When you have hip or knee osteoarthritis, walking can be painful, but while it sounds counterintuitive, there’s good evidence that, over the long term, the right kind of exercise can reduce pain by roughly one-third. That means it’s as effective as common pain medications — but it has other benefits, too, such as making it easier for you to carry out the everyday activities that are important to you.
One exercise and education program that has been proven to have such effects is GLA:D (Good Life with Osteoarthritis: Denmark) Canada. Originally developed by researchers in Denmark, it’s now being rolled out across Canada, thanks to health professionals and researchers such as Dr. Aileen Davies, a senior scientist at the Krembil Research Institute in Toronto. To find more about her work, read ‘Learning to Move Improves OA’, on page 3 of the Krembil Arthritis 2019 magazine.
If you’re interested in delving into the subject in more detail, check out these two pieces I wrote for Good Times magazine:
Want to Prevent Arthritis? Exericise!
It Pays to Be Nice to Your Knees
Photo by ArtCoreStudios courtesy of Pixabay