Osteopathy for Osteoarthritis
The White Practice – Based in Nailsworth, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Some "arthritis" facts:
- Arthritis is not a normal event in a healthy body.
- Arthritic pain does not come on quickly over days, weeks or a few months.
- Arthritis on X-Ray is an extremely common finding on almost everyone over the age of 35-40, therefore, X-ray findings of wear and tear are not always the underlying cause of your pain.
Osteopaths do not believe that because of your age, pain and disability is natural for you and that "it's what you should expect at your age" – you don't have to put up with it!
The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis, also called degenerative arthritis, and it is reported that over 50% of people over the age of 65 suffer pain and disability as a result. This type of arthritis begins years before any bone changes are found on x-ray and is primarily the "wear and tear" arthritis associated with every day life. In many cases, your osteopath can help you to accommodate to this change in structure, perhaps by freeing up related joints so that they share more of the load, or even reducing the tensions in the muscles of the area to reduce the inflammation and pain - treatment has proven to be immensely successful. There are also wealth of postural exercises and day to day tips that can help you to help yourself.