Exercise is important in osteoarthritis, highlights new UK guidance
The importance of exercise for people with osteoarthritis has been underlined again, this time in official guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The updated clinical guidelines on the care and management of osteoarthritis in adults includes a reminder that the core treatment for osteoarthritis remains exercise. Benefits of offering advice on ways to lose weight for people with osteoarthritis who are overweight or obese are outlined too.
The guidelines state that osteoarthritis can be diagnosed clinically without investigations if a person is at least 45 years old, has activity-related joint pain and has either no morning joint-related stiffness, or morning stiffness that lasts no longer than 30 minutes.
People should be referred for consideration of joint replacement surgery before mobility is reduced over a long period of time and the pain severe. Age, sex, smoking history or whether someone is obese “should not be barriers to referral for joint surgery”.
“Joint replacement can make an enormous difference to people with severe osteoarthritis and we’re very pleased that the new guidelines recommend surgery before their pain becomes severe and restricts their everyday activities, rather than having to wait until they are incapacitated,” says Prof Alan Silman, medical director of Arthritis Research UK. “Exercise and keeping moving is one of the most effective ways in which people with osteoarthritis can help themselves and the core treatments in the guidelines reinforce the importance of keeping active, keeping to a healthy weight and having access to the right information.
“It’s important that people with osteoarthritis find a type of exercise they enjoy doing and keep doing it. Everyone can benefit from some sort of exercise, regardless of their condition. Stretching, strengthening and aerobic exercises are the ideal combination to ease stiffness, improve movement in the joints and strengthen muscles.”
