The joints in your body are afflicted with decreased mobility from arthritis, as well as a high level of pain and stiffness. It can impact the hands, knees and hips, among other areas, making it difficult to perform daily functions. The tips and advice in this article are intended to help arthritis sufferers cope with their condition.

Stay away from cigarette smoke, whether you smoke yourself or not. The nicotine in cigarettes can reduce blood flow to your extremities, which may reduce inflammation in the short term. Blood flow reduction can cause damage to your joints and this will make arthritis worse.

If you have a hard time sleeping because of your arthritis pain, you may want to consider taking a warm bath at night with bath salts. This can relax your muscles and reduce your pain, helping you sleep.

Although it should only be considered as a last resort in the more extreme cases, if you are at your wits end when it comes to the pain of your arthritis, talk to your doctor about the possibilities of surgery. There are several options with joint surgeries and they can provide relief from pain, increase mobility and have been successful with most patients.

Find a support group. Suffering from arthritis can make you feel like an invisible and lonely victim, even when you are not. Joining a support group of others who have the same condition can help you feel better about it, as well as give you a way to share ideas for coping.

Focus on strength training. People who suffer from arthritis have been shown to increase their flexibility and overall health from performing strength exercises as little as twice a week. Stick with moderate or lighter exercises to get the maximum benefits without causing any undue stress on your joints, which may cause inflammation.

Eat a lot of protein. You must eat enough protein if you suffer from arthritis because your body uses more than a normal person. Vegetarians especially need to find specific methods of ingesting protein as it is hard to find in veggies.

Pay close attention to your medical treatment plan. Many arthritis sufferers make the mistake of simply closing their minds to what their doctors are saying to them. A good patient should take notes on what the doctor is telling them, as well as what the pharmacist says. Doing this can keep you informed on your own condition.

Stay active by taking a walk every evening for 20 minutes. You aren't trying to speed walk or run a marathon, you just need to keep your body in the habit Straight From the source of moving regularly and working out any stiffness in your joints. Regular walks will go a long way towards tempering your arthritis symptoms.

If pain causes fatigue, heat can be beneficial. While the commonly-accepted treatment is using ice or cold packs to deal with pain, this is not necessarily the best practice for arthritis cases. Treatment with heat is great against fatiguing pain, because it restores your energy levels at the same time that it reduces your suffering.

A healthy diet is a key factor in fighting psoriatic arthritis. Make sure to never skip your meals. Keep your diet a healthy mix of proteins, complex carbs, and unsaturated fats to help your body have enough energy to get through the day. A healthy diet will go a long way towards fighting fatigue, which can aggrevate your arthritis.

As stated before, arthritis has more than 100 different forms, each of which can cause debilitating joint pain for anyone who have it. Even in its worst form, arthritis can still be treated. Remember the information from this article and you can reduce the effects of arthritis on your joints.