The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established three key objectives for the management of arthritis pain through its Healthy People 2010 program, a set of goals the federal government created in 2000. Ten years later, only one of the objectives was met: advising obese arthritis patients to lose weight.
Charles Helmick, MD, a medical epidemiologist at the Arthritis Program at the CDC, said physicians may be more focused on medications rather than encouraging certain other behaviors or pain management techniques, such as exercise programs. Medical literature suggests weight loss, arthritis education and exercise can improve pain symptoms for arthritis patients. As a result, physicians should encourage patients to engage in more exercise, particularly low-impact activity, such as swimming or walking, to better manage their pain, according to the news report.
Read the news report about arthritis goals in Healthy People 2010.
Read other coverage about pain management:
– “Cross-Talk” Between Biological Pathways Unveils Options for Pain Control
– Drug Response Profile Dependent on Pain Mechanism and Opioid Type