Can Weight Reduction Help Painful Arthritis?
Are you suffering from back pain due to arthritis? Do you also have a problem with your weight? If you’ve answered yes to both questions, you are probably having back pain not only as the result of arthritis, but also because of the burden your weight is putting on your spine. The body was not intended to carry around extraneous weight in the form of body fat. If you are carrying around even an additional 20 or 30 pounds on a regular basis, your spine, which supports the body, is being put under a great deal of strain. This type of strain can created abnormalities of the vertebral column. These misaligned vertebra can cause arthritic changes in the spine and continue to inflame the degenerative changes that have begun. In addition, your body may counteract in other ways, like your hips moving forward or tilting to support the excess weight. This can pinch the sciatic nerve, which is extremely painful.
A new survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research firm based in Rosemont, Ill., shows that around 62% of men and women and 34% of children are overweight or obese. The ubiquitousness of arthritis increases with growing weight. Research indicates that sustaining a healthy weight reduces the risk of developing arthritis in the first place and may decelerate disease progression. A reduction of just 11 pounds can decrease the occurrence (incidence) of new knee osteoarthritis and would do wonders to decrease back pain as well.
In order for anyone to get rid of their back pain, knee pain, and joint pain in other areas of the body, a good diet and appropriate exercise is mandatory. Even though it’s an easily apparent solution, it really is the only action for you to take in order to get out of pain and get your life back.
First of all, we’ll look at the dieting issue. The majority diets (and there are hundreds to choose from) can be temporarily effective. Unfortunately, the diet industry is not interested in having you lose weight permanently because consequently they would lose you as a customer. Eating a life-enriching diet (as a lifestyle choice as opposed a temporary fix) and decreasing your calories so that you are at a slight calorie “deficit,” is the only way to lose weight in a healthy, permanent manner. Don’t plan on losing 20 pounds every week because that is an unhealthy and perilous fix. You should be losing about 2 pounds every week in order to have positive results.
Research has confirmed that exercise and physical activity not only reduces pain and enhances function, but actually postpones disability. No less than one-half hour of moderate physical activity, at least 3 days a week, has been confirmed to be effective. You can get activity in 10-minute intervals.
Along with the health advantages your joints will get from exercise, chiropractic treatment is a highly beneficial way to get mobility back in the joints of your spine and other regions of your body. A spine in alignment makes exercise and physical activity a good deal easier and will slow down arthritic degenerative changes. The Annals of Internal Medicine released the results of a survey of 232 people who were under a rheumatologist’s care for their arthritis. Of those people, 63% replied to the survey by saying they were taking advantage of some type of “complementary care” as named by the study. Of those individuals, 31% were trying chiropractic. Possibly the most consequential statistic was that 73% of those trying chiropractic found it beneficial. Explaining why they’d tried the non-medical chiropractic care, the responders offered a number of reasons: 1) to reduce pain, 2) they’d heard that it helps, 3) they felt assured that it is safe, 4) it had assisted someone they knew, and 5) because their prescription medication wasn’t stopping the pain.
Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been helping individuals suffering from back pain due to arthritis as well as other arthritic problems for over a hundred years. Not only can arthritic pain and degenerative changes in the spine be caused by the misaligned vertebra that your San Diego chiropractor will correct, if left untreated misalignments can lower resistance and immunity, which can lead to new health problems.
It is always smart to see a health care professional to discuss diet and exercise. If you looking for expert advice on the kind of lifestyle changes that you will need to help you to manage your arthritis, your chiropractor will be very happy to talk with you. By the same token, in addition to getting your spine in alignment through gentle adjustments, your chiropractor will diagnose any faulty gait patterns or posture irregularities that may be contributing to your arthritic pain.
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