What caused your osteoarthritis?

@lotsapain80

Exercise is the answer to managing pain. I appreciate that it is difficult to do the exercises when you are in pain, but starting off with easy gentle exercises regularly will increase your ability to exercise. They have to be on regular basis though, not just when you have time or when you feel like it. Exercising in the swimming pool makes the movements less painful, so it is a good idea to go to the pool regularly. Even if you are not a swimmer, you can still exercise in the shallow water. Depending on where your pain is, it is always good to check with you clinician or physio as to which exercises are good for which pain. Having a hot water soak with Magnesium sulfate crystals in your bath water for 20 minutes is also very helpful to ease pain. It is a good idea to check with the chemist or your Gp as to how much and how often should you use magnesium sulfate, as it is absorbed in to the body through skin. If you have nor tried Turmeric, which is excellent for pain, read up on Turmeric For Health website and check it out with your GP if it is for you. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I was talking with my mum over the weekend about my OA and I thought that it was just a result of my dancing classes as a girl or a fall I had once from a horse, but apparently my uncle and grandmother had it too and at a younger age, so it must be hereditary! What a surprise! I'm not sure why it hadn't occurred to my mum to bring it up to me sooner, but I'm glad now that i know.

I have osteoarthritis and osteoporosis and it is carried down genetically from my mother's side of the family....

Well medics deny genetics but mother was riddled with arthritis, dad had two knee replacements then as he got older his shoulders and hands deteriorated badly.  He died aged 85 with bone spur in an old fracture in his neck that caused severe damage to him and put pressure on him spinal cord. After a bad fall trying to save my mum this fracture reopened and they said he may not survive surgery, and if he did he’d most probably be severely disabled even bed ridden. We all knew he’d hate that, within 24 hours he suffered pneumonia and passed within days.

Mine first started when I was anorexic before I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, and being on letrazole made it worse because of my breast cancer but I gave always had brittle bones as a child but I didn't get diagnosed till I was a coeliac then I was put on risdronate I take one a week with a full glass of water and I have to have calcium every day so it helps with my bone density, and I have to take pain killers for the pain in my legs my arms and my hips but my mum had it and my grandma and my aunts I think it is in my Gene's, Tigger