​​​​​​​People who cope best with OA are those who learn how to manage it. You know yourself best and are the best judge of what will work for you.

With any chronic condition like OA, there is no one thing that will cure it. But there are many things you can do to help you manage your joint health.

How can I learn to manage my OA?

There’s no cure for OA, but there are many things you can do to manage your symptoms and feel and move better. You can:

• Learn more about OA and any other chronic health problems you may have.
• Learn all you can about how to take care of the joints with OA.
• Learn more about lifestyle changes that can help you manage your OA.
• Learn what helps your joints feel better and what makes them feel worse. Talk to your healthcare provider about what you’ve learned and how it’s helping.
• Understand that managing OA can be a challenge. Talk to someone you trust or your healthcare team if you need support.
• Decide what’s important to you and take action.

If you’re ready to make a change that will help you manage your OA, start with 1 or 2 goals and break them down into smaller steps. Making changes can be hard if you try to make too many changes at once. Learn more about how to make a change that lasts.

What are the best ways to manage OA?

The best ways to manage OA involve the following:

• activity and exercise
• healthy eating
  
• managing pain
• maintaining mental and emotional well-being
• supportive therapies (like physiotherapy, braces, heat and cold)
• joint replacement surgery – hip replacement and knee replacement

​​​​How much the OA affects a joint doesn’t always match your pain level or how much trouble you have moving (mobility). Some people are surprised to learn they have OA because they feel good and move well. Others are surprised the changes to their joints aren’t that bad even though they’re having a lot of pain and trouble moving or using the joint.

Moving a sore joint seems like the opposite of what you should do when you’re in pain. But staying active with the right type of exercise is an important part of keeping your joints as healthy as possible.

Movement and exercise can lower your pain and help you move better. This is because moving and exercising joints with OA slows the damage to the joint. Strong muscles around the joint can keep it stable, slowing the tissue changes to the joint. Exercise keeps your other body systems healthier (heart, lungs, muscles, bones).

Exercise is different from the regular activities you do every day. Exercise has a reason (purpose) and a goal.

Exercise is also different from work. You may move your body a lot when you work, but it’s not the same as exercising with the goals of helping to manage OA.

What if I’m afraid to move?

It’s common for people in chronic pain to be afraid to move. Chronic pain or having a joint that’s really sore right now can make you feel anxious, afraid, or frustrated. Understanding why movement is important for your joint health and how it helps you keep up your lifestyle can help you deal with the fear.

If you’re afraid to move, try these tips:

• Talk to someone you trust: It can help to talk to a friend, family member, or your healthcare provider about how you feel.
• Focus on the positive: When you feel bad, focus on a positive thought to make you feel better.
• Ask for help: Sometimes you need to ask others for help. You may need support from a healthcare provider who can listen to your concerns and help you find solutions.

How can I exercise when I have pain?

Don’t let pain or the fear of causing pain stop you from being more active or exercising. You can use pain as a guide, even when you have pain before you exercise.

1. Start by measuring your baseline pain. Baseline pain is rating how bad your pain is and where it is on your body. Rate your pain between 0 and 10 (0 is no pain; 10 is the worst pain you can imagine) and notice where you feel it.
2. Do an exercise. For example, try walking for 10 minutes on a flat surface (like a sidewalk).
3. When you’re done exercising, rate your pain again and notice where it is.

If your pain is back to baseline within 24 hours after you did the activity, keep going with this activity.

If your pain isn’t back to baseline within 24 hours, the activity you did may have been too much for your joint. If you walked for 10 minutes on a flat surface, next time try walking for 5 minutes. Make choices around daily activity (like walking and standing) and exercise. Try to find a balance between both.

Plan to exercise earlier in the day. If you leave it to the end, you’re less likely to exercise.

What types of exercise can I do when I have OA?

Exercise is an important part of good health and the health of your joints. Different types of exercise have different effects on the body, so doing different types of exercise is helpful. Speak with a physiotherapist or exercise specialist if you aren’t sure what exercises are best for you or if you haven’t exercised in a long time. If you have any other health problems or you’ve never exercised before, speak to your family doctor before you start.

Cardiovascular exercises (for your heart and lungs)
This type of exercise makes you breathe harder and faster and sends more blood to your heart and lungs. Examples include walking, biking, swimming, cross country skiing, urban poling, and aerobics. When you have OA, short bouts of exercise (such as exercising for 10 minutes) can give health benefits and keep your symptoms manageable.

Try to work up a sweat. If you’re new to exercise, work toward doing 45 minutes per week of exercise that makes you breathe harder.

Strength exercises (for your muscles)
This type of exercise makes the muscles around your joint stronger. This helps to keep your joint stable. You can do strength exercises for different body parts such as your:

• abdomen (core or belly area)
• legs, including your hamstrings (back of your thighs) and quadriceps (front of your thighs)
• hips
• butt (buttocks or gluteal area)

To learn more about exercises you can do when you have OA, and to see examples of these exercises, visit GLA:D Canada.

Range of motion (ROM) exercises (stretching)
Moving through your joints’ range of motion (how far and in what ways your joints move) is important for joint health. Stretching the muscles around the joint keeps the joint moving well and the muscles relaxed and flexible. Moving the joint through the available range of motion nourishes the cartilage that lines the joint.

It’s often best to stretch and do ROM exercises after you’re done strength or cardiovascular exercises and your body has warmed up. Examples of ROM exercises include yoga and tai chi.

​Healthy eating is an important part of managing your OA symptoms. Making healthy food choices can give you the nutrition you need to have healthy bones, stay at a healthy weight, or lose extra body weight if your healthcare provider recommends this.

How does nutrition affect bone health?

When a joint breaks down, this also affects your bone health.

Vitamin D and calcium are both important for healthy bones, so ask your healthcare provider or dietitian how much vitamin D and calcium is right for you. Eat foods that are good sources of vitamin D and take a vitamin D supplement.

Learn more about getting enough calcium and vitamin D, including how much you may need depending on your age and sex.

The following are examples of foods that are high in calcium. You can also get more examples from Osteoporosis Canada:

• milk or fortified soy beverage
• hard cheese (cheddar, edam, Gouda)
• almonds
• plain or fruit-flavoured yogurt
  
• salmon, canned with bones
• calcium fortified orange juice
• tofu made with calcium

How can weight affect my OA?

People with OA also often carry extra body weight. Extra body weight puts more force on your knees and hips. Eating healthy and being active are parts of a healthy lifestyle for managing chronic disease, like OA.

If you carry extra weight, here are some helpful tips to stop you from gaining more weight. Then you can focus on losing a small amount of weight at a time. Even losing a little extra weight can help with joint pain. Talk to your healthcare provider about your goals for health and weight.

How can I make healthy food choices?

Make it a habit to eat a variety of healthy foods each day. Healthy meals and snacks can be simple when you use the Eat Well Plate from Canada’s Food Guide. Here’s how:

• Make half your plate vegetables and fruits. Vegetables and fruits should always make up the largest amount of the foods you eat.
• Divide the other half of your plate into 2 smaller portions: 1 of grain foods and 1 of protein foods.
  • Choose whole grain foods. Whole grains are a healthier choice and have more fibre. Examples are whole grain bread, brown rice, and whole grain oats.
  • Choose protein foods such as beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, lean meats and poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs, lower-fat milk, and lower-fat dairy products. Include protein foods that come from plants more often.

Learn more about healthy eating and how to start making better food choices.

What types of drinks are healthy choices?

Make water your drink of choice. Replace sugary drinks with water. Other healthy drink options can include:

• plain milk (unsweetened lower-fat milk)
• unsweetened fortified plant-based beverages such as soy or almond beverage
• unsweetened coffee and teas

Limit drinks that are high in sugar and calories like:

• pop
• juice
• iced tea
• fruit-flavoured drinks
• alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, hard alcohol)
• energy drinks
• coffee and tea drinks made with sugar, syrups, cream, and whitener
• slushies

What are some other healthy eating tips?

Remember that how much you eat is as important as what you eat. You can gain weight if you eat and drink larger portions than you need.

Record what you eat and drink. People who keep track of what they eat and drink are more likely to make changes that last.

Healthy eating may help you control some of your symptoms and manage side effects from some of the medicine you take for your OA. You’re going to come across a lot of books and websites that claim that some foods or special diets or supplements will cure OA or help with symptoms. But many studies show that no one food, diet, or supplement will cure OA.

Don’t follow diets that ask you to stay away from certain foods. Doing this could cause you to get less of the nutrition you need to stay healthy. If you’re thinking about cutting out healthy foods or changing the way you eat, speak with your doctor or a dietitian first.

​​There are different ways to manage pain when you have OA. Talk to your healthcare provider about what you might try and what might work best for you.

Pain medicine for OA

Pain medicine won’t make all the pain your OA causes go away. The goal of pain medicine is to lower the pain to a level where you’re more comfortable, can exercise and move better, and have a better quality of life.

Always take the medicine as directed. Speak with your doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions about your pain medicine.

Pain medicine works best when you also manage your pain with lifestyle changes like:

• getting regular exercise
• managing stress
• planning your day to allow for rest between activities (also called conserving your energy)

Your healthcare providers, including your pharmacist, will talk to you about what strategies are right for you based on your health.

Here are some types of medicine that can help you manage your pain:

• topical creams you put on your skin (such as capsaicin, diclofenac)
• non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) (such as naproxen, diclofenac, ibuprofen)
• serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake Inhibitor (SNRI) class antidepressants (such as duloxetine)
• intra-articular joint injections (such as cortisone, hyaluronic acid)

You can try taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) to see if it helps with your OA pain. Evidence suggests that it won’t harm you to try it, and it works for some people.

Glucosamine, a natural health product, doesn’t rebuild your cartilage or make your joint healthier. But some people find that it helps with their symptoms.

Some treatments are not recommended because we don’t know enough about them. These include:

• intra-articular platelet rich plasma (PRP)
• intra-articular stem cell therapy

Heat or cold

Using heat (such as a hot pack) or cold (like a cold pack or ice) can help your joint feel better. Always put a towel between ice and your skin, and don’t leave ice on longer than 20 minutes at a time. Heat can cause burns and ice can cause frostbite, so be very careful if you have poor circulation or less feeling in the area.

Physiotherapy

Working with a physiotherapist can help your joints move and work better. It can also help you safely move towards doing more advanced exercises.

Pacing yourself and conserving your energy

It’s best to do your activities at the time of day when you have the most energy.

Plan what you’ll do that day so you don’t do too much. Break up your activities throughout the week so that you don’t do too much in 1 day.

Be sure to include times to rest. Even 5 minutes of rest can help. For example, take walks in places where there are benches.

Don’t sit or stand for too long at a time—changing your position often can help manage symptoms (for example, you can sit on a stool when preparing a meal).

Use assistive devices (like a rolling cart to carry groceries).

Bracing and mobility aids

A brace can help stabilize your joint. Some help to take pressure off areas of the joint. There are 2 types:

• Custom braces: Your family doctor will have to refer you to a certified orthotist. A custom brace costs money to make. If you have medical insurance, check with your insurer to see if you’re covered.
• Over-the counter-braces: Medical supply stores carry knee braces. Many stores let you try on the brace before you buy it.

Walking aids, like a cane or walker, can help if have OA in your hip or knee that affects how well you move.

• Hold the cane in the hand opposite to the painful joint (for example, for left knee pain, hold the cane in your right hand). Learn more about how to use a cane.
  
• If you’re not steady with a cane, or find yourself holding onto the walls or furniture for support, a walker may be a better choice for you. Learn more about how to use a walker.

Insoles or shoes, such as shock-absorbing shoes or gel or silicone ins​oles, may help lower hip and knee pain for some people.

​Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health are all related. Improving your wellness in one area can help with the others.

Good well-being

Mental health is a positive sense of well-being or feeling like you can enjoy life and manage challenges. Good well-being doesn’t mean you won’t face challenges or feel upset at times—it means you can cope with those feelings or situations.

Here are some ways to help with your well-being:

• Connect: Spend time with the people you care about. Develop these relationships or new ones too. Join a group if one interests you.
• Be active: Staying active is not only good for your body, but also helps your mind stay well.
• Keep learning: Take time to learn a new skill—it might be something that’s good for your health or helps you feel better about yourself.
• Give back: Small gestures can have a big effect: give someone a smile or volunteer.
• Be mindful: Pay attention to the right now—your thoughts, feelings, or how your body feels. This mindfulness can change the way you feel about life and how you approach challenges. Learn more about mindfulness to help manage stress.
• Live your balance: Figure out what’s most important to you and make it a priority. You can’t and won’t be able to do everything, all the time, for everyone.

Mental health

Some people with chronic health problems like OA may face more serious mental health problems, such as:

• Stress: Stress is a normal part of life. But having a chronic condition like OA can cause more stress. You can try these tips for managing stress.
• Depression: Everyone feels low or sad from time to time. This doesn’t mean that you’re depressed. Depression may be a problem if you feel sad, unhappy, or miserable most of the time for longer than 2 weeks. Talk to your healthcare provider, and learn more about depression and the treatments that can help you.
• Anxiety: Anxiety is worrying a lot about what may happen in the future. Counselling, medicine, or both can help. Learn more about anxiety and talk to your healthcare provider if you need help.

General wellness

You know it’s important to take care of yourself overall. Even things that you don’t think are related to your OA can help you cope with your symptoms.

Sleep
Sleep is an important part of your physical and mental wellness. Not getting enough sleep can affect your mood and how you feel overall. Sleep is important because it:

Try these tips for getting better sleep.

Dental health
A healthy mouth affects your overall health. Learn about basic dental care and why it’s important.

Quitting smoking
Smoking affects more than your lungs. Smoking affects the blood flow in your whole body, including to your bones and joints. If you smoke and you’re thinking about quitting, now is the time. Bringing your body back to its best health will help you manage your OA even better.

Learn more about deciding if you’re ready to quit smoking and find resources to help you quit smoking.