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Will Weight Reduction Relieve Painful Arthritis?

20 June 2009 No Comment

San Diego Chiropractor: Chiropractic and Arthritis

Do you have back pain due to arthritis? Do you also have a difficult time with your weight?  If so, you are probably having back pain not only because of arthritis, but also as the eventuality of the strain your weight is putting on your spine.  The body was not intended to carry around extra weight in the form of body fat.  Your spine, which supports your body, is being put under a lot of strain even if you are just carrying a surplus 20 or 30 pounds everyday. This type of strain can created abnormalities of the vertebral column. These misaligned vertebra can cause arthritic changes in the spine and persist in irritating the degenerative changes that have already taken place. In addition, your body may compensate in other ways, for instance your hips moving forward or tilting to support the excess pounds.  This can restrict the sciatic nerve, which is extraordinarily painful.

A new survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research firm based in Rosemont, Ill., indicates that around 62% of men and women and 34% of adolescents are overweight or obese. The prevalence of arthritis amplifies with increasing weight. Research implies that sustaining a healthy weight lessens the risk of developing arthritis in the first place and may decrease degenerative progression. A weight decrease of just 11 pounds can decrease the occurrence (incidence) of new knee osteoarthritis and would be highly effective in relieving back pain as well.

In order for anyone to overcome their back pain, knee pain, and joint pain in other regions of the body, a healthy diet and regular exercise is definitely required.  Although you have probably been advised about this for the better part of your life, it really is the only solution for you to get out of pain and regain your life. 

First of all, we’ll look at the dieting issue.  Many diets (and there are a large number from which to choose) can be temporarily helpful.  Obviously, if you were to lose weight for keeps, the diet industry would lose a life-long customer!  If you’re interested in losing weight effectively, you are simply going to need to eat a healthy diet and additionally to cut your calories so that you use more calories than you take in.  Dropping a lot of pounds too rapidly is not only unhealthy, but unsafe. A healthy weight loss rate is about 2 pounds every week in order for it to work well.

On the subject of exercise, research has proved that physical activity lessens pain, improves function, and slows down disability. It is important for you to get no less than one-half hour of moderate physical activity a minimum of 3 days a week. Even at 10-minute intervals such movement is beneficial.

In addition to the health advantages your joints will experience from exercise, chiropractic manipulation is a proved way to get movement back in the joints of your spine and other regions of your body. A spine in alignment makes exercise and physical activity much easier and will slow down arthritic degenerative changes. The Annals of Internal Medicine reported the results of a survey of 232 people who had arthritis and were under a rheumatologist’s care.  Of those people, 63% responded to the survey by indicating they were taking advantage of some form of “complementary care” as named by the study.  Of those responders, 31% were using chiropractic. Undoubtedly the most impressive statistic was that 73% of those utilizing chiropractic found it beneficial.  Answering why they’d tried the non-medical chiropractic care, those surveyed provided a number of reasons: 1) to curb pain, 2) they’d heard that it helps, 3) they felt certain that it is safe, 4) it had aided someone they knew, and 5) because their prescription medication wasn’t working.

Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been assisting people suffering from back pain due to arthritis as well as other arthritic conditions for over a hundred years. Not only can arthritic pain and degenerative changes in the spine be created by the misaligned vertebra that your San Diego chiropractor will adjust, if left unattended misalignments can reduce resistance and immunity, which can cause new health challenges.

It is always wise to visit a health care professional to discuss diet and exercise. Your chiropractor is a knowledgeable resource for education about the sort of lifestyle changes that you will require to aid you in managing your arthritis. Moreover, besides getting your spine in alignment through gentle adjustments, your chiropractor will diagnose any faulty gait patterns or posture irregularities that may be adding to the pain you are experiencing.

 

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