Simple Hacks For Living With Osteoarthritis

As most of you reading this already know, living with Osteoarthritis (OA) can prove to be a challenge – and one you never asked for. We at FindMeCure read a lot of stories of people living with OA, checked out a lot of the clinical trials searching for a cure (and shared some of them with you) but we are no experts on the pain and difficulties you’re going through – you are. All we can do is offer some advice, some techniques for managing the symptoms and all of our moral support, but at the end, you decide what works for you and what doesn’t and ultimately the best support you can get comes from your loved ones.

Without further ado, here are some tips we picked up from our research on living with OA.

Let’s start with food: you probably know by now that reducing body weight can be beneficial when dealing with OA, as it lowers the pressure on your joints. It won’t do wonders for your hand osteoarthritis but if you’re a bit overweight and OA is mainly affecting your hips, knees or feet – losing weight can be a huge relief and even improve your overall health condition.

Eat all the veggies you want and you might want to add salmon to them… it is suggested that omega-3 fatty acids may relieve some of the pain and stiffness in your joints, as it reduces inflammation. You will find omega-3s in fatty fish (twice a week is enough to get the amount of omega-3s you need) or if you’re full-on vegetarian or simply hate fish, you can ask your physician about supplements. Talking about reducing inflammation, some studies suggest that olive oil can be good for that too due to oleocanthal, and keep in mind – the stronger the flavor, the more oleocanthal there is. Vitamin C, on the other hand, helps in building connective tissue – the same tissue OA slowly takes away.

We’re ending the section of diet with a warning though – cooking meat at high temperatures (grilling, frying or microwaving it) can cause inflammation, because it leads to the formation of compounds called AGEs (advanced glycation end products), which are linked to heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.

Exercise is advised as well and even though you have already heard that, I’m stressing on it one more time because it’s easy to forget. I get it, movement can be painful and you’re more prone to fatigue than ever and you’ve already been advised to rest, so it seems like a contradiction.

A couple of years ago my grandmother’s OA seemed to get even worse – whenever she called she would tell my mother how her pain was getting more and more severe, until finally we convinced her to go to see a specialist again. The doctor asked about her day-to-day life (which was more sedentary than it had ever been) and suggested she started going for a short walk once or twice a day. And it really helped – the pain was manageable again and my grandmother slowly increased her endurance.

The point of the story is: yes, you should rest but you should also stay active if you want to preserve your joints’ range of motion and stay in a healthy physical shape. Talk to your doctor or physiotherapist about the physical activities that can be beneficial in your case – you can even keep on playing a favorite sport of yours, provided you practice at a reasonable intensity and you keep your affected joints from straining.

And on the topic handling your mundane day-to-day tasks that now with OA in your life present an unexpected challenge, there are some hacks. Some of them you might have figured out on your own already, for example, there is no need to tell you how to position your cushions when you’re resting. But in case you need some extra tips and suggestions, here they are:

• Get a beaded seat cover for your car, as it makes getting in and out of it easier by helping you turn around more freely.
• You can also use those cushion-y things from hair rollers to cover silverware, tooth- and hairbrushes and anything else you might need, if OA is affecting the joints of your fingers.
• And if you absolutely hate velcro, you can find some good-looking shoes with elastic laces so you don’t have a) bend down to tie them everytime and b) cause unnecessary strain on your fingers.
• OA pain in your hands can sometimes be avoided if you use your larger joints to perform some tasks like closing doors, drawers or cabinets.
• Don’t overdo your tasks around the home. Now, don’t get this wrong, you won’t have to become accustomed to germs and bacteria – just learn to manage your responsibilities in a more efficient, less perfectionistic way. Fifteen minutes of housework a day is better than a whole day of chores – both for you and for maintaining order in your house.
• Organise your home in such a way than you don’t need to bend or stretch too frequently in order to reach a fork or a screwdriver. Put all of your most used appliances on hip-level.
• If you have a bathtub – use it. Heat can help soothe your aching joints and while we’re on it – cold pads can help as well. So find out what works best for you.
• OA affecting the knees can make standing up from a sitting position dreadful. But sitting just a few inches higher could turn out to be the answer, so you might want to consider a seat lift and raised toilet seat for example… and get creative with cushions for everything else.

A few quick tips and tricks might not do the trick (don’t mind my puns) and it might take some getting used to these hacks, but over the long run making your life just that much easier can have a bigger impact than you imagine.

If you wich to go further, you can always check for open clinical trials for Osteoarthritis (OA) on our platform. Here is a shortcut:

Article by Nelly Katsarova