Easing arthritis pain
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Medicines can help to ease the pain of arthritis, but there also are things that people with arthritis can do by themselves. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Louise Murphy has been studying arthritis in America. She says one thing people can do, if they're overweight, is to lose weight. Another thing is to be physically active:
``Doing simple exercises like walking can reduce pain and increase mobility. The benefits of regular exercise can be equal to that of taking pain medication.''
Murphy says arthritis is common - about 1 in 5 people have been diagnosed with it. She also says arthritis is most common among whites and blacks.
An article on arthritis was in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.