Problem and Symptoms
Osteoarthritis most commonly affects the joints in your arms and legs, including your fingers, wrists, knees, ankles, and hips.
Athletes often experience knee and hip pain caused by abnormal friction and rubbing of the knee and hip joints. You might feel severe pain that comes on gradually on the outside knee joint. Simply walking up or down stairs may worsen this condition. The pain usually subsides immediately with rest, but returns with activity.
The lower back is also a common source of OA pain. Let your doctor know if you’re suffering from the early symptoms of osteoarthritis.
The pain of early arthritis can be classified in two different ways: pain and tenderness. You might also feel sharper pain when moving your affected joint in a certain way. Tenderness is the discomfort you feel when pressing down on the joint. Tenderness can also include visible swelling in the area of the joint, but this is more common in advanced stages of OA.
Why It’s Important to Choose the Best Shoes for Walking
Making healthy choices for your feet, can add up to big improvements in quality of life. The wrong shoe worn by someone with arthritis in their hips, knees, ankles or feet can exacerbate existing problems, cause damage and complications to many joints beyond the feet.
To help keep you on your feet comfortably. Here’s something to healthier feet!
- Leave wiggle room in your shoes. You may need to go up a half size when you buy sneakers, because your feet tend to swell during exercise.
- Wear shoes that are wider—especially in the toe box. If you don’t want to shell out for new shoes, ask your shoe repair guy to stretch the old ones. Cushioning the bunion with OTC pads can provide relief, and icing it for 20 minutes after walking will numb the area.
- Running shoes are generally designed to address many different issues, with motion control helping pronation, stability for the neutral arch, and cushioned to assist supination arches.
- Minimal shoes are a specialized option to consider. These shoes are designed to promote the foot striking the ground with the front or middle of the foot rather than the heel. This alters the way the foot and the lower extremity contact and interact with the ground.
- Specially designed inserts or insoles can also provide back pain treatment in some cases because they provide extra support
Photo Creative Commons ginnerobot