Source: American College of Sports Medicine

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Do you suffer from painful arthritis? Do you also have a difficult time with your weight?  If you do, it’s conceivable that you’re having back pain not only because of arthritis, but also as a consequence of the strain your weight is putting on your spine.  The body was not intended to carry around additional 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 only carrying a surplus 20 or 30 pounds all the time. This sort of strain can created irregularities of the vertebral column. These misaligned vertebra can cause arthritic changes in the spine and continue to irritate the degenerative changes that have already taken place. Moreover, your body may offset in other ways, like your hips moving forward or tilting to counterbalance the excess pounds.  This can pinch the sciatic nerve, which is extremely painful.

A new survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research company based in Rosemont, Ill., shows that about 62% of adults and 34% of children are overweight or obese. The ubiquitousness of arthritis increases with accumulating weight. Research implies that maintaining a healthy weight decreases the risk of developing arthritis in the first place and may decrease disease progression. A reduction of just 11 pounds can reduce the occurrence (incidence) of new knee osteoarthritis and would be highly beneficial in relieving back pain as well.

A nutritious diet and routine exercise is mandatory for anyone who desires to overcome their back pain, knee pain, and joint pain in other areas of the body.  Although you have likely been hearing this for the better part of your life, 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 talk about the dieting issue.  Many diets (and there are a large number to choose from) can be temporarily helpful.  Obviously, if you were to lose weight for good, the diet industry would lose a regular customer!  If you’re interested in losing weight efficiently, you are simply going to need to eat a healthy diet and also to cut your calories so that you use more calories than you take in.  Shedding a large amount of weight too quickly is not only ineffectual long-term, but dangerous. Losing about 2 pounds every week will take off the weight and improve your health.

Research has proved that exercise and physical activity not only relieves pain and enhances function, but genuinely delays disability. Make sure you get at least one-half hour of moderate physical activity at least 3 days a week. Even at 10-minute intervals such movement is beneficial.

Chiropractic adjustments are a proved way to get mobility back in the joints of your spine and other regions of, and can be a good first step before starting an exercise program. A spine in alignment makes exercise and physical activity much easier and will slow down arthritic degenerative changes. The Annals of Internal Medicine released the findings 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 taking advantage of some form of “complementary care” as named by the study.  Of those individuals, 31% were using chiropractic. Possibly the most notable statistic was that 73% of those using chiropractic found it effective.  Explaining why they’d tried the non-medical chiropractic care, those surveyed gave a number of reasons: 1) to control pain, 2) they’d heard that it helps, 3) they felt assured that it is safe, 4) it had helped someone they knew, and 5) because their prescription medication wasn’t doing the job.

Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been aiding men and women suffering from back pain due to arthritis and other arthritic afflictions 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 fix, if left unchanged misalignments can lower resistance and immunity, which can lead to new health problems.

It is always wise to visit a health care professional to talk about diet and exercise. Your chiropractor is an excellent resource for education about the kind of lifestyle changes that you will require to assist you in managing your arthritis. Moreover, in addition to correcting any misalignments in your spine, your chiropractor will analyze any faulty gait patterns or posture irregularities that may be adding to your arthritic pain.

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