If you have arthritis, carrying out tasks around the home can be a challenge. However, making some practical changes to your home and changing the way you work should make things easier.
Practical tips that could help include:

• Keeping things in easy reach
• Using a hand rail to help you get up and down the stairs
• Using long-handled tools to pick things up or to clean
• Fitting levers to taps to make them easier to turn
• Using electric kitchen equipment, such as tin openers, when preparing food

If you have arthritis, there are a number of things you can do to manage your symptoms and improve your quality of life.
For example, you can:

• Control your weight to ease pressure on your joints
• Avoid stress or injury to your joints to prevent or reduce the severity of osteoarthritis
• Ensure good posture to strengthen healthy joint structure
• Use physiotherapy and a walking stick or cane to help prevent your condition getting worse
• Ensure that you regularly undertake weight-bearing exercise, such as walking, to help prevent osteoarthritis. This type of exercise will increase the strength of the muscles that support your joints.
• Calcium-rich foods (including dairy products, nuts, seeds and fish) and foods rich in omega-3 all contribute to a healthy, balanced diet which will help manage your arthritis. They will also reduce your risk of developing health complications such as heart disease, osteoporosis (weak and brittle bones) and obesity.

Please call your Physiotherapist at a2z Health Group on (03) 9798 4081for more information.