There so much our elbow joint do in our daily routine. From dawn to dusk, our elbows are working constantly while picking things up, hugging, shaking hands, waving and so on. Now a sudden elbow pain strikes or you feel a minor discomfort, imagine how the rest of your day will be if the elbow doesn’t feel right. Terrible, isn’t it?

A pain, discomfort or an injury in our elbow joint can occur without any invitation. You might be unaware but our certain carelessness in our daily routine is the reason why the majority of us are complaining of elbow joint pain today. Then there are injuries which can worsen the functioning of the elbow, if not given timely care and treatment. Let’s see what are some of the common elbow discomforts, what causes them and what are the solutions that can help get over with it.

1. Tennis Elbow

The tennis-elbow is the one common injury that every sportsperson complain about once in a lifetime. Yes, even the God of Cricket, the Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar was once a victim of tennis elbow. The time period between 2004 to 2006 was like almost no cricket for the fans of the legendary batsman. He had sleepless nights feeling the pinch of injuries and could not even lift his son Arjun’s plastic bat. It took four-and-a-half months for the national icon to recover after the surgery of his tennis elbow. To know what is tennis elbow, its symptoms, reasons and home remedies for tennis elbow, click here.

2. Arthritis

There are certain types of arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout etc., that can affect your elbow, triggering pain from elbow to your hand.

3. Golfer’s elbow

Known as medial epicondylitis, golfer’s elbow is a bit similar to tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). It affects the inner parts of the elbow joint where the tendon that connects the elbow bone to the forearm muscles which enables the flexing of the wrist and fingers to get inflamed. Activities that involve repetitive motion or forceful gripping cause golfer’s elbow where the victim may feel a burning sensation in the elbow.

4. Trapped Nerves

Just like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, even the nerves in your elbow joint can get squeezed causing sharp pain in the inner elbow which are termed as Cubital Tunnel Syndrome and Radial Tunnel Syndrome depending upon the affected nerve.

5. Injuries

Sprained elbow, elbow fracture, elbow dislocation, all these are common sports injuries or can happen anytime due to a fall or a blow which follows severe pain in the elbow and forearm, along with swelling, numbness and tingling in some cases, and/or an inability to straighten or move the arm.

Elbow Pain Home Remedies

• For any discomfort in your elbow, you can always start with R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compress, elevate) treatment which will stimulate the blood flow and help to relieve the pain to some extent.
• If the pain persists, you can make use of elbow splints to give extra support to your elbow muscles.
• Under expert guidance, you can practice some tennis elbow stretches or elbow exercises to minimize the stiffness of muscles and tendons that surround the elbow joint and improve muscle flexibility.
• If nothing helps, get an electrotherapy device and treat your elbow naturally at the comfort of your home. The combination of therapeutic ultrasound and TENS in it can ease and treat any type of elbow pain without any harmful effects.

Remember last year’s 4x100m relay race at the IAAF World Championships in London, when the Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt tore his left hamstring in the final race of his career and had to exit the track via a wheelchair? Hamstring injuries are that bad and every sportsperson carries a risk of getting it injured at some point. They are the most common injury in sports which accounts for 37% of the muscular injuries observed in a sport worldwide.

Before getting into the details, let’s understand what are the hamstring muscles, what do hamstrings do and how do they get injured?

What is Hamstring?

The anatomy of the hamstring muscle group consists of three main muscles: the bicep femoris, semimembranosus and semitendinosus that originate from the lower part of the pelvis, traverse the back of the thigh and attach around the knee, providing excellent stability to the knee as well as the power to flex the knee and resist extension of the knee. Therefore, running (especially sprinting), cutting and kicking sports athletes are more prone to develop hamstring injury.

Hamstring Injuries

When the hamstring muscle trios get over-stretched or undergo too much strain or rapidly contracts against resistance, they tear or cramp up which is common in running, soccer or basketball. It can be anything a pull, a partial tear, or a complete tear. Hamstring injuries are classified as Grades I, II or III according to their severity. Grade I is mild and usually heals readily, grade 2 hamstring tear is a partial tear of the muscle itself while grade 3 is a complete rupture of the muscle and a catastrophic career-ending injury where the tendon tears completely away from the bone and may even pull a piece of bone away with it which is called an avulsion injury. Swelling, bruising or discolouration, weakness are the signs of a hamstring injury.

Causes

• Pulled hamstring or hamstring stretch occurs majorly due to muscle overload. Also, when you extend or stretch your leg while it is weighted, or loaded, your muscle lengthens as it contracts, or shortens and cause a strain in your hamstring.
• Apart from athletes, the risk of pulled hamstring is also high in water skiing, weight lifting, dancing and ice-skating
• Tight muscles due to lack of daily physical activity are vulnerable to hamstring injuries
• An imbalance or fatigue in muscles
• Increasing age can increase the risk of hamstring injury
• Muscles or spinal degeneration can also lead to hamstring problems

How to heal a hamstring injury quickly?

Acute hamstring injuries can be treated with the traditional method rest, ice, compression and elevation (RICE) which when combined with Ultrasound i.e. U.R.I.C.E can heal even chronic hamstring injuries from the root cause quickly and without any side effects. Other than that, you can make use of hamstring wrap to get some instant pain relief. You can also seek the help of some hamstring recovery exercises but make sure to practice it under expert guidance because hamstring injury needs extreme care to recover. You must give your body proper rest and allow the tear and the tissue to heal fully or else re-injuries can occur and destroy your sports career forever.

No pain, no gain, the exercise motto, is indeed inspiring and true but it can cost your muscles and joints to an extent that you may end up causing chronic or even unrepairable damage to them.

Our muscles are already constantly working while we walking, climbing, standing, all day and when you hit the gym, their responsibilities double up. Although it is true that muscles get stronger by breaking down first but, its the rebuilding process after a workout where the real magic happens. Workout damage the muscle fibres which are then repaired or replaced through a cellular process where the muscle fibres fuse together to form new muscle protein strands or myofibrils. These repaired myofibrils increase in thickness and number to create muscle hypertrophy (growth).

Muscle soreness occurs when your gym workout cause micro-tears in your muscle tissue, which leads to delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. Slight swelling, stiffness, reduced range of motions in the affected joints, increased tenderness and reduced strength in the affected muscles are what one may face along with muscle soreness. Typically it should last a day or two but, if you feel ‘I can’t move a bit’ type of pain, then that muscle soreness is something big and bad which needs to be taken care of.

You can either counter gym pain with certain preventive steps or deal with it after with the below muscle pain remedies.

1. Stretch it out

Your muscles contract and the muscle fibres shorten during a workout, stretching them a bit will release the tightness and promote mobility and can lead to a faster recovery. Stretch your muscles until it feels pretty tight, hold for 5-10 seconds and release. If it’s too painful to even think about stretching, skip it.

2. Move it

If your body hurts after your first day at a gym or otherwise, don’t decide to become a couch potato. Of course, the last thing you want to do when everything hurts is to move, but that’s exactly what you need to do. Sore muscles are the signs that your muscles have been stretched, keep it going by moving. Light activities like walking, swimming, yoga etc., which are termed as “Active Recovery,” will increase circulation and improve the blood flow throughout the body that carries nutrients and oxygen required for muscle repair.

3. Hydrate

We sweat a lot while working out and dehydration can make your muscle soreness and muscle cramps even worse. When muscles break down, they release waste products and toxins that need to be filtered out of the body and nothing better than water can do that job. Hence, it is important to stay hydrated to treat the pain after a gym workout.

4. Ice and Heat it

If there’s swelling – ice it and if it’s simple sore – heat it. Ice reduces inflammation and heat improves blood flow. Alternating ice and heat therapy will speed up the muscle recovery process. You can also take a warm Epsom bath to loosen up the tight muscles.

5. Have protein

Protein is a critical nutrient for building and maintaining muscle, hence your sore muscles need protein to repair itself. People who work out, need for about 1.4 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, while for an active person who’s 150 pounds, about 95 to 136 grams per day is necessary.

6. Massage

A 20-minute massage can be an effective muscle pain remedy if done right. Use a foam roller to massage your sore muscles or ask your friend or spouse to give you a good massage to relax the tight sore muscles and soothe muscle aches.

7. Treat it right

Muscle soreness should never be taken lightly. Swelling, cramps, pulled hamstring, anything can follow if muscles are not treated rightly. Hence, it is necessary to check its severity and treat it timely to avoid excess damage. Using an ultrasound and TENS therapy for post-workout pain is said to have proven results of faster muscle recovery.

Whatever it is, don’t stop your workout, get moving and get going!

The pace in which the number of mobile users is increasing, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that mobile phones have become one of the basic necessities of life and being phone-less even a single day makes us feel incomplete, isn’t it?

According to Statista, the number of smartphone users in India is predicted to reach almost 468 million by 2021. No doubt this little wonder has made our lives easier and world smaller with access to almost everything from the comfort of our home and office, but as they say every good has its evil. Prolonged and constant use of mobile phones can pose a serious threat to health if not taken care of. So, discussed here are both the short-term and long-term effects it can have on our health. Let’s see what are they.

Chronic Pain:

Spending so much time leaning down over our phones, we disturb the natural alignment of most of the body parts. Hands are used constantly while sending text messages and e-mails using mobile phones. Rapid speed while responding to the messages can cause finger, elbow and joint inflammation and pain. Also, while multitasking most of the people hold the phone between the neck and shoulder which can strain the back and neck muscles causing severe back and neck pain.

Eye vision problems:

The mobile screens are smaller than the computers and laptops. Generally, people spend 2-4 hours a day staring constantly at the screen. Prolonged staring at this small lit-up screen while reading can strain our eyes. Also, the blue light emissions from the phone can wreck our vision in the long run.

Illnesses Risk:

Our mobile phones are filthier than we think. Using or placing it anywhere makes it a hotbed for disease-prone germs and bacteria. A study says that mobile phones carry 10 times more germs than the toilet seat.

Causes Stress:

Most of us has the habit of snuggling up in bed with our mobile phones, constantly checking the messages on social media, reading and texting till late at night. This can harm our sleep making us sleep-deprived. Lack of good hours of sleep can be very much stressful.

What to do about it?

The solution that seems most pronounced is to cut back on the mobile phone usage but, the way it has become part of our daily life, cutting back looks like a daunting task. Well, mobile users can take the following simple precautionary measures while using the handset which can protect us and our family from health hazards :
● Avoid carrying the mobile phones in the pocket or anywhere close to the body and avoid keeping it in vibratory mode. Hold it away from the body to the extent possible especially when it is on because it emits radiation.
● Make use of wired headsets or Bluetooth while speaking on a mobile phone to keep it away from your head. Put the phone on speaker mode more often to talk.
● Avoid using the phones when the signal strength is weak as it emits higher radiation. Use your phone where signal strength is good.
● Keep the mobile phones away from children and pregnant women as they absorb twice as many radiations as others.
● Never put your mobile phones under your pillow or on the bedside table while sleeping because you may go to sleep but your mobile phones don’t. They still emit radiations while it’s on.
● Blink often while staring at your mini-screen.
● Clean your mobile phones more often with rubbing alcohol wipes.

On an end note
The attempt here is not to vilify the revolutionary mode of communication but to avoid non-essential use of mobile phones to reduce the risk of potential health hazards. After all, health is more important than a smartphone, isn’t it?

Not all joint pain is arthritis but an acute one can be a sign of it too. Confused? Arthritis is indeed a very tricky condition where it becomes very much challenging to differentiate between normal, random pain and arthritis pain. And lack of which leads to major complications later. Don’t worry it can be avoided.

Early detection of any condition proves beneficial and same is with arthritis. It does give some signals and symptom before its onset which we hardly take note of or completely ignore considering it silly.

You might be aware of A to Z of Arthritis its Types and Treatments but its the early signs that matters the most. So, we have rounded up some of the initial and most common signs and symptoms of arthritis which you must check for if you are not able to figure out your constant and unknown aches for reason. Let’s get started.

1. Morning Stiffness

One of the common signs of all types of arthritis, generally, people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often wake up in the morning with stiff joints. It can last between a few minutes to a few hours or a day or two. Due to the presence of the RA factor, the joints become inflamed and turn stiff in the morning. Although it usually begins at hand, stiffness at specific joints or the entire body is an early sign of RA.

2. Fatigue

Extreme tiredness and lack of energy are common for people having arthritis. In fact, it can actually be considered as the first symptom of arthritis because it comes weeks or even months before the signs of other symptoms show up. Fatigue is worse as it can lead to weight loss and even depression as it adversely affects emotions and mood, occupation, relationships with people, sex drive, productivity, attentiveness, creativity, and happiness. It occurs due to the body’s reaction to inflammation, poor sleep, anaemia, and medications which we gulp down to feel better.

3. Pain in Specific Joints

Since there are more than 100 types of arthritis, their symptoms also vary. Like in osteoarthritis, you may feel pain and tenderness around your knee joint, or any other particular affected joint. If any such specific joint like knee becomes painful on a daily basis, you must immediately get it confirmed and start with natural or osteoarthritis knee treatment at home.

4. Decrease in range of motion

Joint inflammation gradually affects tendons and ligaments causing instability and deformation in them making it difficult to perform a certain range of motions. One may face difficulty in bending or straightening certain areas. Regular physical activity and exercise work as an excellent natural cure for arthritis here.

5. Numbness and tingling

This sensation commonly appears on hands but other joints can be affected too. It occurs due to increased inflammation of joints which cause nerve compression, resulting in loss of sensation. In some cases, the joints of hands or feet may even produce a squeak or crackling noise as damaged cartilage grinds against joints while moving.

Pay Attention
Arthritis doesn’t develop all of a sudden to an extreme level. It is our ignorance that makes it flare up at times. If you pay attention to your lifestyle and the signs like above and others such as mild fever, joint swelling and redness, sleeping difficulty, etc., and take necessary measures on time or give arthritis cure properly, there is nothing to worry about.

After years of knee suffering, when you are advised to undergo knee replacement surgery, the excitement of bidding goodbye to knee pain forever may be at high levels but, it is a decision you must think not twice, not thrice, but multiple times, whether to really go with it or not. Why?

A study to find the after-effects of knee replacement surgery showed that a significant proportion of 10% to 34% of people have painful joints or experience an unfavourable pain outcome after knee replacement. Apart from this blood clots, infection, and swelling are other complications that may follow. The success rate of knee replacement surgery is though good, unfortunately, the joy may not last forever.

The knee joint, one of the largest, complex, and most important joint of the leg that allows us to perform various functions like walking, sitting, jumping or squatting. Deciding to undergo knee replacement surgery in the event of acute pain is not at all advisable as chances are it may turn chronic later.

There are many risks and complications associated with Total Knee Replacement Surgery and is performed when the knee joint is completely worn out. But then, this type of invasive technique of removing the damaged cartilage and shaping the bones with an artificial implant made of metal, plastic, and other synthetic materials can develop persistent pain around the newly replaced joint after a few weeks.

Sadly, many patients never experience the return to full mobility as expected after replacement surgery. One of the reasons for it is Patellofemoral (kneecap) problem which is a common cause of knee replacement pain. After an implant, significant forces are required to be applied to the kneecap, even with normal activities, such as getting up from a chair or walking down the stairs which elevates the pain to a great extent.

Improper alignment is also said to be yet another reason for developing chronic pain after knee replacement. What happens is a lot of patients focus on the implant brand or type and even spend quite a load of amount behind it. But, no matter what or how costly brand and hospital you choose, a poorly aligned implant may not function well and the pain will arise without a doubt. And to align it right, another surgery may be required.

It is not that for chronic knee pain or a worn out knee, replacement surgery is the only solution. There are a number of affordable and easy natural knee pain remedies available that one can seek the help of and which have proven their success as well as the physiotherapy exercises for knee pain, using knee supports and electrotherapy. The ultrasound & TENS devices of which is considered as the best and effective knee pain treatment options at home that can bring down the chronic knee pain to acute to almost zero without any harmful effects.

In some cases, the chronic pain that one feels after the knee replacement surgery, may not be due to the knee. Multiple things in the spine, hip and around the knee can also cause knee pain. If they are the origins, then you must treat them immediately instead of focusing your knee joint only.

Final Thoughts
Knee replacement surgery is indeed successful and has helped a lot of patients in getting back on their knees but, it is not a solution to opt for as soon as you feel chronic pain in your knees when there are other safe and effective knee pain treatment options available.

Does it happen that your knees wake you from sleep, very often? By the time you get into a deep sleep, a debilitating nocturnal pain disrupts your sleep spoiling your entire mood? It is very common and there are solutions using which you can avoid such nightmares.

It was found that sleep disturbance affects up to 10.2 million adults with arthritis. To prevent knee pain at night, you need to understand some of the causes behind it which we have mentioned below and what you can do to treat your knee pain. Let’s see.

Causes of Knee Pain at Night

One of the major causes of nightly knee pain is Knee Osteoarthritis. When after a long tiring day, where your leg muscles were constantly working out, as soon as you lay down to rest, the muscles surrounding the knee begin to relax and the bones end up rubbing against each other causing pain because the cartilage between the bones is thin in osteoarthritis.

Other forms of arthritis like rheumatoid and gout, ankylosing spondylitis, bursitis, tendonitis, can flare up knee pain at night badly.

Even obesity or overweight is yet another reason for knee pain at night-time because it is the knees that carry the body load during the day.

Long sitting for hours with folded knees or in the same position can also cause your knees hurt while sleeping.

How to Relieve Knee Pain?
To prevent your knees from disturbing your sleep, you can try following preventive measures and natural remedies for knee pain to get a good night’s sleep.

1. Practice Pain Management During the Day

❖ Pay attention to your activities during the day. Make sure you are not overusing your knee joint.
❖ Take breaks periodically to let your knees rest if walking long-distance.
❖ Avoid running on a treadmill, instead, exercise on a bicycle or an elliptical to reduce strain on the knee joints.
❖ Avoid stairs whenever possible.
❖ Change or stop any activity that is putting excess strain on your knees.
❖ Wear knee guards when engaging in sports and other activities to prevent any serious damage from happening
❖ Exercise and perform stretches whenever possible.
❖ Wear proper footwear – avoid heels.
❖ Use Electrotherapy.

2. Prepare for the Night

❖ Get a good 20-minute warm bath before sleeping. It will relax your aching joints and help you get good deep sleep.
❖ Have an anti-inflammatory diet to minimize the intensity of knee pain at night
❖ Find a comfortable sleep position. Place a pillow between your knees if you sleep on your side, or under your knees if you sleep on your back.
❖ If you find it difficult getting in and out of bed, use satin sheets and wear pyjamas as they will reduce the friction that leads to tugging.
❖ Cover your knees well if its cold.
❖ Use a heating pad or an ice pack for 15-20 minutes before bed to relieve knee pain

3. Knee Pain Treatment Measures You Can Try at Home

❖ Shed those extra kilos. Reducing your body weight will help reduce the amount of strain your body puts on your knee joints.
❖ Try water exercises as pool-based activities take some of the gravitational force off of your knees, they are relaxing.
❖ Practice knee strengthening exercises or physiotherapy exercises for knee pain
❖ Use compression wraps or knee supports
❖ Get a professional massage
❖ Practice U.R.I.C.E i.e Ultrasound, Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation technique throughout the day as and when you feel stress on your knees.

Take Care of Your Knees, They Will Take Care of You
Our knees are at constant use during the entire day and we only care about them when they hurt. A little care and attention to our lifestyle can keep them in good health for a longer period of time.

Tilted head, curved shoulders, engrossed in your mobile phone? Neck and shoulder pain is meant to arise then.

Shoulder pain or neck pain is a very common medical condition. Working long hours on computers and gazing down at smartphones is the most common reason that causes neck pain. Other factors include morning stiffness or any injury. Neck pain or neck injury may also result in cervical pain. Whereas, a stiff neck is caused due to the weakening of muscles. This is very much possible due to poor posture.

On the other hand, shoulder involves a larger range of movement and hence is more vulnerable to pain. Some of the factors contributing to shoulder pain are dislocation, joint instability, overexertion, frozen shoulder, etc. Not every pain makes us visit the doctor. However, any pain definitely leads to discomfort. Whatever be the reason, below mentioned tips shall help you take care of your shoulder as well as neck.

1. Time for a new pillow

Using the right pillow is the first small step which goes a long way in eliminating neck and shoulder pain. The general rule says that side sleepers shall opt for a soft pillow and back sleepers should use a firm pillow. Many of us have a habit of using more than one pillow. It is a big NO! One pillow is sufficient to keep your head at a natural angle.

2. Correct your sleeping posture

Poor posture is yet another cause. Try to sleep on your back as much as possible. If you are not comfortable with that position & prefer sleeping on side, make sure to use correct pillows. Never sleep on your stomach. A correct posture ensures you have a good night.

3. Exercise

Know the right exercise. Aerobic exercise is best and 30-minute cardio is all that you need. Keep moving but avoid jerking. Exercise helps to strengthen the muscles. Take professional help when starting with any exercise. Discontinue exercises that elevate pain, immediately. Your instructor or the fitness trainer will be the right person to make you do cervical spondylosis exercises. Spondylosis is a condition affecting spinal discs. Spondylosis treatment involves the right number of pillows to keep neck aligned and use of medium-firm mattress to support the spine. Few of the easy and safe to do exercises are; neck exercise, shoulder retraction exercise, rotation exercise, cervical exercise, and turtle exercise.

4. Stretch but not Stress

Stress leads to tightening of muscles and the most commonly affected muscles are of neck and shoulders. Stretching will help relieve that discomfort. Try rolling your shoulders back and then down, a couple of times. Bend your head, rotate it and bend it sideways. Right stretching helps keep pain at bay. It will also help keep your neck and shoulder muscles strong. Stretching eventually helps in pain management.

5. Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Spine has the entire control and charge of carrying your body weight. Your correct and healthy weight will save your spine from any discomfort.

Keep healthy meal plans and never overeat. Relax your muscles with the foods high in magnesium. You might not know but there are foods that help lessen the pain and also foods that increase the pain. Thus, choose your diet carefully. Quit bad habits like smoking and drinking and stay hydrated throughout the day.

6. Get a Massage

Massage does wonders for muscle spasms. It helps prevent scar tissue and shall be gentle. A neck belt or a neck massager can help soothe the pain. But a massage combined with ultrasound and TENS therapy can make it go away.
A healthy tip is to avoid excessive use of the phone. We don’t realize that the time spent on using the phone causes head and neck to bend in a flexed forward position. This position puts too much stress on ligaments, joints, and bones.

Wish you the best of health and zero neck and shoulder pain.

When the back hurts, especially on the lower side, forget surviving the entire day, lying down becomes more difficult. Finding a comfortable position while sleeping becomes a nightmare.

While a good sleep and rest are essential for back pain, how is it possible to achieve without pain? Did you know your sleeping posture, mattress, pillow, all these contribute to lower back pain? Well, we have some good and recommended sleeping positions that you can try if your back is keeping you awake every night.

Best Sleeping Positions For Lower Back Pain

1. Sleep Sideways With a Pillow Between Your Knees

Sleeping sideways is always considered as the correct sleeping position but for lower pain, you need to modify this position a bit. Simply place a firm pillow between your knees. To get comfortable with this position do the following;

● Get into your bed and carefully roll on to your comfortable side.
● Place a medium-sized pillow to support the head and neck.
● Slowly pull the knees up and position a pillow between them.
● Fill in the gaps if any between the body and mattress with more pillows, especially at the waist.

Benefit: Using a pillow will raise your upper leg and keep your hips, pelvis, and spine in better alignment.

2. Lie on the Stomach With a Pillow Under the Abdomen

You might have heard that sleeping on the stomach can increase the severity of lower back pain, well, it happens only if not done correctly. If you find it comfortable sleeping on your stomach, then sleep with a pillow under your pelvis and lower abdomen as a pain relief measure for back pain.

Benefit: This position will uplift the pressure on your back which is extremely beneficial for those having degenerative disc disease.

3. Curl into a Fetal Position

Highly recommended to those having a herniated disc, the fetal position can be even considered as a part of back pain treatment. To correct this position;
● Roll gently onto your comfortable side
● Place a pillow to support your neck and head
● Tuck your knees toward your chest and gently curl your torso toward your knees until the back is relatively straight.
● Remember to switch sides from time to time to prevent any imbalances.

Benefit: Drawing your knees towards your chest will reduce the bending of the spine. Curling your torso into a fetal position will open up the space between vertebrae, thus your joints won’t get choked.

4. On the Back With a Pillow Under Knees

Generally, when back pain strikes, we sleep on our back but still, it hurts, right? The reason is a missing pillow. Simply correct your posture by;
● Lay flat on your back facing the ceiling.
● Position a pillow to support the head and neck.
● Place a small pillow under the knees so that the natural curve of your lower back stays fine
● As an extra support, you can fill the space between your body and mattress with additional pillows or a rolled up towel beneath the lower back.

Benefit: Lying on your back in this manner will evenly distribute the weight of your body which will minimize the strain on your pressure points and you get better alignment of the head, neck, spine and your internal organs.

Sleeping Tips

To get a good night’s sleep, you need to take care of a few things first like; get a good mattress, choose a perfect pillow, find a right and comfortable position on your bed, get in and out of the bed carefully, try gentle stretches before going to bed, take a warm bath before preparing for sleep, avoid stimulants such as caffeine in the evening etc. And no matter what you do, remember a proper alignment is key. Ensure that your spine is in perfect alignment with your ears, shoulders, and hips while sleeping. Lesser the amount of strain you put on your back, the more deep sleep you will achieve.

Arthritis, no less than a mysterious condition that causes our joints to go weak and restless has conquered almost 54 million adults all over the world. Due to its confusing pain that one fails to describe in words, arthritis condition has got a lot of myths and misconceptions about it that needs to be cleared from people’s mind.

Blindly believing such myths will only worsen the condition more as you might do something you shouldn’t or vice versa. Debunking myths and misconceptions will help you know arthritis well so that you can take the necessary preventive measures and stay fit. Let’s see what are those common myths;

1. Arthritis is an old-age condition

One of the biggest myth about arthritis is that it develops as you get old. Not at all. Arthritis has nothing to do with old age. It can strike at any age – even infancy. In fact, almost 300,000 children “officially” have arthritis. Age is just a risk factor. It is true that those over 55 are four times more likely to have arthritis than younger people and typically, people will experience symptoms of osteoarthritis when they reach 70, but other types of arthritis like rheumatoid can occur anytime or worse some have them by birth.

2. All joint pain is arthritis

Although arthritis is often used as a blanketed term for any joint pain, there are actually more than 100 related diseases affecting certain joints, tissues, or even the whole body, ranging from osteoarthritis (“wear and tear”) and autoimmune varieties (rheumatoid arthritis), to crystalline arthropathies (like gout and pseudogout) and post-traumatic forms. Among which, the most prevalent is knee osteoarthritis, where the protective cartilage inside the knee joint breaks down and to cure which, certain natural remedies are recommended to be the best knee joint pain relief measures even by the professionals.

3. You can’t and should not exercise

Arthritis pain can be inflammatory, sharp, restless, tiring etc., but that doesn’t mean you should rest all your life. It is a common belief that exercise will worsen the condition where in fact, sitting idle will.

Physical activity is an excellent pain management strategy as it increases the range of motion and prevents your joints from turning stiff. Besides, obesity or over-weight is another reason for joint aches as it puts excess strain on the joints which can be avoided or lessened with regular workout. So, a practice of some gentle arthritis exercises on a daily basis is, in fact, one of the best natural cures for arthritis.

4. The weather has nothing to do with arthritis

Well, earlier it was believed so but a lot of research has been done on this and now it is evident that weather conditions do affect our joints and those with arthritis condition, relatively low barometric pressure, low temperatures, and precipitation can increase the intensity of pain even more. There are certain causes but remedies of knee pain in cold weather too, which have proven to be the best effective knee joint pain treatments till today.

On an end note
‘There is no cure for arthritis’, ‘There is nothing you can do to prevent arthritis or once you develop the condition,’ all these are other common myths associated with arthritis which are utterly false.

A healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining a reasonable weight, protecting oneself from cold, wearing supports, using ultrasound devices, all these have proven their worth in erasing arthritis to a great extent to almost null. After all, it’s upon us, whether you want to live with it or without it.