As much as 14.3% of the over-60 population experiences significant hip pain on most days. With such a high prevalence, it is crucial for older adults to learn how to manage hip pain. Even if you do not currently have hip pain, you might in the future, or someone you know may need help with their hip pain.
Hip pain is widespread among older adults due to causes such as osteoarthritis, hip injuries, and arthritis, all of which become more common with age.
Younger and older people alike can also experience hip pain from a number of other causes, including sports injuries, pinched nerves, cancer, and others.
When it comes to hip pain, if you can prevent it from starting in the first place, that is ideal. Here are some tips for hip pain prevention:
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Eat a nutritious diet
- Make sure you are getting sufficient calcium
- Exercise regularly
- Warm up and warm down properly
- Be careful when performing activities to move ergonomically and safely and avoid injuries
- Improve safety at home to reduce the chances of trips and falls
In general, avoiding high-impact sports is a good way to prevent hip pain. Try and stick with low-impact exercises such as walking, swimming, cycling, and so on.
Be careful when performing repetitive movements to make sure you are doing them correctly, so as to avoid repetitive use injuries.
If you do start experiencing hip pain, there are some conservative measures you can take at home to try to ease that pain. When you feel it coming on, if you are able, try to do the following:
- Use the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation).
- Applying heat may soothe muscle pain, but potentially aggravate inflammation. Experiment with it to see if it helps you or not.
- Try taking an NSAID like ibuprofen, or acetaminophen (Tylenol).
In some cases, hip pain requires physical therapy, or even surgery. These are options a doctor can discuss with you.
Make an appointment with your doctor about hip pain if the pain is severe, and/or isn’t going away. You also should go to the doctor if you have fallen or been in an accident.
Along with the methods we went over above for immediate treatment of pain when it flares, you can make some simple lifestyle modifications to reduce pain.
Eat a healthy diet, and try to lose weight if you are overweight. Do gentle, low-impact exercises. If you are a smoker, quit.
You also can use assistive devices such as a cane to help you walk and maintain your balance.
Therapeutic footwear can help you as well. While we typically think about wearing these types of shoes for foot problems, they can help more than just heel pain and similar conditions.
The Cadense Original Adaptive Shoe is a good choice for hip pain. These lightweight shoes minimize fatigue. Their wide bases increase stability. They also include patented variable friction technology that makes it easy to cross uneven ground even if you have trouble lifting your feet fully due to hip pain or other issues.