6 Lifestyle Tips to Cope With Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease that causes your immune system to attack your joint tissues. When you have it, pain can become a consistent part of your life. 

But with the right treatment plan and lifestyle habits, you can keep your RA symptoms to a minimum. And there’s a lot you can do to better cope.

Our expert team at Houston Pain Specialists, led by board-certified pain management specialist Hui Kang, MD, aims to minimize rheumatoid arthritis symptoms to help you lead a more comfortable life.

If you’re living with RA, consider the following lifestyle tips for coping and reducing your pain.

Manage your stress

When you experience emotional stress, your body releases chemicals that affect your heartbeat and muscles. While occasional stress responses aren't harmful, chronic stress can increase muscle tension, fuel inflammation, and hinder immune function. 

Given that RA is an inflammatory autoimmune disease, these issues can intensify your arthritis pain. Stress can even kick-start an RA flare-up.

Thankfully, the opposite is true. By managing stress through practices like breathing exercises, meditation, and talk therapy, you could experience less RA pain and feel better able to cope with related challenges.

Eat a healthy diet

Each time you eat, you have the opportunity to potentially improve your RA symptoms. A study that looked at dietary patterns in RA patients linked Mediterranean-style diets, vitamin D, and probiotics with reduced rheumatoid arthritis pain.

To adopt Mediterranean eating habits, focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and healthy fat sources, like nuts and olive oil. Such diets also contain moderate amounts of oily fish, like salmon, which provide anti-inflammatory fats known as omega-3s. 

If you don’t get enough vitamin D or probiotics in your diet, we may recommend supplements or dietary support. Fish, egg yolks, and fortified milks provide vitamin D. Rich probiotic sources include kefir, yogurt, and kimchi. 

Exercise smartly

Routine exercise can improve blood flow, strengthen your immune function, and guard against RA pain and stiffness if you go about it well. While you definitely don’t want to overdo exercise or engage in high-impact workouts that strain your joints, you can do low-impact aerobic exercise.

To minimize RA pain through exercise, start with a gentle warmup and stretching. Stretch to cool down after you work out as well. Examples of RA-friendly exercises include swimming, walking, biking, tai chi, and strength training with resistance bands. 

Prioritize restful sleep

Getting enough restful sleep when you’re dealing with rheumatoid arthritis pain can be difficult. But doing so is important for minimizing pain and supporting your overall health.

If stress, anxiety, pain, or stiffness make it difficult for you to fall asleep, try a warm bath, hot shower, or heat therapy. The Arthritis Foundation recommends using an electric blanket or heated mattress pad for 20 minutes to help you sleep.

Meanwhile, avoid stimulating activities, such as scrolling your phone or tablet or drinking coffee, before bed.

Maintain friendships

Friendships don’t merely bring fun to your life. They can actually bolster your well-being and help you cope with rheumatoid arthritis pain. 

If you’ve been feeling isolated, seek out friends with similar interests or join an RA support group, in person or online. A good friend will listen to you with compassion and curiosity, and share their own challenges, too. So don’t be afraid to talk about your struggles, especially since RA symptoms aren’t always apparent from the outside. 

Customized treatment

Our specialists can help you manage rheumatoid arthritis pain in a range of ways, customizing a treatment plan based on your needs and preferences. We monitor your progress, address any difficulties that crop up, and support you along the way.

We’re pleased to offer interventional procedures, such as steroid and facet joint injections, to help ease your RA pain. In particular, we  treat the facet joints of the spine and neck, upper back, low back, sacroiliac joints, shoulders, hips, and knees.

To get started with personalized rheumatoid arthritis support, contact our Houston, Texas, office today to schedule an appointment.