Can Weight Reduction Help Painful Arthritis?

San Diego Chiropractor: Chiropractic and Arthritis

Are you suffering from back pain due to arthritis? Do you also have a difficult time with your weight?  If you’ve answered in the affirmative to both questions, you are probably having back pain not only because of arthritis, but also because of the strain your weight is putting on your spine.  The body was not designed to carry around extra weight in the form of body fat.  If you are carrying around just an additional 20 or 30 pounds day in and day out, your spine, which supports the body, is being put under a lot of strain. This type of burden can produce abnormalities of the vertebral column. These misaligned vertebra can produce arthritic changes in the spine and persist in aggravating the degenerative changes that are present already. Moreover, your body may offset in other ways, for instance your hips moving forward or tilting to support the extra weight.  This can pinch the sciatic nerve, which is intensely painful.

A new survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research organization based in Rosemont, Ill., shows that around 62% of men and women and 34% of children are overweight or obese. The pervasiveness of arthritis amplifies with accumulating weight. Research indicates that cultivating a healthy weight decreases the risk of developing arthritis in the first place and may slow degenerative progression. A reduction of just 11 pounds can decrease the occurrence (incidence) of new knee osteoarthritis and would be extraordinarily beneficial in relieving back pain as well.

A healthy diet and appropriate exercise is mandatory for a person who desires to overcome their back pain, knee pain, and joint pain in other places in the body.  Even though this information probably doesn’t seem like anything new, it genuinely is the only solution for you to get out of pain and regain your life. 

First of all, we’ll talk about the dieting issue.  There are a huge number of different ways to diet and most of them are useful only on a temporary basis.  Just think about it, if you were to lose weight for keeps, the diet industry would lose a regular customer!  Eating a balanced 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 way.  Shedding a lot of pounds too rapidly is not only unhealthy, but dangerous. Losing about 2 pounds every week will take off the weight and improve your health.

With regard to exercise, research has confirmed that physical activity lessens pain, enhances function, and defers disability. No less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, at least 3 days a week, has been confirmed to be effective. You can get activity in 10-minute intervals.

Chiropractic treatment is a highly beneficial way to get mobility back in the joints of your spine and other areas of, and can be a wise first step before starting an exercise program. A spine in alignment makes exercise and physical activity a good deal easier and actually slows 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% replied to the survey by stating that they were utilizing some type of “complementary care” as named by the study.  Of those individuals, 31% were trying chiropractic. Likely the most notable statistic was that 73% of those trying chiropractic found it effective.  Indicating why they’d tried the non-medical chiropractic care, those surveyed offered a number of reasons: 1) to curb pain, 2) they’d been told 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 doing the job.

Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been aiding individuals suffering from back pain due to arthritis as well as other arthritic problems for over a hundred years. Your San Diego chiropractor treats misaligned vertebra that, in addition to causing arthritic pain and degenerative changes in the spine, can decrease resistance and immunity, thus causing new health challenges.

It is always wise to see a health care professional to talk about diet and exercise. If you looking for expert advice on the type of lifestyle changes that you will need to help you to manage your arthritis, your chiropractor will be very happy to help you. Furthermore, besides getting your spine in alignment through gentle adjustments, your chiropractor will evaluate any faulty gait patterns or posture irregularities that may be contributing to your arthritic pain.

 

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Posted under Arthritis Treatments

This post was written by admin on April 29, 2009

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