Treatment plans often include medication, physical therapy, exercise, applying heat and/or cold to the site, and consciously alternating activity with rest. It's important to remember that arthritis doesn’t mean an inactive lifestyle. Inactivity can weaken and stiffen the muscles surrounding the joints and impair your joints permanently. In addition, being overweight is the most common cause of excess pressure on the joints.

Surgery
When certain treatments fail, an orthopaedic surgeon will perform surgery to help reduce the pain. Surgery may used to realign joints, or to remove the joint lining which has become damaged or pulled out of place due to the wearing away of cartilage and bone.

In joint replacement, also called arthroplasty, the physician replaces the joint with metal or plastic parts. Joint replacement has been especially effective with hips and knees, and has been used for shoulders, ankles, elbows and knuckles. More specifically, the UniSpacer™ is a promising alternative for patients suffering from the early stages of osteoarthritis of the knee. Technically less demanding than traditional knee replacement, the UniSpacer requires only minimal surgical intervention and recovery time is reduced.

Additional treatments available at Good Samaritan:

Relaxation Therapy
It is possible to relieve pain through relaxation. Relaxation therapy is a learned technique to help you relieve tension by entering a deeper state of relaxation that, for some people, lowers blood pressure, breathing rates, and the flow of adrenaline. As your muscles relax, your body releases pain-relieving hormones called endorphins.

Although there are many variations and techniques for relaxation, here are a few guidelines:

• Create the right environment. Find a quiet area where you will have few distractions. Get in a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down.
• Breathe slowly and deeply. Concentrate on feeling the air move in and out of your body. Fill your lungs with air, so you feel your rib cage move in and out. Hold your breath for just a second, then slowly let the air out. Ideally, you will begin to associate deep breathing with feeling relaxed.
• Focus your attention on your body. Concentrate on relieving tension in each part of your body as you breathe deeply. Begin with your toes and work your way up to your feet, ankles, calves, etc. Take it very slowly, giving each body part attention and imagine your muscles relaxing.

Vitamins and Supplements
The use of alternative treatments such as vitamins or supplements to improve your health is becoming more common. The supplements most associated with treating arthritis are glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate.

• Glucosamine is believed to have the ability to stimulate the formation and repair of cartiliage. 
• Chondroitin sulfate allegedly increases tissue fluid, creating cartiliage resistance and elasticity, and decreases cartilage breakdown by protecting it from destructive enzymes.

Discuss the use of supplements with your doctor -- some supplements could interact with prescription medication. And do not stop taking any prescription medication without consulting your doctor. If you and your doctor decide you could try an herbal supplement, be sure to use products sold by larger reputable companies. If you don't experience relief within a few months, you may not ever feel relief from those supplements. Supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, so there is no quality control. 

Avoiding Certain Foods
Some health professionals believe that food allergies may contribute or aggravate arthritis conditions. Although the Arthritis Foundation does not support a link between diet and relief from arthritis, it does not discourage attempts to look for connections with certain foods and flare-ups.

To learn of the possibility of a food trigger, keep a list of foods eaten and any flare-up with that food. When a possible trigger is identified, don't eat the food for at least two weeks. After that time, try it again at least twice in a 24-hour period and observe the results. It is hard to find the correlation between food and pain, since arthritis has many cycles of pain and relief. If you find that your symptoms are controlled on such a nutritional plan, be sure to maintain that plan.