Is it Possible to Alleviate Arthritis Pain and Postpone Joint Replacement Surgery?

The Predictable Path of Arthritis Pain
When arthritis pain reaches a critical level and begins to disrupt your daily activities, a familiar sequence of events typically unfolds. You consult your doctor, explain your symptoms, and are referred to a specialist, likely an orthopedic surgeon. After undergoing x-rays, the specialist confirms the loss of cartilage and the classic symptoms of arthritis in your hips, knees, ankles, or shoulders.

You are then advised to manage the pain as effectively as possible with common pain relievers such as Aleve®, Advil®, or Tylenol®. The prognosis is then delivered: you will eventually require joint replacement surgery.

The Management Phase
At this juncture, many of us enter a “management” phase. If the arthritis pain is in the early stages, we take pain medication, exercise as much as possible, and play a waiting game. We find ourselves in a sort of limbo—aware of the pain and the problem, but still able to muddle through our day. The pain hasn’t escalated to the point where we would consider any measure (including surgery) to alleviate it.

Regrettably, as the pain intensifies, many individuals resort to stronger drugs, including prescription pain relievers. This can lead to a dangerous path towards opioid addiction and the subsequent deterioration of quality of life.

A Potential Solution: Compression Clothing
But what if there was a method to significantly reduce your pain, enabling you to exercise more, strengthen the muscles surrounding the joint, and potentially postpone joint replacement surgery for several years? All without jeopardizing your stomach and GI tract by continuously consuming NSAID pain pills or opioids?

Many arthritis sufferers have found that a tool used by sports stars and endurance athletes can have a significant impact on their joint pain. The solution is compression clothing, also known as “recovery wear.”

How Does Compression Clothing Work?
You may have seen these garments worn by top athletes in the NBA, NFL, and other sports. Compression gear applies pressure to the muscles surrounding a painful joint, providing additional support.

While it may seem odd, this compression action enhances blood flow in and around the joint. The tightness of these stretchy garments also provides extra support and warms up the muscles and joint.

Over 30 clinical studies now demonstrate that these compression garments can reduce joint pain, enhance your exercise performance, decrease post-exercise soreness, and accelerate the healing and recovery of your muscles and joints.

The Benefits of Exercise and Compression Clothing
The best part is that by receiving this additional support and recovery, you may be able to continue exercising. This can significantly improve the health of your joint and potentially help you avoid joint replacement surgery.

In fact, the Arthritis Foundation states that exercise is “the most effective non-drug treatment for reducing pain and improving movement in patients with osteoarthritis.”

Walking for just 20 minutes a day can help maintain your current joint health and improve your overall well-being. Compression shorts or compression knee braces can make that daily walk or trip to the gym much easier and more enjoyable.

Looking Towards the Future
With all the new developments on the horizon for arthritis pain—from stem cell therapies to cartilage transplants—the future looks promising for non-surgical solutions. Imagine if you could postpone that operation for 3-5 years and take advantage of these new developments. Using compression clothing might be just what you need to keep your joints healthy. It’s certainly worth a small investment in this safe, easy, and affordable alternative to pain pills and surgery.

How Do You Defend the Pacers?

Two months into the season, the Indiana Pacers are showing everybody just how good of a team they are and why they were considered by many during the off-season as the team with the potential to upset and dethrone the defending champions.

They brought back their stingy defense from last season and has actually gotten better at it. The lack of depth which was their main weakness during the recent playoffs is no longer an issue with the off-season acquisitions that brought in reliable players such as Luis Scola who have been consistently contributing to the team as of late. Then there’s the continued evolution of Paul George whose looking more and more like a superstar.

They are no longer just a great defensive team. They now have the offense that has made them much tougher to deal with. Their defense is tight as a vice grip and will continue to choke opposing offenses. If other teams want to play well against them, the only option is to slow them down on the offensive end. It’s not easy but some teams have had success by doing two things.

Harassing their Ball Handlers

Although George has improved his offensive game enough to make himself a reliable instant generator of offense for the team, the Pacers are most effective when they are able to run their sets for their big men like David West and Roy Hibbert. The attention that these two call for makes it easier for the rest of the team.

That is why opposing teams must disrupt these offensive sets if they are to fair well and the best way to do this is by blitzing or harassing the ball handlers. The Pacers weakness on offense is that they don’t have someone who can handle and protect the ball well. This weakness was obvious during their conference finals series against the Heat wherein they struggled to create half-court plays due to the aggressive way the Heat were defending their ball-handlers.

Being Efficient on the Offensive End

With their young and athletic backcourt, the Pacers capitalize well on mistakes on turnovers and bad shots. They get plenty of points by forcing these and then attacking on transition. Playing efficiently and reducing turnovers and bad shots can go a long way into limiting the Pacers offense.

Did Chris Paul Injure Himself While Flopping?

Okay, here’s the news. Los Angeles Clippers point guard, or point god if you’re one of the cool kids, Chris Paul is going to be out for a while due to a separated right shoulder that he suffered on January when his team played against the Dallas Mavericks.

The injury happened at around the 6-minute mark of the third quarter during the Clippers’ offensive possession as Paul was trying to use a screen set by his teammate DeAndre Jordan. Mavericks guard Monta Ellis who was called for a foul was chasing Paul around the screen when the latter seemed to have gotten tripped and fell to the floor. The fall caused Paul to hit the floor with his right shoulder hitting first, grimacing in pain. After the game, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers stated the nature of the injury and that Paul will be missing 3 to 4 weeks as due to the previously detailed incident.

As a basketball fan who wants to see the best teams and players competing hard, I’m saddened that one of the best players in the game will be out for a significant amount of time. There’s also the possibility that the injury could adversely affect Paul’s game once he return.

However, there’s also a part of me that’s mockingly laughing about the injury. As I watched the incident over and over again, I noticed that there wasn’t really significant contact from Ellis or anyone that could have caused Paul to fall.

After having watched Paul all these years, I have to say that he’s got a pretty good flopping game going on. It’s not just about exaggerated motions to draw a referee’s attention to a foul. There have been many times wherein he acts like he was hit despite the absence of any contact to draw fouls. He is creative or annoying like that, depending on your perspective. And it seems this recent injury to Paul is a case of flopping gone wrong. If you don’t believe, search for the footage of the incident and see for yourself.