Are you suffering from painful arthritis? Do you also have a difficult time with your weight?  If you’ve answered yes to both questions, it’s conceivable that you’re having back pain not only due to arthritis, but also as the eventuality of the strain your weight is putting on your spine.  The body was not designed to carry around additional weight in the form of body fat.  Your spine, which supports your body, is being put under a tremendous of strain even if you are merely carrying a surplus 20 or 30 pounds everyday. This sort of strain can created aberrations of the vertebral column. These misaligned vertebra can generate arthritic changes in the spine and continue to aggravate the degenerative changes that are present already. Moreover, your body may compensate in other ways, like your hips moving forward or tilting to counterbalance the extra weight.  This can pinch the sciatic nerve, which is extremely painful.

A current survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research company based in Rosemont, Ill., reveals that around 62% of adults and 34% of adolescents are overweight or obese. The pervasiveness of arthritis amplifies with accumulating weight. Research suggests that cultivating a healthy weight reduces the risk of developing arthritis in the first place and may slow degenerative progression. A reduction of just 11 pounds can decrease the occurrence (incidence) of new knee osteoarthritis and would do quite a lot to reduce back pain as well.

In order for an individual to overcome their back pain, knee pain, and pain in the joints in other places in the body, a nutritious diet and appropriate exercise is definitely required.  Even though you have likely been told this for the better part of your life, it really is the only solution for you to get out of pain and get your life back.

First of all, let’s tackle the issue of dieting.  Many diets (and there are a large number from which to choose) can be temporarily helpful.  It may sound cynical, but let’s face it, if you were to lose weight permanently, the diet industry would lose a good customer!  In order for you to lose weight effectively, you must eat a healthy diet as well as to cut your calories so that you are at a slight calorie deficit.  Shedding a large amount of weight too quickly is not only unhealthy, but dangerous. A good goal is to lose about 2 pounds every week in order to have positive results.

Research has shown that exercise and physical activity not only reduces pain and augments function, but genuinely slows the process of disability. Be certain to get a minimum of one-half hour of moderate physical activity at least 3 days a week. Even at 10-minute intervals such movement is beneficial.

Besides the good your joints will undergo from exercise, chiropractic manipulation is an excellent way to get motion back in the joints of your spine and other regions of your body. A spine in alignment makes exercise and physical activity much easier and actually slows down arthritic degenerative changes. The Annals of Internal Medicine published the results of a survey of 232 people who had arthritis and were under a rheumatologist’s care.  Of those people, 63% answered the survey by indicating they were using some kind of “complementary care” as named by the study.  Of those people, 31% were using chiropractic. Possibly the most consequential statistic was that 73% of those using chiropractic found it effective.  Explaining why they’d tried the non-medical chiropractic care, the responders provided a number of reasons: 1) to reduce pain, 2) they’d been told that it helps, 3) they felt confident that it is safe, 4) it had assisted someone they knew, and 5) because their prescription medication wasn’t doing the job.

Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been aiding men and women suffering from back pain due to arthritis as well as other arthritic conditions for over a hundred years. Your San Diego chiropractor treats misaligned vertebra that, in addition to creating arthritic pain and degenerative changes in the spine, can weaken resistance and immunity, thereby causing new health challenges.

It is always smart to see a health care professional to talk about diet and exercise. Your chiropractor is a knowledgeable resource for information on the sort of lifestyle changes that you will require to aid you in managing your arthritis. By the same token, in addition to getting your spine in alignment through gentle adjustments, your chiropractor will analyze any faulty gait patterns or posture irregularities that may be compounding the pain you are experiencing.

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