Chronic Joint Pain Relief

Chronic joint pain can affect any joint in the body, although most cases of chronic joint pain affect the large, weight-bearing joints of the body, mainly the knees and hips. A chronic joint pain condition is a pain condition that is ongoing and/or flares up frequently, generally due to some underlying type of joint dysfunction and/or disease. There are numerous treatment options available to treat chronic joint pain.

Pain Medication

• Many types of pain medications are available to treat chronic joint pain. These medications range from basic over-the-counter type pain medications, such as Tylenol, to more powerful prescription-based medications, such as codeine and Vioxx. Normally, chronic cases of joint pain are first treated using non-prescription medications and/or lower-strength prescription medications. If these medications fail to provide adequate pain relief, stronger opiate/narcotic-based prescription medications are generally prescribed. To treat your chronic joint pain effectively, use your pain medication on a consistent basis, taking care to follow the appropriate dosage guidelines and use recommendations provided by your physician.

Activity Modification

• Avoiding and/or modifying those activities that aggravate your joint pain is a great way to manage a chronic pain condition. For chronic pain affecting your knees and hips, avoiding high-impact activities such as running, jogging and fast walking can often help reduce and/or manage painful joint flare-ups. For pain affecting your shoulder and elbow joints, avoiding repetitive shoulder and/or arm movements and/or heavy lifting can help reduce chronic joint pain. Trial and error is often the best way to experiment with various physical activities to gauge how well they are tolerated and whether they aggravate your chronic joint pain.

Heat Treatment

• Applying heat to your painful joint can help reduce pain and increase joint function. Heat therapy helps to increase circulation in and around a painful joint, which helps to reduce joint stiffness and tightness and, in turn, helps to reduce joint pain. Apply heat to a painful joint using a heating pad and/or microwaveable heating disc held directly against your painful joint area for several minutes. Heat therapy can be applied several times per day or on an as-needed basis.

Joint Injections

• Joint injections are often times performed to help manage chronic joint pain that fails to respond adequately to pain medication intervention and/or activity modifications. Most joint injections consist of injecting small amounts of corticosteroid (normally cortisone) directly into a painful and/or diseased body joint. Corticosteroids are powerful anti-inflammatory agents that help to reduce swelling and pain levels. If chronic pain levels are severe enough, your doctor may recommend a joint injection to help treat your chronic joint pain.