by K Vaze

Created on: May 05, 2008

Benefits of occupational therapy,Are they real?

I have to say yes after seeing the difference it made for my aunt.My Aunt has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis from very young age.She is my favorite one as she used to come and stay with us during holidays and do all kind of fun stuff like painting and drawing which we loved as kids.She loved painting but as her disease progressed it became more and more difficult for her to pursue her favorite hobby.I have seen all the challenges she had to go through just to do the everyday chores.She tried all kinds of treatments,all of them helped her to some extent ,but the one that really made a difference was the occupational therapy,because it made her daily life a little bit more comfortable and easier on her joints and also helped her do the thing she wanted to do the most like painting.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an auto immune disease,which means the body attacks itself ,destroying it's own normal tissues.In this particular type of arthritis the various joints in the body especially hands and feet are affected causing pain ,swelling and redness in those joints.For people with arthritis doing all the things that we normally do everyday like cooking,cleaning,bathing,dressing,eating and so on,become extremely difficult because of the pain and immobility in their joints.

There are many types of treatment plans available for treating arthritis, most commonly used are physical therapy and occupational therapy.Usually these two go hand in hand.There are some basic differences in physical and occupational therapy.The most important one is,physical therapy helps to keep you moving by stimulating your joints,bones and muscles through series of particular exercises,and movements.That improves the strength and tone of them to keep them working as smoothly as possible.While occupational therapy teaches you to keep doing all the things effectively without causing more damage to the joints, considering severity of the arthritis you have,making and keeping you more independent.

It's important for people with arthritis to stay active to maintain joint movements along with their general health.Scientists say that people with uncontrolled rheumatoid arthritis have higher risk of developing other potentially serious problems like joint destruction,permanent deformity of a joint,heart disease,mental health problems and stroke.Occupational and physical therapies help them do just that ,Stay Active and Independent,Effectively.

Occupational therapy

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