I have osteoarthritis in my major joints. I also have bursitis in my left hip, which has become chronic over the past few years. Besides anti-inflammatory drugs, what else do you recommend?

Good evening,

Bursitis is usually a reversible condition. It is therefore sufficient to perform certain actions in order to see the pain reduce and eventually disappear. Of course, taking Voltaren and other painkillers will bring relief, but it is important to determine the exact cause of the bursitis in order to eliminate it and thus relieve the pain for good.

As you will see in my answer, medications are only a small part of the solution. The other part is often overlooked and consists of doing what is called "active joint protection". This includes:

1) Make sure you don't exceed your exercise limit. You say that the pain appears after 20 minutes of walking. It is therefore important not to exceed this limit at this time.

2) Reduce any excess weight that could bring "stress" to the joint.

3) make sure you have good posture and do appropriate physical exercise to strengthen the muscles around the bursitis.

All these elements of "active joint protection" should be analyzed with a movement professional, i.e. a physiotherapist or a kinesiotherapist. They are the pros in this type of activity!

For my part, you should know that there are also cortisone injections that help reduce pain and inflammation in the bursa. They are used when anti-inflammatory drugs taken by mouth (or on the skin like Voltaren) are not effective enough or have side effects. You may want to discuss this with your doctor!

Hoping my answer will be useful for you,

Alexandre Chagnon, pharmacist