Working with your doctor to ensure you get appropriate medical treatment is essential, but you can also take measures on your own to manage your RA and ease pain and fatigue. Diet, exercise, smoking cessation and mental health are all key to good health overall and controlling RA.

Healthy Eating. A balanced, nutritious diet consisting of the recommended amounts of all the food groups helps promote wellness and makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight.

Daily movement. Even when you don’t have time to exercise, try to make movement part of your everyday routine. Use the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Park in a spot that makes you walk a bit to enter a building. Take the longer way to a meeting in your office.

Balancing activity with rest. It's important to try to stay physically active even during a flare, but rest is also especially important when RA is active and joints feel painful, swollen or stiff. Rest helps reduce inflammation and fatigue that can come with a flare. Taking breaks throughout the day protects joints and preserves energy.

Hot and cold treatments. Heat treatments, such as heat pads or warm baths, tend to work best for soothing stiff joints and tired muscles. Cold is best for acute pain and swollen joints. It can numb painful areas and reduce inflammation.

Topical products. These creams, gels or stick-on patches can ease the pain in a joint or muscle. Some contain the medicine that you can get in a pill, and others use ingredients that irritate your nerves to distract from pain.

Stress Reduction and Complementary Therapies. There are different ways to relax and stop focusing on pain. They include meditation, deep breathing, and thinking about images in your mind that make you feel happy. Massage can help reduce pain, relax sore muscles and ease stress or anxiety. Acupuncture involves inserting fine needles into the body along special points to relieve pain. If you don’t like needles, acupressure uses firm pressure instead.

Gout

Gout is a common form of inflammatory arthritis that is very painful. It usually affects one joint at a time (often the big toe joint). There are times when symptoms get worse, known as flares, and times when there are no symptoms, known as remission. Repeated bouts of gout can lead to gouty arthritis, a worsening form of arthritis. There is no cure for gout, but you can effectively treat and manage the condition with medication and self-management strategies.

Gout flares start suddenly and can last days or weeks. These flares are followed by long periods of remission—weeks, months, or years—without symptoms before another flare begins. Gout usually occurs in only one joint at a time. It is often found in the big toe. Along with the big toe, joints that are commonly affected are the lesser toe joints, the ankle, and the knee.

Symptoms in the affected joint(s) may include:

Gout is caused by a condition known as hyperuricemia, where there is too much uric acid in the body. The body makes uric acid when it breaks down purines, which are found in your body and the foods you eat. When there is too much uric acid in the body, uric acid crystals (monosodium urate) can build up in joints, fluids, and tissues within the body. Hyperuricemia does not always cause gout, and hyperuricemia without gout symptoms does not need to be treated.

The following make it more likely that you will develop hyperuricemia, which causes gout:

A medical doctor diagnoses gout by assessing your symptoms and the results of your physical examination, X-rays, and lab tests. Gout can only be diagnosed during a flare when a joint is hot, swollen, and painful and when a lab test finds uric acid crystals in the affected joint.

Gout can be effectively treated and managed with medical treatment andwho should diagnose and treat gout? The disease should be diagnosed and treated by a doctor or a team of doctors who specialize in care of gout patients. This is important because the signs and symptoms of gout are not specific and can look like signs and symptoms of other inflammatory diseases. Doctors who specialize in gout and other forms of arthritis are called rheumatologists.

Your health care provider may recommend a medical treatment plan to

Gout affects many aspects of daily living, including work and leisure activities. Fortunately, there are many low-cost self-management strategies that are proven to improve the quality of life of people with gout. For gout in particular:

Get physically active. Experts recommend that adults engage in 150 minutes per week of at least moderate physical activity. Every minute of activity counts, and any activity is better than none. Moderate, low impact activities recommended include walking, swimming, or biking. Regular physical activity can also reduce the risk of developing other chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Go to effective physical activity programs. For people who worry that physical activity may make arthritis worse or are unsure how to exercise safely, participation in physical activity programs can help reduce pain and disability related to arthritis and improve mood and the ability to move.Classes take place at local Ys, parks, and community centers.

Psoriatic Arthritis

Psoriatic arthritis is a type of arthritis linked with psoriasis, a chronic skin and nail disease. Psoriasis causes red, scaly rashes and thick, pitted fingernails. Psoriatic arthritis is similar to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in symptoms and joint swelling (inflammation). But it tends to affect fewer joints than RA. And it does not make the typical RA antibodies.

Doctors don't know what causes psoriatic arthritis. But factors such as immunity, genes, and the environment may play a role.

The psoriasis symptoms may start before or after the arthritis. Psoriasis causes red, scaly rashes and thick, pitted fingernails. About 3 in 20 to 3 in 10 people with psoriasis may develop psoriatic arthritis. Symptoms of psoriatic arthritis may include:

The symptoms of psoriatic arthritis can look like other health conditions. Make sure to see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis.

Psoriatic arthritis is easier to confirm if you already have psoriasis. If you don’t have the skin symptoms, diagnosis is more difficult. The process starts with a health history and a physical exam. Your healthcare provider will ask about your symptoms. You may have blood tests to check the following:

Treatment will depend on your symptoms, age, and general health. It will also depend on the severity of your condition.

Both the skin condition and the joint inflammation are treated. Early diagnosis and treatment helps prevent joint damage. Some medicines used to treat psoriatic arthritis include:

The condition may damage joints enough to change your activity level. Lack of activity can lead to stiff joints and muscle weakness. Psoriatic arthritis can also cause tiredness (fatigue) and low red blood cell count (anemia). You are more likely to develop:

There is no cure for psoriatic arthritis. But you can reduce your symptoms by sticking to your treatment plan. Manage pain with medicine, acupuncture, and meditation. Get enough exercise. Good exercises include yoga, swimming, walking, and bicycling. Work with a physical or occupational therapist. He or she can suggest devices to help you with your daily tasks. When should I call my healthcare provider?

Let your healthcare provider know if your symptoms get worse or you have new symptoms.

Key Points about Psoriatic Arthritis