What Is Good for Joint Pain?

Joint pain can affect any joint in the human body and can range in severity from mild discomfort to severe and debilitating. Although the causes of joint pain can be numerous, the treatment options for dealing with it are standard and straightforward.

Rest

• Resting a painful joint and avoiding any unnecessary movements can help reduce joint pain. Many cases of joint pain are caused, at least in part, by irritated and inflamed soft tissues surrounding a joint. Resting the joint, which reduces both irritation and inflammation in these soft tissues, helps to reduce joint pain and improve function. Many times rest is the only treatment needed to address a painful joint flare-up.

Heat Therapy

• The application of heat to a painful joint can help reduce joint pain by increasing blood circulation to the area, which increases lubrication and flexibility, both of which promote improved function and reduced pain levels. Heat can be applied to a painful joint using an electric heating pad or a microwaveable heating disc, both of which can be held against the painful joint area for several minutes at a time several times per day if needed.

Pain Medication

• There are several types of pain medications available to treat joint pain. Chief among these are the over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, or NSAIDs, such as Tylenol and Advil. These medications help to reduce joint inflammation and irritation, which helps to reduce pain and improve mobility. More-powerful drugs, such as Vicodin and Oxycontin, which are narcotic-based pain-relieving agents available only with a prescription, are effective at treating more-severe and/or chronic cases of joint pain. Experimenting with different pain medication types and gauging their overall effectiveness at reducing joint pain is the best approach for selecting the appropriate medication.

Massage

• Using the fingers and hands to massage a painful irritated joint can help reduce joint pain and increase range of motion. Massage helps to increase blood flow to the soft tissues surrounding a painful joint, which helps to reduce stiffness and promote flexibility, which in turn helps to reduce pain. A hand-held electrical massage device can also be used to massage a painful joint. To maximize the effectiveness of manual joint massage, gentle even massage strokes should be used, taking care to massage both the joint itself as well as the soft tissues surrounding the joint.

Joint Injection

• Injections can be helpful in managing severe and/or chronic cases of joint pain and reducing flare-ups. Joint injection therapy, which normally involves injecting a small amount of corticosteroid directly into a painful joint, can be used to treat any joint in the body, although the most common joints treated are the weight-bearing ones such as the knees, ankles and hips. Injections can be given on a routine, scheduled basis or on an as-needed basis. It is not uncommon for a single injection to provide significant pain relief for lengthy time periods, often as long as six months or longer.