If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis, then you know that this isn’t your grandmother’s stiffness…this feels as if someone has stapled your muscles to your bones. Not only is it as debilitating as the accompanying inflammation, arthritic stiffness can last for hours. Here are a few tips for reducing morning stiffness and preventing its recurrence throughout the day.
Stiffness is the hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, stiffness is such an indicator that - for most rheumatologists - duration of morning stiffness is taken as a guide to the severity of the inflammatory process: the longer it takes you to “warm up,” the more severe the disease. And morning is not the only time that stiffness can occur. The “gelling effect” - an edema trapped within inflamed tissues leading to painful stiffness - can occur upon arising or following any prolonged sitting.
Unfortunately, as long as your Rheumatoid Arthritis is active, you will experience some stiffness. It is a part of the inflammatory process that scientists still don’t fully understand. Stiffness, however, is one aspect of Rheumatoid Arthritis over which you do have some control…and reducing stiffness can make a great deal of difference in reducing pain overall.
Fire and Ice
After medication, heat is the most widely used pain therapy. Heat works by increasing the blood flow to an area, making joints more comfortable and loosening them up. It also relieves pain and reduces muscles spasms caused by pain.
You Say Bathing; I Say Hydrotherapy
Make that morning shower first thing on your agenda; it can make a crucial difference in how you feel. Baths are good too, but showers are more effective in reaching all areas that feel quick-dried in cement. A good showerhead with different settings can work wonders on stiff upper backs.
Moist is Better
Moist heat seems to be more effective than dry. Moist heat packs are available at most drugstores and department stores. (It has been suggested that you can “convert” a heating pad by covering it with plastic and placing a warm, wet cloth on top, but for safety’s sake, please use an alternative method, like a wet, warm washcloth). For pain and stiffness in your hands, wrists, ankles and feet, you might consider buying a paraffin bath. Submerge the affected area into the hot paraffin several times to build up a coating and then wrap in plastic for thirty minutes. Not only does the heat soothe stiff, achy appendages, the oil in the paraffin soothes dry skin (a problem for many of us on corticosteroids).
Dry Heat
A standard heating pad is still a cheap, effective way of reducing stiffness. Recently, heating pads have become more versatile. Many are microwaveable, come in different sizes and shapes and some come with straps to attach to appendages. They are easy to make too. Heating pads are not without their dangers, however. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), more than 1,600 heating pad burns are treated each year in hospital emergency rooms.
Pain Relief in a Tube
While The Arthritis Foundation includes “topical creams” in its list of “harmless baloney” (see “Arthritis - Unproven Remedies”), topical analgesics can provide quick relief for arthritic stiffness. Called counterirritants, these creams, salves and ointments produce a warming or cooling effect that stimulate the nerve endings - distracting the brain’s attention from the greater source of discomfort. They have no healing effect (and be wary of any topical cream that makes claims to the contrary), but provide enough temporary relief to be worth a try. Many contain ingredients like menthol, oil of wintergreen, camphor, eucalyptus oil, dihydrochloride and methylnicotinate.
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