Lifestyle and home remedies

Learn all you can about your condition and how to manage it, especially about how lifestyle changes can affect your symptoms. Exercising and losing weight if you're overweight are important ways to lessen the joint pain and stiffness of osteoarthritis.

• Exercise. Low-impact exercise can increase your endurance and strengthen the muscles around your joint, making your joint more stable. Try walking, bicycling or water aerobics. If you feel new joint pain, stop.

  New pain that lasts for hours after you exercise probably means you've overdone it, not that you've caused damage or that you should stop exercising. Try again a day or two later at a lower level of intensity.

• Lose weight. Carrying extra weight increases the stress on your weight-bearing joints, such as your knees and your hips. Even minor weight loss can relieve some pressure and reduce your pain. Talk to a dietitian about healthy ways to lose weight.

Other things to try include:

• Movement therapies. Tai chi and yoga involve gentle exercises and stretches combined with deep breathing. Many people use these therapies to reduce stress in their lives, and research suggests that tai chi and yoga might reduce osteoarthritis pain and improve movement.

  Make sure the yoga you choose is a gentle form and that your instructor knows which of your joints are affected. Avoid moves that cause pain in your joints.

• Heat and cold. Both heat and cold can relieve pain and swelling in your joint. Heat, especially moist heat, can help muscles relax and ease pain. Cold can relieve muscle aches after exercise and decrease muscle spasms.
• Capsaicin. Topical capsaicin, a chili pepper extract, applied to your skin over an arthritic joint might help. You might have to apply it three to four times a day for several weeks before you see a benefit. Some people can't tolerate the irritation. Wash your hands well after applying capsaicin cream.
• Braces or shoe inserts. Shoe inserts or other devices might help reduce pain when you stand or walk. These devices can support your joint to help take pressure off it.

• Assistive devices. Assistive devices can help relieve stress on your joints. A cane or walker take weight off your knee or hip as you walk. Hold the cane in the hand opposite the leg that hurts.

  Tools for gripping and grabbing may make it easier to work in the kitchen if you have osteoarthritis in your fingers. Check catalogs or medical supply stores or ask your doctor or occupational therapist about assistive devices.