Evening All!

Hello, sadly I am too far gone with the disease to advise, my days of it being in only one joint are long gone.

Low-impact exercise is good as it helps to strengthen the muscles surrounding the joint, enabling them to better support it. Cycling, swimming and walking are the best for that. Diet can have some influence (my OA is aggravated if I eat too many acidic foods) and overdoing things can cause inflammation but at least that is localised and easily dealt with (RICE: rest, ice, compression, elevation). Acupuncture will not stop the progress of the disease and neither will it halt any pain, like all methods of pain relief the gain is slight and temporary.

When not comes to 'herbal' versus 'synthesised' pain relief Dara O'Briain has it right: we took what worked and replicate it under safe conditions, the rest is turned into soup. Pain is part-and-parcel of the condition, in your situation I doubt it is much of an issue at the moment and I hope that long remains the case but if you are male then it will be more of an issue as males have more pain receptors then females. For some their OA remains in one joint, any form of the disease is progressive and degenerative but some get away with very little: I hope you are one of the more fortunate. I wish you well. DD

Hello and welcome from me too.

It's good that you're planning ahead as, with OA, there's probably more that we can do for ourselves than the docs can do for us. Yoga and swimming are definitely good as are cycling, a healthy , Mediterranean-type diet, a healthy weight and no smoking.

I'm much further down the arthritic road than you. I was diagnosed with RA at 15 and, due to that, OA set in later. But, fifty odd years on, I'm still doing what I call OK. In my time I've done more walking than I can manage now and horse riding, which is very good for core muscle strength. Now I'm more reliant on exercises rather than exercise but, in the following link, you'll find both. https://tinyurl.com/yd73jjvv .

I did try acupuncture a couple of times way back in the day but I found it of very limited help.

As for pain relief - exercises, distraction, a knee support (use for only a short time and maybe best to ask your GP or physio first given your past kneecap problems). Like DD, I keep well away from herbal products or supplements. The more they claim the less likely they are to do anything in my sceptical book Never underestimate the power of the humble paracetamol. Used correctly, it's a very safe drug. There are also anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) but, if used regularly, you should also be prescribed a stomach-protecting drug to go with them.