6 Effective Treatments for Joint Pain

Joint pain and stiffness affects millions of people of all ages in the United States. While the wear-and-tear-related osteoarthritis and the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis are the most well known sources of joint pain, you can also have joint pain from:

• An injury
• Dislocation
• Fibromyalgia
• Tendinitis
• Sprains
• Strains
• Gout
• Cancer

No matter why or how you developed joint pain, you don’t have to live with it. At Modern Wellness Clinic in Las Vegas, Nevada, we recommend a number of joint-pain treatments, based on the type and severity of joint pain you have. Here are six of them:

1. Lifestyle changes

If your joint pain is minimal, or if you developed it due to a recent injury, lifestyle changes may be enough to give you relief. If you injure a joint, the best thing to do is to keep it immobile while it heals. That may include wearing a brace, cast, or using athletic tape.

If you have arthritis, though, the best thing you can do is to move your joint — as much as possible. Moving your joints encourages them to release synovial fluid, which helps them guide smoothly and without pain. Gently stretch and then take a walk, do yoga, or perform other exercises that strengthen your joints, including weight lifting.

No matter what kind of joint pain you have — even a type of arthritis called gout — improving your diet can also improve your pain. Eat plenty of noninflammatory foods, including fresh vegetables and fruit, and avoid those that trigger inflammation, including sugar and processed foods.

Some types of dietary supplements can alleviate your joint pain and help support the tissues in your joints, too. Ask us about what types of supplements could benefit you. 

2. Physical therapy

Whether you’re an athlete or not, you could benefit from physical therapy (PT) that increases flexibility and strength in the tendons, ligaments, and muscles that support your joints. When you do your PT exercises, you speed up the healing process. 

Stronger muscles and supporting tissues take pressure and stress off your joints. Your physical therapist can also evaluate the way you walk and move and recommend modifications that can help you avoid future injury. 

3. Joint injections

If you’re currently in pain, we may recommend injecting medications directly into your sore joints. Examples of joint injections include hyaluronic acid (HA), which is a substance that your body naturally makes as a lubricant. HA helps your joints glide more smoothly and reduces friction.

We may also recommend cortisone or other steroids. Steroids help reduce inflammation and pain over the long term. 

4. Regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine includes platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell therapy, which uses and concentrates your own body’s healing substances to regenerate cells, build new blood vessels, and reduce pain. Although professional athletes, such as Tiger Woods, first popularized the use of regenerative medicine, it’s now available to anyone. 

Most regenerative therapies are autologous, meaning self-donated. For PRP, for instance, we simply draw some blood from your arm, then use a centrifuge to concentrate the healing platelets, which we then inject directly into the site of your injury.

5. Prescription medications

When your joint pain is severe, or if you have a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, our experts may prescribe medications. Depending on your needs, these may simply reduce your discomfort or actually slow the progression of your disease. 

6. Surgery

When your joint is severely damaged and limits your mobility, you may benefit from surgery. Some types of surgery repair the tissues in your joints. You might also need joint-replacement surgery, which substitutes an artificial joint for your injured joint. 

Get relief from your joint pain today: Contact our office by calling our friendly staff at 702-463-9159 or using our online booking form.