The most effective approaches for arthritis combine movement, weight management, and the right medications for your specific type. No single treatment works for everyone, but a mix of lifestyle changes and targeted therapies can significantly reduce pain and protect your joints over time.
Exercise Is the Single Best Non-Drug Treatment
Regular physical activity reduces arthritis pain, improves joint flexibility, and strengthens the muscles that support damaged joints. The goal is 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic exercise, but you don’t need to do it all at once. Breaking it into 10- or 15-minute sessions throughout the day is easier on your joints and just as effective.
The best exercises are low-impact: walking, swimming, water aerobics, and cycling. Water-based exercise is particularly helpful because buoyancy takes weight off your joints while providing natural resistance. Tai chi and gentle yoga improve balance, reduce fall risk, and help with the stiffness that makes mornings difficult. The American College of Rheumatology strongly recommends exercise as a first-line treatment for osteoarthritis of the hand, hip, and knee.
Starting can feel counterintuitive when your joints hurt, but inactivity actually worsens stiffness and weakens the muscles around your joints. Start slowly, and expect some initial discomfort that typically eases within a few weeks as your body adapts.
Why Losing Even a Little Weight Matters
Every pound of body weight translates to roughly four pounds of pressure on your knees. Losing just 10 pounds removes about 40 pounds of force from your knee joints with every step. That ratio makes even modest weight loss one of the most impactful things you can do for knee and hip arthritis. The ACR strongly recommends weight loss for anyone with knee or hip osteoarthritis who is overweight.
What to Eat to Lower Inflammation
A Mediterranean-style diet, built around vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, nuts, and olive oil, is consistently linked to lower levels of C-reactive protein, a key marker of inflammation in the body. Research shows that people with high adherence to this eating pattern have significantly lower inflammatory markers compared to those who follow it loosely or not at all. The benefits appear to depend on consistency: occasional Mediterranean meals don’t produce the same effect as making it your default way of eating.
There’s no single “arthritis superfood,” but the overall pattern matters. Omega-3-rich fish like salmon and sardines have anti-inflammatory properties, while processed foods, refined sugars, and excess red meat tend to promote inflammation.
Medications for Osteoarthritis
For osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear type that affects most people, treatment guidelines recommend starting with whatever has the least risk of side effects and working up from there.
Topical anti-inflammatory creams and gels applied directly to the skin over the affected joint are a strong first choice for knee osteoarthritis. They deliver pain relief locally with far less exposure to the rest of your body than a pill. For knee, hip, or hand osteoarthritis, oral anti-inflammatory medications remain the go-to pill-based treatment and are recommended over all other available oral options. Steroid injections directly into the knee or hip joint can provide targeted relief when other approaches aren’t enough.
Medications for Inflammatory Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory types work differently from osteoarthritis. Your immune system attacks your own joint tissue, so treatment focuses on calming that immune response before it causes permanent damage.
The main drug class is disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, or DMARDs, which suppress the overactive immune system to stop it from destroying joint tissue. Traditional DMARDs work broadly across the whole immune system. Biologics, a newer category, are engineered proteins that target specific immune cells responsible for the attack. Different biologics block different parts of the immune cascade, so if one doesn’t work well enough, your doctor can try another that works through a different mechanism. Early treatment with these drugs is critical because joint damage from inflammatory arthritis can become irreversible.
Topical Treatments for Localized Pain
If your arthritis pain is concentrated in one or two joints, topical treatments let you target those spots directly. Anti-inflammatory gels can be used daily or as needed. Capsaicin cream, made from the compound that gives chili peppers their heat, works by gradually depleting a pain-signaling chemical in your nerve endings. It needs to be applied several times a day to build up its effect, and it typically takes a week or two of consistent use before you notice meaningful relief. Expect a burning or warming sensation at first that fades with regular use.
Supplements: What Works and What Doesn’t
Curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, has the strongest evidence among arthritis supplements. A meta-analysis of knee osteoarthritis trials found that curcumin provided better pain relief than standard anti-inflammatory drugs. Interestingly, higher doses (1,000 mg or more daily) didn’t outperform lower doses, suggesting you don’t necessarily need mega-doses to get the benefit.
Glucosamine and chondroitin are far more controversial. The ACR guidelines now recommend against using them for knee and hip osteoarthritis. Systematic reviews have found only modest effects on pain and function, with inconsistent results across studies. That said, glucosamine sulfate specifically (not other forms of glucosamine) showed some intriguing long-term data: in two studies, the rate of knee replacement surgery dropped from 14.5% to 6.3% over eight years in people who took it. The biological mechanism remains uncertain, and major clinical guidelines still don’t endorse these supplements. If you’ve been taking glucosamine sulfate and feel it helps, there’s little downside to continuing, but it shouldn’t replace proven treatments.
Assistive Devices and Joint Support
Simple tools can make a real difference in daily comfort. A cane is strongly recommended for hip and knee osteoarthritis, reducing the load on the affected joint with each step. Hand splints that support the base of the thumb are recommended for osteoarthritis at that joint, which is one of the most common and functionally limiting sites. Knee braces designed for the inner or outer compartment of the knee can shift pressure away from damaged cartilage.
Some commonly marketed products don’t hold up to scrutiny. Wedged shoe insoles, modified shoes, TENS units, and massage therapy are all specifically recommended against by the ACR for osteoarthritis, based on insufficient evidence of benefit.
Self-Management and Mind-Body Approaches
Arthritis is a long-term condition, and learning to manage it actively rather than passively makes a measurable difference. Self-efficacy programs, which teach you how to set goals, pace your activities, and handle flare-ups, are strongly recommended alongside physical treatments. Tai chi earns its own strong recommendation for osteoarthritis, combining gentle movement with balance training and stress reduction in a single activity. The psychological burden of chronic joint pain is real, and approaches that address both the physical and mental components tend to produce better outcomes than either alone.