What are the precautions for osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is a problem that is often easily discovered. In daily life, patients are advised to develop good living habits and eating habits and control their weight. Especially the elderly or obese people must pay attention to losing weight and choose suitable shoes.

1. Have a reasonable way of life and work: control your weight moderately, drink small amounts of milk frequently, get more sun exposure, and supplement calcium when necessary. Middle-aged and elderly people often do not absorb calcium well when taking calcium alone, so they can take active vitamin D at the same time. The intensity of labor should be adjusted or the type of work that causes the symptoms to worsen should be changed, and adverse factors such as strenuous exercise should be eliminated or avoided. Avoid mechanical injury: Avoid excessive load on the affected joints, and obese people should lose weight. People with knee and hip injuries should avoid standing, kneeling, and squatting for long periods of time.

2. Choose appropriate shoes: It is best for the elderly to wear soft shoes with heels. The height of the heel should be about 2 cm higher than the forefoot of the sole. The soles of the elderly's shoes should be slightly larger and must have anti-slip grooves to avoid falling.

3. Use assistive devices: handles, canes, knee pads (for affected patellofemoral joints), walkers, wedge insoles (for those with genu varum or valgus), or other assistive devices can be used to reduce the load on the affected joints.

4. Auxiliary physical therapy: In the acute phase, the main focus is on relieving pain, reducing swelling and improving function; in the chronic phase, the main focus is on enhancing local blood circulation and improving joint function. Traditional Chinese medicine bathing, moxibustion, ultra laser, ultra short wave and other treatments have better therapeutic effects. However, it should be noted that heat or ultrasound therapy is prohibited in joints that have undergone arthroplasty or contain metal components to avoid deep burns.

5. Perform moderate aerobic exercise: Start with a small amount of exercise and progress gradually. If joint pain persists after exercise, reduce the intensity and duration of exercise. Aerobic exercise includes joint movement and muscle movement. Take the knee joint as an example: joint exercise can be done while sitting or lying down, performing knee flexion, extension and rotation exercises about 3 times a day. Different patients should focus on different exercises: those with knee joint involvement can swim or walk, but those with cervical osteoarthritis are not suitable for swimming; those with cervical and lumbar vertebrae involvement can perform gentle neck and waist movements, and those with hand involvement can do grasping and gripping exercises.

6. Correct use of analgesics: Do not abuse analgesics to prevent adverse reactions. Patients with hypertension, liver or kidney damage should use the drugs with caution, use small doses, and use maintenance doses as early as possible. Avoid taking two or more analgesics at the same time, as the therapeutic effects will not be combined and adverse reactions will increase. Elderly people should choose drugs with a short half-life. Enteric-coated tablets are generally taken within half an hour before meals, and other preparations are generally taken during or after meals.