What's the best way to stay fit with rheumatoid arthritis?
It’s important to stay active if you have rheumatoid arthritis, but you have to be careful. Louis Pack, DPM, founding fellow of the American College of Rheumatology, explains the best ways to stay fit if you have RA.
Transcript
So the important thing when you have arthritis is to make sure that you are optimally aligned, so that you're using the joints in the plane they're
designed for.
People with arthritis are often told to exercise. The American College of Rheumatology, the Arthritis Foundation, basically tell people, use it or lose it.
You have to stay active. It's very important that you understand that that statement, as powerful and as important as it is,
can be very misleading. If you use a joint in a plane it's not designed for, you can cause greater damage than if you
didn't use it at all. Every joint is meant to be used, again, in the plane it's designed for.
The elbow's a hinge. If I use it all day long like this, it shouldn't hurt. If I'm a baseball pitcher and I'm
going to do this, and use the joint in a plane it's not designed for, we're going to say I have pitcher's elbow, and we're going to say it's due to overuse.
It's really not overuse. It's really misalignment use. So the important thing when you have arthritis
is to make sure that you are optimally aligned so that you're using the joints in the plane they're designed for.
And then you can exercise, and exercise is extremely important with arthritis. It keeps your joints lubricated.
It builds the muscles to make them more stable around the joint. It helps your overall health, and it helps
you relax and feel better. But get yourself aligned first. Don't just go for long walks.
rheumatoid arthritis
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