Arthritis: The Mobility Barrier

Arthritis is a condition that often gets overlooked to the point where it becomes too late for any sort of prevention or cure except surgery. Even the road that leads to this final step is a painful one. Arthritis makes you feel pain in the joints of your body every day when you wake up, even at the slightest movement. For millions of people in India alone, this just doesn’t mean a fatigued day; it becomes an everyday story, transforming even the simplest of tasks into big challenges. While the condition affects your physical health, the mental pain of the arthritis affects your emotional well-being as well. Let’s get to know how arthritis becomes a mobility barrier in one’s day-to-day life and what you can do to ease the pain.

The Prevalence of Arthritis in India

Arthritis is not just any condition. It works as a silent pandemic. According to recent statistics, in India alone, over 180 million people suffer from one or the other form of arthritis, making it up to 15% of the population in our country. The prevalence of arthritis is usually high among elderly folks, but young individuals are also not immune to it, especially those in their prime working years. They dedicate their time to working long hours and stressing over deadlines, keeping the health of their joints at the backend. Thus, with such a significant portion of the population affected, understanding the impact of arthritis on one’s daily life becomes more than crucial.

Everyday challenges caused by arthritis

For those who already have arthritis and those who might be moving towards it, the simplest activities become tedious. They tend to take up your physical and mental energy, too. Here are some of the common challenges that may become too daunting in your day-to-day life

-Getting off the bed: Leaving the bed in the morning may become painful for your joints because you wake up after a long period of inactivity. This makes your joints and muscles stiff

-Everyday tasks: The chores we perform everyday like bathing, cooking and cleaning may start to become difficult causing more fatigue than usual

-Daily chores: Everyday routine activities, like cooking, cleaning, etc., require a lot of bending, standing, and lifting. These can be really exhausting and painful for those suffering with arthritis

-Professional life: For those who also have to manage a professional life and career along with household chores, the problem increases fourfold. Extended hours of sitting in the same place or standing can exacerbate pain and make you unable to perform at your peak levels. This can gradually affect job performance and career progression also

Commonly affected body parts

Arthritis is known to impact various parts of the body, while the commonly affected areas are:

-Knees: Our knees are known to face the burden of our entire body when we sit, stand and walk. Thus, pain, stiffness and swelling in the knees can make walking, standing and climbing stairs difficult

-Back: Our back never rests. It is always at work. Even when you are sitting or standing. Arthritis can cause chronic back pain that eventually affects posture and mobility, too. This can put excess strain on the back keeping

-Wrists and hands: Our fingers get us through the day. Pain, stiffness and swelling in the hands and wrist joints can make it hard to perform tasks that require our fine motor skills. This includes being unable to type, write or hold objects with ease

Common mobility and movement issues

The mobility issues that arthritis patients usually face can vary to various degrees. However, the common ones include:

-Joint stiffness: This is the most common one. The patients cannot exercise complete flexibility in joints. This makes movement difficult

-Constant pain: A feeling of persistent pain that worsens with movement or any sort of activity

-Muscle swelling: Constant joint pain and inflammation can limit the range of motion, causing discomfort

-Fatigue: An arthritis patient feels like he/she is in a perpetual state of fatigue due to constant pain

How arthritis affects mental health

The physical challenges that come with arthritis often affect one’s mental well-being as well. Chronic pain and minimised mobility can lead to feelings of helplessness, frustration and anxiety that keep you in a state of constant lack of energy, mentally and emotionally as well. The inability to enjoy fully can also restrict one from participating in social activities and eventually result in isolation.

Solutions for the betterment of mobility and overall lifestyle

If you find yourself relating to any of the things mentioned so far in this article, then here are some things that will help you turn around your life for the good and the better:

– Lifestyle changes: Opt for a healthy lifestyle. Maintain a healthy weight, eat a balanced diet and stay active. This can help you manage arthritis symptoms

– Natural additions to your life: Your body needs the right nutrients to keep your joints healthy and pain-free. And it is difficult to get these nutrients from an everyday diet. To help you with that, three60+ tablets are here. They help ease joint pain and strengthen them, too. You can choose from three60+ Pain Relief & Joint Mobility Tablets or three60+ Daily Joint Care & Protect

– Physical therapy: Physical therapy performed by physiotherapists and guided by doctors can help in keeping the symptoms of arthritis under control. Customized physical therapy exercise programs help improve joint function and reduce pain, too

Conclusion

Arthritis is not just a medical condition. It acts like a daily challenge that affects every aspect of one’s life. It makes the simplest tasks challenging and takes a toll on one’s mental health. Understanding your body’s struggles helps you make decisions for the betterment of your well-being. Maintain a healthy weight, switch up your dietary habits, and look after your mental health: these steps can help manage arthritis immensely. Along with this, innovative solutions like three60+ orthocare range for arthritis prevention and control assist you in attaining overall well-being.

About The Author

Dr. Kriti Soni

Dr. Kriti Soni is a pharmaceutical scientist specialising in developing drug delivery systems and natural products