ice and heat are the best treatment combination for you if:
- Youre looking to boost the natural power of pain relief and healing in your body.
- You dont want to repeatedly pay the cost of injections, medications, hospital visits or surgery.
- You want to help reduce the risk of re-injury, pain or swelling in your knee.
- You want to control your own treatment and healing at home, on your own time.
- Youre looking for a tried, tested, and true method of healingthats been used for centuries and has worked for countless other knee pain sufferers.
How to Use Superior Temperature Treatments to Heal & Relieve Pain from Your Knee Injury!
Combining cold and warmth is a simple yet effective way to get immediate pain relief and promote long-term healing. In your lifetime youve probably had your mom, family doctor, nurse, surgeon or physical therapist tell you to use ice right after youre injured and something warm from time to time once the swellings gone down. Its a simple yet very effective way to relieve pain and promote healing in your knee.
Knee injuries can happen to anyone, right now there are thousands of doctors and physical therapists dealing with patients that require a solution to treat their knee injury fast and heal it .
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Attach The Tshellz Wrap Plug It In And Let The Energy Pad Do The Work
The application of a TShellz Wrap® is a good long-term plan as you will find it to be a highly beneficial tool for soft tissue health both in the recovery process as well as for long term re-injury prevention. Many of our clients use it on a preventive basis to relax constricted soft tissue especially prior to exertion. The TShellz Wrap® enhances the local blood circulatory system, increasing the flow of oxygen, nutrients and energy your body needs during its self healing process.
Our TShellz Wrap wraps are registered with the FDA as medical devices which meet high manufacturing standards.
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How Heat Helps In Treating Pain
Health Shots spoke to Dr Akhilesh Yadav, Associate Director-Orthopaedics and Joint replacement at Max Hospital, who explained to us how heat helps in treating body pain. He says, Applying heat to a region that is inflamed will widen the blood vessels, encourage blood flow, and help in the relaxation of tense and aching muscles.
He further says that in most cases, that is depending on the type of problem, heat therapy is superior to cold therapy. For example, for the treatment of arthritic painful joints and persistent muscular pain, warm compresses are better than ice packs. Unless otherwise specified, heat should typically be applied to the painful region for 20 minutes, up to three times each day. Heat or hot water shouldnt be applied on any fresh injury or open wounds.
A Summary Of How Ice & Heat Affect Your Blood Flow
Imagine you’re standing in your living room at home. When the air in that room is at normal room temperature , your body is in a comfortable state. Your heart rate and blood pressure are normal .
Imagine the air has cooled down to freezing…
When the room becomes cooler your heart rate begins to slow down and your blood pressure increases. Your body does this automatically to retain heat in your body. At this time your soft tissue will also start to squeeze on and contract all of the veins in your body carrying blood flow. This also helps to decrease the amount of blood flowing throughout your circulatory system and retains the heat.
When cold is applied to a knee injury, all of your soft tissue will squeeze on the veins to slow down your blood flow. This in turn clamps down on the amount of fluid leaking into your injured tissue, decreasing your swelling. This is why cold is used immediately to treat newer knee injuries or re-injuries. The cold slows down your body to stop the amount of damage happening to your tissue and decrease your swelling. This cold also has a nice side benefit of numbing the nerves in and around your knee injury thereby decreasing your pain.
In the medical world this is something called ‘Vasoconstriction’.
Now, imagine the air has warmed up enough that you start sweating…
When the room becomes warmer your heart rate speeds up and your blood pressure decreases. Your body is trying to increase your blood flow to cool down your body.
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How Often Should I Use Heat Or Cold Therapy For Arthritis Pain
Try to use moist heat or ice packs at least twice a day for the best relief from pain and stiffness.
According to the American College of Rheumatology, five to 10-minute ice massages applied to a painful area within the first 48 hours of pain onset can provide relief. So can heat, which relaxes the muscles. Heat should be used for pain that lasts longer than 48 hours.
Heat Therapy: How To Use It For Knee Pain Relief
Heat increases blood flow in the targeted area. This makes it very effective at relaxing stiff joints and muscle spasms. It also helps warm up your knee joint before exercise.
I recommend doing heat therapy for:
- Easing morning knee joint stiffness.
- Preparing your knee joint for physical activity.
- Promoting relaxation at the end of the day.
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Swim Or Exercise In Warm Water
Swimming and exercising in warm water allows you to build muscle strength, improve flexibility, and increase mobility while reducing compression to your joints. This may help to ease discomfort and alleviate stiffness.
If you live near a warm body of water, take a dip in a natural setting. Otherwise, find a heated pool in your area. Aim to spend at least 20 minutes in the water.
How Is Oa Treated
With the right treatment, you can relieve your symptoms and improve your quality of life, despite osteoarthritis being a chronic condition. Managing OA symptoms is vital as it can slow the progression of the disease down considerably.
The main goals of OA therapy are pain relief, improvement of mobility and preservation of joint function. As osteoarthritis may present different symptoms in each individual, it is necessary to work with your doctor to develop tailored osteoarthritis management plans.
However, there are many things you can do yourself or at home to improve your osteoarthritis pain:
- Stay active and exercise on a regular basis. This will strengthen your muscles, stabilise your joints and keep the cartilage hydrated.
- Eat well. Healthy nutrition is a big contributor to our overall well-being and has a positive effect on inflammations in our joints.
- Get the support you need for your joints early and don’t suffer through the pain. Speak to your doctor or try an Unloader brace at an orthotist or clinic near you.
Find out more about treatments for osteoarthritis.
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