Joint-Friendly Workouts to Ease Arthritis Pain and Stiffness
May is Arthritis Awareness Month, and it's the perfect time to inject new life into your workouts. Here are some moves that make it easier to move.
5 Effective Treatments for Joint Pain
Achy joints can stem from a long list of potential causes, including, but not limited to:
- Infection
- Injury
- Arthritis
- Inflammation
- Fibromyalgia
- Sprains
- Tendonitis
- Bursitis
- Osteoporosis
These are just a few of the many conditions that can affect your joints, so how do you know which treatment is best?
It all starts with the proper diagnosis from a specialist who treats all kinds of joint pain every day. In and around Lawrenceville and Edgewater, New Jersey, that means Dr. Dinash Yanamadula — one of the country’s leading pain specialists — here at Princeton Pain & Spine Institute.
Dr. Yanamadula is board certified in pain management and physical medicine and fellowship trained in interventional pain management and sports medicine. He brings many years of experience, a multidisciplinary mindset, and a patient-centered approach to all our patients throughout Mercer County.
If you’re experiencing joint pain, we want you to know that you don’t have to suffer through it. Regardless of the cause, there’s a treatment that can either resolve the underlying issue or alleviate the pain so you can function more freely. Here are five of the most effective joint pain treatments.
1. Physical therapy for joint pain
Your joints are in pain, so the last thing you want to do is move them and cause more pain. We get it. It seems counterintuitive, but movement is often the best “medicine” for painful joints. But not just any movement — physical therapy.
Physical therapy is a medical specialty that uses noninvasive techniques to increase mobility and decrease pain. Our expert physical therapist, Dr. Christine Savela, works with you one on one, tailoring your PT sessions to your unique needs.
She monitors your progress carefully, and makes adjustments as you heal. Through various modalities, such as heat and cold therapy, electrical nerve stimulation, targeted stretches and exercises, therapeutic ultrasound, and more, Dr. Savela helps alleviate your pain and lower your need for pain medications.
2. Injections for joint pain
Often, joint pain stems from swelling, and when rest and PT don’t offer enough relief, Dr. Yanamadula may recommend approaching your pain from the inside out.
There are several types of joint injections, but most contain an ingredient that stops pain immediately, such as lidocaine, and a corticosteroid that reduces inflammation and gives you relief for up to several months.
3. Viscosupplementation for joint pain
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of the more-than-100 kinds of arthritis. It’s often called wear-and-tear arthritis because it stems from the gradual cartilage deterioration that occurs over a lifetime of use.
In addition to inflammation, osteoarthritis also leads to bone-on-bone rubbing that causes stiffness and pain.
Viscosupplementation can replace some of the lubrication missing from your arthritic joint by injecting hyaluronic acid (HA) into the area. Since your body naturally produces HA in high quantities, it’s a familiar substance that doesn’t cause any side effects.
It’s also thick, or viscous, so it coats the bones in your joint, allowing them to slide over one another with less friction and pain.
4. Genicular nerve blocks for joint pain
Osteoarthritis can affect any joint, but it’s particularly common in the knees. If bracing, rest, and anti-inflammatory efforts haven’t relieved your knee pain, it may be time for a genicular nerve block.
The nerves in your knee, called genicular nerves, run in and out of the joint carrying sensation messages to your brain, including pain messages. A genicular nerve block is an injection of numbing medication that targets the nerves in your knee and blocks these messages to your brain.
5. Genicular nerve ablation for joint pain
When conservative treatments and injections don’t do the trick, Dr. Yanamadula may offer genicular nerve ablation to alleviate your knee joint pain.
Here, he uses a radiofrequency device to disable or disrupt the function of your genicular nerves. The RF energy gently heats up the targeted nerves — a process called ablation — and stops them from sending pain signals to your brain.
To accomplish this, Dr. Yanamadula uses fluoroscopy to guide a thin needle into your numbed joint. Then, he inserts an electrode into the needle and activates the device to heat the nerve. He then repeated the ablation process on your other genicular nerves. Studies show it can bring you six months of relief or more.
Each of these treatments can help you move better, relieve your pain, and allow you to delay or avoid surgery. To find out which treatment is the one that’ll finally address your joint pain, schedule a consultation with Dr. Yanamadula today by calling our friendly staff or requesting an appointment online.
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