The Problem with Conventional Arthritis Treatment

If you’re on any type of medication for your arthritis, you know what these problems are already. The countless side effects, the dependency, and worst of all, no matter how many pills, there is no long-term improvement. Medications help curb the pain temporarily, but eventually, they always come back. The biggest issue is that your doctor will have your medications on rotation because eventually your body will grow accustomed to the medication and stop working. Then you’re on a new medication with a whole new list of side effects.

Is Natural Arthritis Relief Backed by Science?

Science has come a long way over the years. Before, doctors relied on medications and the pharmaceutical companies to help them practice medicine. However, more and more doctors are seeing the benefits of a holistic approach to medicine for natural arthritis pain relief. Studies find how to relieve arthritis without medication. Talk to your doctor about lifestyle changes for arthritis pain. They’ll tell you that studies find diet and exercise can contribute to your arthritis relief program.

The Keys to Lifestyle Changes that Make a Difference

Gentle movement is one of the most effective ways to relieve arthritis pain naturally. This helps keep blood flowing and your body healthy. Not to mention having extra weight can put a larger burden on your joints and bones. Beginning a fitness routine is the first step for lifestyle changes for arthritis relief.

     🧘🏻‍♀️Stretching and Gentle Exercises

      At first any movement may feel like too much, but eventually, your body will begin to move again. Start with morning and evening stretches. First, do stretches that affect your painful joints, then move up to more challenging exercises. Yoga and Pilates are a great foundation for keeping your body moving.

     🥑 Anti-Inflammatory Foods

The foods you put into your body help create the body you’re in. Diets high in sugar and saturated fat increase inflammation, which means more pain for you. These diets increase tiny crystals in uric acid buildup that forms in your joints. You want to avoid these little crystals. What you do want is whole foods and healthy fats. A Mediterranean diet or the DASH diet has both been linked to helping reduce inflammation and cut your risk of heart attack, gout, and, of course, arthritis pain. The key is to reduce inflammation and swelling in your joints. To get the most from your diet, you want a diverse variety of foods over years.

     💧Daily Movements and Hydration

As well as keeping your weight in check and having a healthy body, an active body is a healthy body. Exercising only once a day and not moving the rest of the day will give your body time to tighten up. You want to constantly be giving your body time to stretch. If you work at an office, take a minute every hour to get up off your chair and stretch. Take a walk after work around the block. Walking with your hands above your heart helps keep blood flowing, and more importantly, that means less swelling.Proper hydration is also key to keeping your body happy. Hydrate that body to hydrate your joints. When you’re dehydrated, your body doesn’t perform at its best. You want to keep your body running optimally. It’s no fun to hear, but people with chronic illnesses like arthritis are already starting the race off behind. The only way to catch up is to give your body the tools it needs to succeed. This means hydrating. Half your body weight in ounces of water a day is enough to keep your body running.

Why Most People Struggle to Get Results

There is no way around this section. This is not easy to do. Everyone wishes there was a miracle pill they could take and all of their problems would go away. This, unfortunately, is never the case. The road to recovery is long. If you’ve tried before and failed, you know that it’s not overnight either. This is years in the making. Years of consistent growth and doing the right things. With so many different things online, it’s hard to know what is safe and what you should do. But that’s why we’re here. We back everything we do with the Arthritis Foundation, doctors and specialists, and years of practice to help you.

That’s why we created the Arthritis-Free Living Program for Natural Arthritis Pain Relief

This simple course is designed to be your springboard into your Arthritis Relief Program. We want to give you the solid foundation of knowledge and science-based facts that have real-world results so you can too. We’re here with you in every step of your arthritis-free journey.

Sign up for our email list, and you’ll get the first step of that journey absolutely free. Our 5-Day Joint Health Challenge gives you a sample of what it takes to become pain-free. No gimmicks, no pills, no expensive equipment. Just proven advice that works. Sign up below today for natural arthritis pain relief.

The post How to Relieve Arthritis Pain Naturally — Without Pills or Surgery appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.

Understanding Arthritis and the Importance of Movement

There are over 100 different conditions that are characterized by joint pain and inflammation. The most common types are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise can help alleviate a lot of the symptoms of arthritis by giving you certain benefits. These benefits could be:

• Increase in strength and flexibility
• Reduced joint pain
• Combats fatigue
• Improve bone strength
• Improves balance
• Overall enhanced well-being

Regular movements you can do to help can go a long way in helping you see these benefits.

What the Science Says about Movement and Arthritis Relief

Enhancing Joint Lubrication

Your joints are surrounded by a lubricant called synovial fluid. This fluid helps prevent bone-on-bone grinding when you move your arms, stretch your fingers, walk, or really do anything that gets your body moving. Your body creates more of this fluid with regular movement. Your arthritis diagnosis plays a part because this disease hinders production of synovial fluid. Exercise and movement help promote production and directly combat your arthritis.

Reducing Inflammation

The Journal of Clinical Medicine published a finding that states regular physical activity reduces inflammation and improves joint function with osteoarthritis. Inflammation is one of the single biggest causes of joint pain in arthritis sufferers. Finding any and all ways to reduce inflammation is a surefire way to reduce pain.

Strengthening Muscles Around joints.

Your muscles support and protect your joints. The stronger your muscles are, the easier job they have at doing just that. Building your muscles can help ease the load on your joints. Additionally, strength training exercises can help you lose weight. Less weight also helps your joints require less effort to support your body. However, strength training is typically the final step, as it is also the hardest to perform with moderate to severe arthritis.

Practical Daily Movements for Arthritis Relief

So before you head to the gym for your strength training, start slow and incorporate some of these easy daily movements for arthritis relief into your routine. No expensive gym membership or huge time commitment. Just do them whenever you have an extra second between daily tasks.

• Jog Your Feet: Simple jogging in place helps stretch your feet and strengthen your knees
• Bounce: Simply bouncing can strengthen your leg muscles and support your hips and knees
• Wrist Circles: Rotating your wrist in circles to maintain flexibility
• Leg Extensions: While sitting in a chair, slowly extend one leg at a time to strengthen your thighs
• Ankle Rolls: While seated, lift your feet in the air and rotate your ankles to improve circulation
• Shoulder shrugs: Raise your shoulders towards your ears to relieve tension

Expert Recommendations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends walking, swimming, and cycling to improve joint functions.

The Arthritis Foundation suggests incorporating stretching, strengthening, and aerobic exercises into your routine to maintain joint health.

Conclusion

It may not feel like it at first, but incorporating daily movements for arthritis relief into your routine can have a profound impact on your arthritis pain management and improve your health. For some, it won’t be easy to start. The pain of arthritis can be debilitating. You’ll believe that there’s no possible way to even get off the couch some days. That exerting any energy is exacerbating the pain and making things worse. It’s not. Over time, if you can keep it consistent, you’ll find the pain is getting better. You’ll find that you can do exercises and movements for longer periods of time. You may even find that some of these are getting too easy. That the pain is simply gone now. This is important to remember.

Don’t let your arthritis win. It will be a constant battle. There is no known cure for arthritis. If you decide you don’t have to do the exercises anymore, you’ll soon find that the pain is back. That it’s getting worse again. So even when you’re pain-free, you’re not arthritis-free. Keep at the exercises. Make sure they’re part of your daily routine, and soon you’ll be leading and living a pain-free life.

For more information about living pain free with arthritis check us out at arthritisfreeliving.com.

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Approximately 70% of women with Rheumatoid Arthritis report improved symptoms during their second trimester. These improvements can last through the first 6 weeks after delivery. There are many theories as to why this may be the case. It almost sounds counterintuitive. Swelling ankles and hot flashes sound like they would make your symptoms worse. Rheumatoid arthritis gets worse with swelling. However, there are multiple reasons why these improvements occur in the body.

When a woman carries a baby, there are many fascinating effects the human body goes through. One of these effects is an increased level of anti-inflammatory cytokine levels. These levels finally help the body combat Rheumatoid Arthritis. Hormonal changes could create many unexpected changes in the body. With these changes, many women find their RA symptoms decrease, while there are still others who see no change at all in their symptoms.

Predicting which new mothers experience fewer symptoms is still unclear. It is even more unclear if some women are experiencing fewer symptoms of RA or more symptoms of pregnancy, as some symptoms of pregnancy overlap their symptoms of RA. These include fatigue; swelling of hands, feet, or ankles; joint pain; shortness of breath; and numbness or pain in one or both hands. It’s often difficult to distinguish where these symptoms are coming from.

Talk to a Doctor Before your Pregnancy

Despite these symptoms, there is no evidence that women with RA experience any increased risk to the baby during pregnancy. There are some reports that women who suffer from a very active RA may suffer from premature or smaller infants.

If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis and are looking to become pregnant, it is important to speak to your arthritis specialist and an obstetrician before trying to become pregnant. There are medications you may be on that can cause issues during pregnancy, like some steroid-based medications. There are many alternative medications that can be taken safely during pregnancy.

Methotrexate should not be taken less than a month before your pregnancy. The manufacturer suggests you stop three months before conception. This gives the body enough time to purge the medication from your body. Leflunomide lasts even longer in the body and is recommended not to be taken two years before conception. Medications like this are not uncommon with RA. It is vitally important to discuss your medications with your health care providers.

Rheumatoid Arthritis After Pregnancy

Your body needs time to recover after your pregnancy, and women with RA have more to handle than those without. Approximately 90% of women experience a flare during the postpartum period. Usually, this occurs in the first 3 months after pregnancy. During the postpartum period, it is common to have arthritis flares. This could make breastfeeding difficult. However, there are multiple benefits to breastfeeding for the mother and infant, and your RA should not prevent you from breastfeeding. Many medications are fine to continue two weeks after you give birth to help ease your symptoms. Continue to discuss your medications with your obstetricians to make sure you can breastfeed with them.

Some medications, like low-dose aspirin, are recommended after pregnancy. However, many know that aspirin is not enough. Prednisone can be taken in low doses, below 20 mg a day. Although you still have to pump four hours after ingestion, It has already been discussed that Methotrexate and Luflunomide should be avoided during breastfeeding. Luckily, Azathioprine, Hydroxychloroquine, and Sulfasalazine are compatible with nursing, as are tumor necrosis factor inhibitors such as etanercept and infliximab.

If you do decide to get back on birth control after your pregnancy, you should know that there are many options out there. In fact, most birth control options are safe for women with RA and should not create any added side effects.

Tackling RA Without Medication

Having a baby is a beautiful blessing. Even if you suffer from symptoms of Rheumatoid arthritis, there are tons of things you can do to help. If you’re looking for non-medical remedies for your rheumatoid arthritis, there are many answers here at ArthritisFreeLiving.com. With exercise, stretches, and a proper diet, there is no telling how good you can feel.

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Can a Gallbladder Cleanse Really Help Knee Pain?

It sounds strange, but when you look at the body as a whole, links between gallbladder and knee pain make sense. The gallbladder is connected to the liver. When the liver doesn’t function properly, it can cause swelling and inflammation in various parts of the body. Liver problems can affect your entire body, but the most common place is in the knees. Keeping a healthy gallbladder can help keep your liver healthy as well. When your organs work at their optimal level, your whole body benefits.

Foods for Your Gallbladder

There are many ways you can support your gallbladder. However, there are things you should avoid. There are many people who recommend olive oil, lemon juice, and beets. The problem with this is the olive oil. Now, olive oil is fine while you cook with it or splash it on top of a salad. However, drinking olive oil is not good. It can flush out your bile. If your body doesn’t have this important bile to breakdown your foods, it can actually cause gallstones, and you don’t want that.Instead, check out these amazing herbs that can improve the health of your liver and gallbladder. Herbs like barberry, coptis, dandelion, gentian root, milk thistle, and Oregon grape root Either take the extract supplement or, better yet, incorporate it into your everyday cooking. These foods not only support your digestive system—they may also make a gallbladder cleanse for knee pain more effective.

Fresh herbs always yield better results than supplements. Start your day with a barberry jam, toss some freshly washed milk thistle or dandelion leaves into a salad, or roast the dandelion roots for a pick-me-up drink that’s better than coffee. Start your day off right with these healthy herbs and feel the inflammation leave your body. Incorporate these into your diet for one to two weeks at the minimum to feel your body accept the health benefits.

If you’re not the best home cook and fear cooking with anything more than salt and pepper, we understand. There are tons of foods that can still help. Beets are a superfood that can help your liver and gallbladder, and they’re super easy to prepare. Along with apples, pears, lemon juice, garlic, turmeric, artichokes, and bitter greens. These may make it easier. Buy some lemons and squeeze a full lemon into each glass of water you drink. Avoid adding sugar, though. Processed sugar can cause inflammation, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid. You want lemon water, not lemonade.

Supplements for your Gallbladder

Sometimes, when food isn’t enough, you may want to turn to supplements for that added boost of vitamins. If you need supplements, take a look at taurine. This is an important antioxidant and anti-inflammatory amino acid. Taurine really helps promote healthy heart and liver function. It can even lower cholesterol levels and, best of all, promote healthy bile acid balance. So if you did end up taking that olive oil shake, you can restore your bile before it’s too late. Take a capsule of 1000mg three times a day between meals. Additionally, Omega-3 fish oils and Vitamin E supplements support a healthy gallbladder. If you’re looking for a gallbladder cleanse for knee pain, taurine and Omega-3s are excellent supplements to start with.

Taking these for 5-8 days in a row should yield some immediate results. Your body will thank you for including these vitamins and minerals in your diet, and it will thank you with a healthy body.

Now remember, none of these will remove your pain all together. If you truly wish to be pain-free, you need to remember that it’s a process. Cleansing your gallbladder can reduce inflammation, which can help relieve some pain. When you see results and less pain, that may be enough to help you start your exercise and stretching routine. However, with a proper diet, good exercise, and a positive attitude, you can live a pain-free life. Trust the process and know that if you put in the work, eventually you can overcome anything you put your mind to.

The post Can A Gallbladder Cleanse Help Knee Pain? appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.

What is Mindful Meditation

In its simplest form, mindful meditation is purposefully being aware of the exact moment of life. Through the practice of mindful meditation, a person can help reframe the feelings they are currently having in a more productive and meaningful way. For those suffering from arthritis pain, they can change their body’s response to pain. This alone would not be enough to remove pain entirely, but something interesting happened when researchers watched pain sufferers discover mindful meditations.

Stress causes muscles to tense. Tense muscles are a cause of arthritis flares and muscle inflammation. If you can train your body to no longer feel tense or stressed, you can prevent your body from flaring up with tense muscle spasms. Studies conducted on patients found that although their swollen joints didn’t change, the patients reported less pain and stiffness in those joints. They had more range of motion, and their daily lives were not impacted as much. This included fatigue, stress, and anxiety from their arthritis diagnosis. Patients were able to return to jobs they thought they would never have again, and others claim it saved their marriages.

Our Response to Arthritis Pain

Anyone with arthritis pain can tell you the symptoms. Inflamed joints, redness, stiffness, burning, and more. However, they found that mindful meditation helps reduce levels of cytokines and other proteins that promote inflammation. With less swelling, your body will be less stiff and red, and remove some of the burning sensation. Additionally, meditation helps reduce activity in the part of the brain known as the thalamus. This is the part of the brain that signals pain to the rest of the body. After only four days of mindful meditation, the average patient reported a 40% decrease in pain.

How can I start Mindfully Meditating?

It’s rather simple. The best way to start would be to find a licensed psychologist or pain clinic. There are many community health centers that offer help. They will have the best information for your specific needs, body type, and pain levels. If you’re eager to get into it, you can start by simply focusing on yourself.

Mindful meditations can be anything from an hour-long guided meditation to changing the way your mind works while you’re sitting at your desk or watching TV. Focus on sitting up straight. Is your posture supporting your head properly? Make sure your muscles aren’t compensating for poor form. You could even listen to a guided meditation while you’re sitting or conduct a full-body scan on yourself.

A body scan is simply feeling present enough to go over your entire body to see what feels good and what doesn’t. Someone with arthritis may shy away from this at first. After all, you’re focusing your attention on exactly where the pain is. Shouldn’t that make the pain worse? However, your whole body isn’t in pain, and a body scan allows you to remember that. People typically spend 45 minutes to an hour conducting the body scan. Starting at the top of your head and across your body, down your arms to your fingertips, and eventually ending on your toes. Take time, focus on your breathing, and check in with all aspects of your body. This practice helps people realize that the pain is only a small part of them, and they are not only their pain.

Mindful Meditation is a great start to living pain-free.

Even if mindful meditation doesn’t reduce your swelling entirely, it can help. It’s a great way for people to start their journey. This is because it doesn’t require painful exercises or lateral movements. Instead, it’s just sitting or standing in a quiet room and focusing on yourself. If you had 40% less pain, though, would you be able to start the next part of your journey? Would you be able to begin those stretches and exercises that can reduce your swelling? We know you can. The path to a pain-free life doesn’t have a miracle elixir. There are steps. Pieces of a pie. Once you put them all together, you can see that arthritis pain can truly be a thing of the past.

The post Can Mindful Meditation help Arthritis Pain? appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.

Pop Socket Grip

If you suffer from wrist pain, this product is for you. Every year, it seems like smartphones get bigger and bigger. This makes it increasingly difficult to hold your phone, even when you’re pain-free. When you add the burden of arthritis, your wrists and hands could be screaming long before you’re done scrolling.

The solution is simple. Stick one of these simple pop socket grips to the back of your phone for a simple ergonomic grip. This will help prevent you from having to bend your wrist every time you use your phone.

Pros

• Budget Friendly
• Easier to hold your phone

Cons

• Makes your phone bulky and harder to store in a pocket
• Removing the adhesive backing could prove difficult for some

EZ Grip 360 Degree Rotary Stainless Steel Sharp

Personal care is something that must be maintained. When you take care of yourself, you can find that this improvement spreads to other parts of your life as well. However, if your pain is so bad that you start to neglect certain hygiene habits, you can soon snowball into a heap of depression and pain.
Keep up your hygiene with the right products.

This fingernail clipper has a great ergonomic grip that offers maximum strength with minimal effort. Furthermore, the wide grip handles help keep it firmly in your hand and prevent accidental clippings.

Pros

• Transforms for right- and left-handed users
• Designed to help perform necessary tasks with minimal pain.

Cons

• Still requires some exertion from your joints

Acetaminophen Easy Open Bottle

Sometimes, the pain is so unbearable that you must reach for the pills. Try to avoid anything too strong and talk to your healthcare provider about what works best for you. For instance, many people think ibuprofen is the best as it relieves most pain. However, taking ibuprofen every day is not the best. Medications like Advil use ibuprofen as their main ingredient. Tylenol is safer to take more regularly. The main pain-relieving ingredient is acetaminophen. To help save money, you can buy generic bottles of acetaminophen, which works just like Tylenol, without the expensive brand name attached.

This bottle here has easy handle grips. If you live alone, you know the stress that can come from not being able to open your bottle. If it can’t open, you’re out of luck. Unfortunately, manufacturers don’t offer large quantities of these easy-open bottles. However, you can save these bottles and fill the empties with anything you need to open easily.

Pros

• Available in stores and online
• Easy open lids
• Save the bottles to store other pills that may not come in an easy-to-open container

Cons

• Only available for smaller quantities

IMAK compression Arthritis Gloves

If you suffer from pain in your hands but still need to use them for tasks like writing on your computer, then these gloves can be your lifesaver. The compression glove helps offer an extra layer of strength to your joints while also keeping your hands warm. This helps improve blood flow and decreases inflammation.

The Arthritis Foundation tested compression gloves like these and found they helped improve daily life for the wearer. These gloves are fantastic because they still have open fingers that allow you to feel, grip, and touch.

Pros

• Cotton material is soft and easy to wash
• Good travel companion that can easily store with your socks

Cons

• Some say the material tears easily

Arm Extender

Your hands aren’t the only thing that may be in pain. Performing daily tasks sometimes feels impossible for those with hip and leg pain. If something falls to the floor, some report that they’ll leave it there until a friend or loved one comes along to help them pick it up.

This extender tool is great for those who have difficulty bending over. That’s where this arm extender comes in. Just squeeze the grip, and you can virtually extend your arm up to 2.5 feet away.

Pros

• Portable for shopping or travel
• Adjustable

Cons

• Still requires grip strength
• Some claim it cannot carry much weight

IMAK Compression Knee Sleeve

This is another product recommended by the Arthritis Foundation. This is a great noninvasive arthritis relief solution. Wear it all day for continuous comfort. This, like the hand compression sleeve, provides additional joint strength, warming effects to reduce inflammation, and circulation support.

Pros

• Lightweight
• Breathability vents help all day without increasing sweating

Cons

• One size does not fit all

Non-Slip Grip Jar Opener

If you need help opening jars in the kitchen, this product is for you. This product is specifically designed for arthritis users. It can open anything from a water bottle, soda tops, to jar lids. The full set makes this a multifunctional kitchen tool to open stubborn bottle tops and jar lids.

Even if you don’t have arthritis, this product can come in super handy for those jars that just won’t open.

Pros

• Stores easily
• Multiple sets to allow access to a full array of jar and bottle sizes

Cons

• Still requires some wrist strength

Walking Cane

If your arthritis pain is so unbearable that it affects your mobility, then you may find help with a mobility aid. A cane is an excellent tool for relieving muscle tension and relieving unnecessary pressure on aching joints.

This all-terrain slip-resistant base offers superior stability on uneven surfaces. The ergonomic handle helps reduce hand fatigue to help not only your hips and waist but also your hands. The cane collapses and fits in your bag for on-the-go use.

Pros

• Adjustable for all heights
• supports full-body pain

Cons

• May not adjust high enough for taller individuals

ICEWRAPS reusable Soft Gel Ice Packs

Sometimes, when inflammation rears its ugly head, you have to fight back. Cold ice packs help reduce swelling. These reusable medical-grade packs can be frozen or heated up. Heat and ice can help reduce inflammation and muscle stiffness.

Pros

• Natural pain reliever
• Use for hot and cold
• Non-toxic

Cons

• Doesn’t stay frozen for long

The post Products for Arthritis Pain appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.

Your hands play a crucial role in everything you do. From shaking hands with a partner or grabbing things off the shelf for yourself. If you feel you may lose that part of your body, you don’t have to believe that’s a permanent change. If you can include these movements in your daily routine, you will soon see improvements in your routine. Once a day or even once a week, you can help reduce hand stiffness and tingling and even remove your pain entirely.

Finger Presses

This is a simple exercise that you can do almost anywhere. Press your thumb and your index finger together. Feel the muscles in your hand and forearm contract. Hold this pressure for a full, deep breath. Repeat this process for your middle finger, ring finger, and then your pinky, changing fingers on every breath. When you get to your pinky, go back through each finger in reverse until you’re back at your index finger. Repeat this process three times, focusing on the breath and feeling the strength in your hands and forearms.

Fist and Extended

This exercise focuses on contracting and extending your hands to feel how much your hands can really do. Start this exercise by making a fist. With your other hand, tightly squeeze your fist, using your fingers to massage your fist. Tightly squeeze your fist for three deep breaths. Then, when you release your fist, open your hand and extend your fingers as wide as they go. Feel your finger muscles stretch for another three deep breaths.

Complete this process of tightly squeezing your fist and stretching your fingers out wide for five repetitions. Then, change hands, make a fist with your other hand, and tightly squeeze with your freshly stretched hand. This will be ten repetitions for both hands.

The Finger V

This one is for the Star Trek enthusiasts out there. Extend your hand out in front of you with a straight arm and your fingers pressed together. It should look like you’re a traffic cop telling people to stop. Now take a deep breath and stretch your pinky as far as it will go. With your next breath, move your ring finger to your pinky. This is where the name “finger V” comes from, as your fingers should look like a V. With your next breath, move your middle finger, and so forth. Then move your fingers the other way, one by one, in each breath, until you’re back at the stop sign. Move to your other hand and repeat this process.

The Wrist Shake

You may require a stretch from your stretching after the Finger V. This is where the wrist shake comes from. Your hands and wrists should be completely loose. Now shake your arms out and shake your hands back and forth, up and down, and any other way they’ll go. This will help them release tension from your fingertips to your arms. It should look like you’re drying your hands when there aren’t any paper towels. This can be done with one hand at a time or with both hands. Try to keep your hands moving for at least 15 seconds.

The Putty Pull

This is a great thing to do with your grandchildren. First, you’ll need some putty. Take a small piece of putty between your fingers. Pull the putty upwards and then back together. Then move the putty to your next finger. Press and pull between each finger gap, and then do the same with the other hand. You’ll soon see the benefits if you can repeat this process three times with each hand.

The Wrist Release

This is like the fist and extend exercise, but it emphasizes the wrist rather than the fingers. Start with one hand in a fist. Wrap your fist with your free hand. First, take two deep breaths while holding your fist. Then push up your fist as far as it goes for another two breaths. Once your fist goes up and down, that is one repetition. Repeat for five repetitions and move over to your other hand. Repeat the process three times in total for the best results.

These exercises are simple and easy to do from anywhere and can greatly improve any pain from Psoriatic Arthritis. Even before you get out of bed in the morning, you can start your day and stretch out your hands and fingers to prepare them for the day, and you could even repeat the process before you go to bed. Even if you start feeling pain in the middle of the day, you can take a break and stretch your hands and wrists. Keep them going, and you’ll see results very soon.

The post The Best Exercises to help Psoriatic Arthritis appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.

The number-one culprit is something called synovial fluid. This fluid surrounds the joints and acts as a lubricant to help them move. It does thicken slightly as a fluid in the cold, which can cause severe pain in people with arthritis. Think of the synovial fluid as motor oil for your engine. Clean and flowing oil helps the engine run smoothly. However, when that oil becomes thick and sludgy, your engine doesn’t perform as well. It’s the same thing that’s happening in your joints. Some people are so sensitive to the cold that they can predict weather patterns. So the next time you hear someone say their knee told them a storm is coming, make sure you pack a jacket because their synovial fluid doesn’t lie.

Now, fluid is only one of the many parts of your joint that can change due to temperature. Cold weather doesn’t cause arthritis, but it makes things worse. The most noticeable thing for most people is that cold weather severely slows down blood circulation. For those who suffer from inflammatory types of arthritis, you know how bad this can get. Poor blood circulation means that inflammation gets worse, as does the pain. Poor circulation can even cause muscle spasms.

It’s not only the cold that makes arthritis get worse in the winter. Even the barometric pressure can negatively affect your body. When the pressure drops, your muscles and tendons expand. This expansion then puts even more stress on your joints. People with arthritis in the hips and legs know this to be especially true.

Fighting Back When Your Arthritis Gets Worse in the Winter

When old Jack Frost blows down on you, don’t sit back and take it. You can fight back and truly live a life of arthritis free living. No one thing can prevent all your pain. For people who suffer from severe pain, it may not be easy to start one or all of these activities. However, if you persevere, take things one day at a time, and get better every day, one day you too can find more pain-free days.

Keep Warm During the Winter

Keeping warm can help blood flow and prevent synovial fluid from funking up your joints. Wear multiple layers and crank the heat. Even if you’re not that cold, your joints are. Get used to staying warm. Take a hot shower in the morning to get your body going and follow it up with a soothing, warm bath at night. If things are getting too bad, heating pads and an electric blanket can do wonders for a good night’s sleep. If you have access to one, a hot tub is a fantastic way to soothe your aching joints.

Keep Your Body Moving

We know what you’re thinking. You can’t bear to move with all this pain. The problem is that you’re in so much pain because your joints can’t move. Slowly building up an exercise routine will surely help you combat arthritis pain. It is recommended that you do 150 minutes of exercise each week. This will get your heart beating and your blood circulating. Not to mention that it will strengthen your muscles, which will help take the strain off your joints. Try to get at least 20 minutes a day. Start slow and start where it’s warm. Perhaps walk through a well-heated mall. Lift small weights in a gym. Swim some laps in a heated pool. Anything you can do to get active.

Stretch Every Morning and Every Night

Most people stretch to “warm up” before exercise. Well, warming up is exactly what you want to do to help prevent arthritis from getting worse in the winter. Stretching does wonders for the body. It increases flexibility, which helps your joints move further and smoother. Even simply rolling your wrists and ankles or doing knee bends can help your painful joints. Stretch your fingers as far as they will go if your arthritis affects your hands. They’ll thank you later.

Take Care of Your Diet

A proper diet is especially helpful for anyone with inflammatory arthritis. Sugars and refined carbohydrates may actually increase inflammation. Focus on omega-3 fatty acids that act as anti-inflammatories. Foods like fish, nuts, and seeds are particularly rich in omega-3 fatty acids. If you can, try to switch to a Mediterranean diet and see how well your body performs.

Don’t put too Much Weight on your Joints

Did you look down at the scale and notice it’s not where you want it to be? Carrying too much weight has been linked to a number of health problems. For arthritis sufferers, one of those issues is strain on the joints. Lightening your load will allow your joints to not have to work so hard.

Get Plenty of Vitamin-D

Not only do the barometric pressure and temperature drop in the winter, but the clouds cover up the all-important sun. Even in sunny climates, vitamin D deficiency is actually quite common. If you can’t go outside for a walk and enjoy the sun, you may want to think about drinking more juice or taking a supplement. Check with your doctor if you may need to increase your vitamin D. This is because a lack of vitamin D has been linked to arthritis pain.

Yes, your Arthritis Gets Worse in the Winter, but You Don’t Have to Feel It

Winter is challenging for many people, and it affects everyone differently. Some might just get a little worse, while others may feel completely incapacitated. The important thing to note is that things can get better. Focus on what it means for you to live a life of arthritis free living and know that it can come true. Every day, do a little more exercise, eat a few less processed foods, and keep yourself a little warmer. Soon, you’ll no longer fear the winter months. In fact, you may enjoy them almost as much as you have in the past.

The post Does Arthritis Get Worse in the Winter? appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.

What are arthritis flares?

An arthritis flare is an episode of pain that can last anywhere between a few days and a few weeks. Some people who get these flares feel helpless. This means that if one comes up at the wrong time of year, you may very well miss all the holiday festivities. These flares are no joke, but if you know the warning signs and what causes them, you’ll be in a better position to avoid them in the future.

Luckily, you can avoid severe flares. It’s important to know what aggravates them and, more importantly, what triggers them. Be prepared because the holiday season is full of these triggers. While you may not avoid all of them, you can still do things to combat these triggers and keep a severe flare from ruining your holiday plans.

Holiday Foods Cause Triggers

One of the best things to look forward to every holiday season is the constant parade of food. Turkeys, hams, stuffing, potatoes, and an assortment of cranberries can get anyone to the table. Unfortunately, many of these foods can increase arthritis pain. When you sit down at your table, try to avoid these foods:

• Sugars
• Fatty Meats
• Dairy
• Gluten

Additionally, moderating and limiting these other foods can also help.

• Coffee
• Soda
• Alcohol
• Salt
• Processed Foods

Now I know what you’re thinking, “That’s all the food.” The good news is that over time and through trial and error, you may find that some of these foods affect your body more negatively than others. Perhaps, leading up to the big feast, you limit all of them. You’ll more than likely feel better, and your arthritis pain will subside. If you want to get daring, introduce one—perhaps dairy—and see how your body responds. If the pain gets significantly worse, you may want to avoid dairy altogether and try some fatty meats the following week. By the time you’re ready for your feast, you’ll know which foods trigger the worst response from your body and how to avoid them.

Food isn’t the only Trigger for Arthritis during the Holidays

The holiday season comes with more than just food. You’ll find that the season brings with it colder weather, more shopping, and longer hours to pack in all the activities. Note that cold weather alone is a big trigger for arthritis flares. Try to stay warm in these cold months. Not to mention that stress can also cause your symptoms to flare. Studies find that many people find the holiday season to be more stressful than the rest of the year. The other big worry this time of year is common illnesses like the cold or flu. Your body does its best to combat your arthritis during the good times. When it needs to fight the flu, it may not focus on your arthritis. Make sure you’re getting your flu shot and wash your hands regularly to avoid any unforeseen illness.

Having Arthritis During the Holidays isn’t all bad.

Now that you know the triggers of an arthritis flare, let’s investigate how to avoid them. Because let’s be honest, you’re not going to cut out sugar and stressful situations this holiday season. It’s almost impossible. Just make sure that if you’re in a stressful situation, you spend some time relaxing and take some personal time for yourself. Perhaps you get a massage once a week. Or you can end your day in a nice, relaxing bubble bath. The warm water will do wonders for your joints, and the alone time can help you find peace. Another good way to avoid stress is to start every morning with some meditation. Center your mind, and your body will follow.

The post How to Manage Arthritis During The Holidays appeared first on Arthritis Free Living – Natural Joint Pain Relief by Nicole Brandon.