HOW DOES LIFESTYLE AFFECT MY OSTEOARTHRITIS (OA)?

The way you treat your body from day to day has a huge effect on how your OA will behave.   Healthy lifestyle habits can protect your knees, prevent degenerative disease, and maximize your musculoskeletal health.  Meanwhile, removing risky behaviors that aggravate your knees can dramatically improve your OA symptoms.  Simple lifestyle interventions can be extremely beneficial in maintaining long-term knee health.

Here are some examples of helpful lifestyle interventions for knee OA:

1. Stop smoking! Cigarettes are filled with harmful chemicals. Smoking, increases inflammation in the body, which can make OA knee pain worse.  Quitting tobacco is essential for people trying to improve their OA symptoms.  To learn more, click here.
2. Lose weight if you are obese! Your knee joints develop OA damage more frequently when you are obese (body mass index higher than 30). To learn more, click here. 
3. Eat healthier! Your diet plays a major role in your body’s daily healing and recovery.  Specific nutritious foods can decrease painful joint inflammation.  Meanwhile, an unhealthy diet may aggravate ongoing inflammation in arthritic joints.  To learn what foods to eat or avoid, click here.
4. Rest! Rest is the simplest intervention to help protect arthritic knees.  Active people must remember to rest so that they do not literally run their knees into the ground. Meanwhile, sleep is a special, extremely important type of rest that allows your body to heal and recover from day to day.   To learn more, click here.