Is rheumatism (arthritis) seasonal?
Not really.
There are aches and pain in and around joints or in muscles that are related to unaccustomed activity. Take these cases:
- 56 year old female, hospital worker (mostly seated in the lab), complains of heel pain about 3rd week of December. Her heel is tender to pressure, in the sole more so.
- 65 year old lady has swelling of theleft knee in the first week of December, and remembered the same condition some years back during the holy week.
Common to the 2 cases are gender and age group and one other fact, which many times, could be missed during the doctor visit - both had spent an average of 5 hours doing Christmas shopping, and for the second case, walking in a religious procession for at least 3 hours.
Does this feel familiar? Here are some tips to avoid this bane:
1. Check out those shoes. Get into a comfortable soft soled footwear, with enough arch support (or buy one during the shopping)
2. Have regular rest periods during the outing - clue is don't wait for discomfort in the calf muscles before finding a seat, so this should be about every 30 min for some, 45 min or even 1-2 hours for the younger ones.
3. Cold packs around the ankle area can help after a long shopping walk - just for 10 minutes, while putting up feet to rest.
Contains current and updated facts about rheumatic diseases for the lay. Myths and falacies about arthritis abound, so check out this site for evidence-based dicussions on arthritis and rheumatism! Disclaimer: "The site and the information contained herein is made available by the author for educational purposes only. The reader acknowledges that this information is not intended to provide medical advice or replace the competent medical advice from his/her physicians."
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