What Is Osteoarthritis, and How to Reduce the Pain

Osteoarthritis is commonly called "wear and tear" — a type of arthritis where the cartilage in your joints gradually degenerates. Cartilage is the rubbery, protective substance that coats the ends of your bones, reducing friction during movement and acting as a natural shock absorber. When that protective covering starts to break down, it can change the way the joint and surrounding muscles function, causing pain during movement. Left untreated, the cartilage tends to become progressively more irritated, leading to more pain and greater loss of function over time. As cartilage loss continues, bones can also begin to grow outward, forming bone spurs — medically known as osteophytes. What are the symptoms of osteoarthritis? The most common symptoms include: - Joint pain — usually described as an achy sensation, most noticeable in the morning or after moving following a period of rest - Inflammation — visible swelling around the affected joint - Stiffness — the joint feels stiff and hard to move after sitting too long, or first thing in the morning - Tenderness on palpation — pain when the area is touched directly - Limited range of motion — reduced flexibility that makes certain everyday activities noticeably harder - Loss of strength in the muscles surrounding the joint - Joint crepitus — a crunchy, snapping, or clicking sound when the joint moves Where does osteoarthritis actually show up? Osteoarthritis affects roughly one in six Canadians, and it can affect nearly every joint in the body, including the knee, hip, ankle, spine, elbow, foot, hand, jaw, lower back, neck, shoulder, wrist, and even the tips of the fingers. What's the best way to treat osteoarthritis? There's no cure for osteoarthritis, but there's a meaningful difference between "no cure" and "nothing you can do." Several approaches can significantly reduce pain and improve function — and while the underlying joint changes can't be reversed, pain associated with the condition can generally be well-managed with the right combination of strategies. Strengthen the muscles around the affected joint. A physiotherapist can guide this directly, since stronger surrounding muscles take pressure off the joint itself during movement. Modify aggravating activities. Swimming, walking, and cycling are usually gentler on arthritic joints than higher-impact activities. In the short term, you may need to shorten how long you spend on these activities; as function improves, volume can be built back up gradually. Maintain a healthy weight. Extra weight increases pressure on weight-bearing joints, particularly the hips and knees. Maintaining a healthy weight measurably reduces both pain and functional limitation associated with osteoarthritis. Use heat or cold therapy to manage joint pain as it flares. Consider assistive devices where appropriate. Custom bracing, a cane or walker to offload pressure from the ankles, hips, or knees, or splinting for the hands or feet can all meaningfully reduce joint stress. A physiotherapist can recommend which specific device, if any, fits your situation. How can physiotherapy help osteoarthritis? Physiotherapy is a genuinely effective treatment for osteoarthritis — one that can help you avoid surgery and reduce reliance on pain medication. It works primarily by strengthening the muscles around the affected joint, while also teaching you how to move and use that joint correctly to reduce ongoing symptoms. A physiotherapist's approach typically includes a detailed assessment of your symptoms, close observation of which specific activities you find difficult, a customized exercise program built to improve range of motion, build strength, and reduce pain, and, where relevant, guidance on lifestyle changes that support weight management. What actually determines how much pain you experience day to day Two people can have the exact same X-ray findings and experience very different levels of pain and function. This is one of the more important — and often overlooked — realities of osteoarthritis: the severity of joint changes visible on imaging doesn't always match up with how much pain someone actually feels. Muscle strength, activity habits, sleep quality, and general conditioning all influence how much a joint "acts up" day to day. This is genuinely good news, because it means meaningful improvement is possible even without changing what an X-ray shows — strengthening the muscles around the joint and staying appropriately active can shift how a joint feels, even while the underlying wear itself stays the same. Common myths worth clearing up "Exercise will wear the joint out faster." In reality, the opposite tends to be true. Appropriately dosed movement — the kind a physiotherapist can help calibrate — keeps the muscles around the joint strong and the joint itself better nourished, since cartilage relies partly on movement to receive nutrients. Complete avoidance of activity, out of fear of "wearing it out," tends to accelerate stiffness and functional decline rather than prevent it. "Nothing can be done until it's bad enough for surgery." Surgery is one end of a fairly long spectrum of options, not the default starting point. Many people manage osteoarthritis symptoms well for years, sometimes indefinitely, through strengthening, activity modification, and weight management alone. "Pain means damage is getting worse." Pain and structural damage don't move in lockstep the way people assume. A flare-up doesn't necessarily mean the joint has deteriorated further — it often reflects a temporary combination of factors like reduced activity, poor sleep, or a period of overuse, all of which are addressable without the underlying joint changes having worsened at all. The bottom line Osteoarthritis isn't something you simply have to live with as-is. While the joint changes themselves can't be undone, a combination of targeted strengthening, activity modification, weight management, and the right assistive support can meaningfully reduce pain and restore function — often enough to avoid surgery and reduce dependence on medication altogether. If you think you may have osteoarthritis, or you've already been diagnosed and are wondering what comes next, that's exactly the conversation worth having with a physiotherapist.