Osteoarthritis Treatment & Management Options
Your Osteoarthritis Relief Options
If you’re scratching your head thinking what to use for osteoarthritis pain, we’re here to make sense of your options. Medications can help relieve pain. The type of medication you can use may depend on the severity of your pain. There are a number of medication options for osteoarthritis management.
Over-the-counter medications such as paracetamol, or ibuprofen, or diclofenac may be taken for osteoarthritis management. Speaking with your pharmacist can help you decide what to take for osteoarthritis.
Topical medications can include pain relief medications or anti-inflammatories. Topical medications may be applied through a range of delivery methods, such as gels, creams or patches that are rubbed into your skin, such as Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly that targets pain with the NSAID diclofenac. Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly is effective pain relief for mild osteoarthritis of the knees and fingers, and the pain flare up it can cause. Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly may be just the mild osteoarthritis relief option you’re looking for to regain some of your freedom of movement.
Much more than just medication, osteoarthritis management includes many non-medicated treatments and lifestyle adjustments.
Maintain a healthy body weight
Eat a nutritious diet designed for joint health
Get active
Stay positive
Discover how small lifestyle changes can make a big difference in relieving osteoarthritis pain. Living with osteoarthritis can be a major pain—literally. But don’t let it get you down. There are plenty of ways to help relieve osteoarthritis pain, from maintaining a healthy weight to embracing holistic therapy methods. Simple lifestyle changes can make a big difference. Get started with these strategies.
Being a healthy weight is important for everyone, but especially for those suffering from osteoarthritis.2 Excess weight places increased stress on your joints. Losing even just a few kilos can help you reduce pressure and provide relief in areas such as ankle pain, knee pain, and hip pain. For your best odds of long-term weight loss success, take off the kilos slowly using a healthy eating plan and regularly engaging in physical activity.
If you experience osteoarthritis pain, what you eat is not just about your weight — it’s also about what types of food you put in your body. A donut or a piece of pizza might be more tempting than a salad or a bowl of veggies, but it’s important to keep an eye on what we put in our bodies. Some research, for example, suggests it could be a good idea to reduce processed sugar and saturated fats in your diet.3
Foods, such as fish, olive oil, fruit, nuts, and leafy greens, fill your body with nutrients that might help combat inflammation throughout the body, according to some research.4,5
When you’re experiencing pain, physical activity may feel like the last thing on your to-do list. Surprise! Exercising is one of the best ways you can decrease osteoarthritis pain. It reduces joint stiffness, improves your range of motion, and builds muscle strength, which helps offload some pressure on your joints. The weaker your muscles are, the more work your joints have to do to support and stabilise your body.6
Low-impact exercising like walking, biking, yoga, swimming, and even light weight training are all approved for osteoarthritis and shown to have a positive impact on osteoarthritis management.7 Plus, they can be great mood boosters. Win win! Whatever exercise you choose, be sure to keep it low impact. Certain types of exercise that involve high-impact activities can lead to pounding or twisting of your joints over time, raising your risk of injury.8 You may choose to work with a doctor or physical therapist to find out which exercises are right for you.
Pain is almost never just physical. It has deep emotional and mental components as well. Being in pain can affect your way of thinking about your life. Negative thoughts and feelings of hopelessness can make pain feel more intense and make it more difficult to manage.12 That’s why it’s very important to manage your thoughts and feelings alongside your physical reactions to pain. A little mind of matter never hurt. In fact, it can even help.
Here are some mindful techniques you may consider adopting as part of a holistic approach to osteoarthritis pain management:
Relaxation therapies such as meditation or yoga
Cognitive behavioural therapy, a combination of talk therapy and behaviour modification
Acupuncture
To keep negative thoughts at bay, it’s helpful to continue engaging in activities that you enjoy and to surround yourself with people who support you as much as possible.
When considering what relief options there are for osteoarthritis, be sure not to skip over non-medicinal therapies for osteoarthritis, with which you may want to consider supplementing your regular pain-relief regimen.
TENS, which stands for transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation, is a non-medicated therapy that works by painlessly stimulating your nerves via electrodes worn on the skin in order to help block pain signals to your brain.
Working with a physical therapist can help you learn exercises that alleviate pain and increase your range of motion. Physical therapy can include strength training and aquatic therapy, among others, to help improve joint mobility and function.10 Reach out to a physical therapist in your area for a consultation if you would like to explore this osteoarthritis management option.
Massage can be a helpful osteoarthritis management option when used as a supplement to lifestyle and medicinal relief options. Tense, tight muscles can place extra strain on your joints. Massage therapy can help relieve osteoarthritis pain temporarily.11
Voltaren Pain Relief Gel
12 Hourly for mild osteoarthritis relief
When it comes to topical solutions, what can you do for osteoarthritis pain? Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly is effective for osteoarthritis pain management. It is an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory, kind of like osteoarthritis pain management in a tube. An alternative to pills, Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly is an effective, on-the-spot osteoarthritis relief option. Use Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly for mild osteoarthritis of the fingers and knees to target pain directly at the source simply by rubbing some into your skin.
Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly works by delivering a dose of diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory medicine that will help you start to move more with less pain. Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly creates a reservoir of diclofenac when applied regularly, which gives the skin a source of the active ingredient throughout the day for lasting relief of pain and inflammation, and effective mild osteoarthritis pain management.
Our Emulgel Technology
All of our gels use our special Emulgel technology. Emulgel technology helps the gel to penetrate deeply into the skin to enhance delivery of inflammation-relieving diclofenac to the site of pain and swelling.
The Emulgel technology is a unique combination of a gel and cream providing both a cooling and soothing effect when applied to the skin. Rubbing in the Emulgel can create an extra opportunity to give yourself a soothing massage at the site of pain and inflammation. The massage you can give yourself when applying Voltaren Pain Relief Gel 12 Hourly is an extra little perk that you can do for mild osteoarthritis pain.
When back pain has you laid up on the couch, try these at-home techniques.
1 “Osteoarthritis” Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed July 2020
2 “Osteoarthritis, obesity and weight loss: evidence, hypotheses and horizons – a scoping review” Obesity Review, 2014 April 22. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed on 11 May 2020
3 “New Ways to Beat Osteoarthritis Pain” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 11 May 2020
4 “New Ways to Beat Osteoarthritis Pain” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 11 May 2020
5 Diet and Arthritis, Arthritis Research UK: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed on 29th May 2020
6 “Arthritis Pain: Do’s and Don’ts” Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 24 April 2020
7 “Physical Activity for Osteoarthritis” Center for Disease Control https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 24 April 2020
8 Ibid
9 “Arthritis Pain: Do’s and Don’ts” Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 24 April 2020
10 “Physical therapy in persons with osteoarthritis” PM&R 2012 May 4 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 11 May 2020
11 “Arthritis Pain: Do’s and Don’ts” Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed 24 April 2020
12 “Benefits of Massage” Arthritis Foundation. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925 Accessed June 2020
Health, wellness & your pain
Pain is rarely just physical nor is it always solved by taking medicine alone. Voltaren is your ally in helping you take more control of your pain journey, from the way to sleep, to what you eat, mental wellbeing and complementary pain relief therapies.
