Reducing Arthritis Inflammation
There are 4 good ways to keep your inflammation down:
Getting enough sleep
Getting enough sleep is important for a lot of things. Good sleep has been tied to both immune function, which you can read about in our blog post “4 Ways to Increase the Odds of Staying Healthy”, and also inflammation. Research shows that a healthy circadian rhythm can keep your inflammation down when you get up in the morning, and that too little sleep can raise your inflammation levels quite a bit.¹ You also have to be careful, though. Too much sleep can cause your inflammation to increase¹, so you have to find your sweet spot. Eight hours a night is always a good start.
Exercising
Keeping active as best you can and moving around with whatever exercises you can manage is another great way to lower your inflammation. Recent studies suggest that just twenty minutes a day of exercise can trigger an anti-inflammatory response.² For those with arthritis there are still plenty of activities you can do from home to get a solid workout. Starting with stretches is a great way to go, and there are plenty of great YouTube videos with easy to understand instruction on the different stretches you can do with your joints. Yoga can also be a great stretching and health tool, and there are some great Yoga for Arthritis YouTube videos with great detail out there as well. Following up with a long stroll around your house, be it inside or in the yard, followed by a few extra trips up and down the stairs if you have them can get the blood flowing and your heart moving. Marching in place, or jumping jacks and leg lifts if you’re feeling up to it, can also work. Following these activities up with a second set of stretches can help you avoid stiffness afterward as well.
Starting your day with a warm bath or shower
A hot bath or shower, at 90 to 100 degrees, can be another great way to reduce your inflammation. The hot water can reduce your morning stiffness, increase your range of motion, and increase your limberness at the start of your day.³ This heat can aid you in other ways, too. Reducing your stiffness and limbering up before your twenty minutes of daily exercise can improve the experience quite a bit, and make the whole thing more comfortable. As Carolyn Sayre puts it in “Heat Therapy Helps Relax Stiff Joints” “Soaking in warm water or applying a heated compress is one of the oldest, cheapest, and safest forms of complementary therapy. Research has shown that heat treatments can loosen stiff joints and relieve achy muscles.³”
Take your vitamins and supplements
Supplements such as curcumin, vitamin D, Omega-3 fatty acids, and chondroitin sulfate/glucosamine combos can help with your inflammation. Before getting into it, it needs to be stated that before starting, stopping, or changing any of your vitamins or supplements please speak with your physician. The listed supplements all have a fair amount of research supporting their use for inflammation, but also a few drawbacks as well that you should talk to your physician about when establishing a routine.⁴ Things like how curcumin interacts with the body’s ability to absorb iron, omega-3’s interaction with blood thinners, and many chondroitin/glucosamine combo product’s shellfish base⁴ (Osteosyn has a shellfish-free option if that interests you, the glucosamine is not in it as that is where the shellfish comes from). It's also important to note that, when looking for a chondroitin product, you should seek out pharmaceutical grade products, instead of food-grade. There are papers confirming the efficacy of pharma grade for osteoarthritis treatment, and in countries other than the US pharma-grade chondroitin is a prescription medication. Remembering to keep your medications and supplements on schedule is important, and if you typically did your purchasing at a specialty store that is affected by the self-quarantine it's good to note that most supermarkets these days have a decent health section that can hopefully fill your needs for the interim. It's recommended to use curbside ordering when available for the time being.
Want to learn about 4 stages of Arthritis? See our detailed coverage here.
References
1) Dr. Micheal Breus, 5 Things to Know About Sleep and Inflammation The Sleep Doctor
https://thesleepdoctor.com/2019/01/01/5-things-to-know-about-sleep-and-inflammation/
2) Just 20 minutes of exercise enough to reduce inflammation, study finds Medical News Today
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315255
3) Carolyn Sayre, Heat Therapy Helps Relax Stiff Joints Arthritis Foundation
4) Vijay Vad, MD, Top 4 Supplements to Treat Arthritis Pain Arthritis-health
https://www.arthritis-health.com/blog/top-4-supplements-treat-arthritis-pain
