Arthritis Help in the Bathroom

Maybe the bathroom isn’t the room that’s thought of by some folk as being a place to spend a lot of time in, but for some arthritis sufferers, it can be the part of the home that helps to give the most pain relief. A lot of them use it at least once a day to alleviate the pain with a warm bath or hot shower. Some find it helpful to try out exercises in the bath, as the warmth of the water makes movement easier. I will add a short footnote that might be of interest, especially to those with psoriatic arthritis symptoms.

I would suggest that a handrail is essential on the bath, both for safety, and for easy entry and exit. A rail can be attached in the shower stall as well, as added insurance against falling. The bathtub, of course, should always have a non-slip bathmat.

A home spa unit with whirlpool action is an option favoured by many, and a shower version is also available. They have a massage attachment, and they replace the existing shower head—you can also buy ones that attach to the tub faucet, giving you a hand-held shower that can give you relief directly on points of pain.

A lot of folk prefer to shower whilst seated, and you can easily buy a shower seat, or have a homemade one. I find that most people with arthritis tend to favour a walk-in shower, as they find it increasingly difficult to get in and out of the bath.

Something that is quite often overlooked, but which can cause a nasty accident, is that small bar of soap... for something of its size, it can cause accidents on a regular basis, resulting in serious injury, something that a person with arthritis could well do without. Cosmetics manufacturers have come up with the clever idea of “soap on a rope” that hangs around the bather’s neck, or from the tap.

As you need the whole bathroom to be as comfortable as possible, raising the toilet seat to a suitable height is a must. You can obtain specially shaped foam pads about two inches thick to steel and plastic ones that can raise the level by up to eight inches. They can all be installed or removed very easily. Some people just use them when they have acute pain, while others make use of them when recovering from surgery. Armrails can also be very helpful, whether or not your seat has been raised.

Those are just some tips for around that can help to keep arthritis pain at a lower level, but there are bound to be lots more, so keep looking for, and trying out, ideas that will work for YOU!

FOOTNOTE

Even in earlier centuries, arthritis pain was treated with hydrotherapy or some kind of water treatments. In Biblical times, King David had curative bathing palaces on the shores of the Dead Sea, which were probably early examples of our modern spas. Doctors in the past few years have been carrying out tests with a water treatment using Dead Sea mineral salts. The Dead Sea’s amazing qualities, recently confirmed by scientific research, come about largely as the unique combination of 41 different minerals found in the salts. A typical sample contains heavy concentrations of magnesium and potassium chloride, with lesser amounts of calcium and sodium. Those concentrates are used worldwide for the treatment of arthritis, and are found to be of particular benefit to folk who have psoriatic arthritis symptoms.