Aging In Place Directory

#53 - Arthritis and Aging: Tools for Independent Living

• Esther C Kane CAPS, C.D.S. • Episode 53

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Arthritis affects one in four adults in the US and presents significant challenges for aging in place, but with the right tools and home modifications, maintaining independence is possible. This episode explores practical solutions for living comfortably with arthritis pain while preserving your ability to stay in your own home.

• Arthritis impacts grip strength, mobility, balance, and can lead to chronic pain and fatigue
• Replace round doorknobs with lever handles on doors, closets, cabinets, and faucets
• Install grab bars or handrails in strategic locations beyond just the bathroom
• Use smart home technology and voice-activated devices to reduce physical strain
• Consider arthritis-friendly tools like electric jar openers, easy-grip utensils, and reachers
• Adapt furniture with higher seating, chairs with arms, or invest in lift chairs
• Remove throw rugs or replace with thin vinyl rugs to prevent falls
• Small investments (lever handles, grab bars) can make a big difference immediately
• Larger investments (stair lifts, walk-in tubs) may be worth it depending on your needs
• Occupational therapists can recommend specific tools for your situation
• Listen to your body and use adaptive tools to prevent further injury

Please give us your comments and let us know if there are any topics you would like us to cover in future episodes.


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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Aging in Place Directory podcast. I know I've been away for a while. I've been working very hard on building and getting the Aging in Place Directory up and running and filled with professionals and marketing it and all of that fun stuff. But I'm back. I'm committed to doing regular podcasting again, and here we are.

Speaker 1:

So today in this podcast I wanted to talk about a topic that is at least very common to myself and to a lot of my friends and neighbors and families, and that is the topic of arthritis. You know, dealing with the effects of arthritis while still trying to live independently at home. So what I want to talk about is mostly the kinds of adjustments that you can make, the tools that you can use, anything that you can do to help make it easier to do all the things that you love to do, still love to do, want to do. But arthritic pain is bothering you, whether it be your hands, your knees, your hips, your whole body, your neck. I get several friends have problems with arthritis in their necks. I mean, it's extremely common. One in four adults in the US has some form of arthritic pain and the older you get, the more prevalent it can be. You know, my mom-in-law lived to 102 and she didn't really start experiencing the pain, real pain, of arthritis, until about 95 96. Before that you would never know that she was in her 90s. I mean, she walked every day, she took care of her own home, lived completely independently, drove, she was completely fine. But then she started getting arthritis in her neck, a little bit of arthritis in her knees, in her hips, in her hands, and, you know, it became quite debilitating after a while. But the point is that there are ways, there are tools that you can use to help make life a little easier. Everything from home activities to driving, to dressing, bathing, all of that. So the point is, don't be shy, use the tools that are available, use the exercises that your therapist provides and you will be able to get through it. I know I do with the arthritis in my hands all right.

Speaker 1:

So the challenges that come with arthritis if you're not yet familiar with it, if you're a caregiver and you're just caring for a senior parent or a senior loved one and they're complaining of arthritis, if you don't have it, you can't quite understand how painful it can really be. Um so, but in addition to just the pain. What arthritis affects is the strength, your grip strength, you know. Inability to open jars or turning handles, or even turning the wheel of the car, or even as something as light as holding a toothbrush can be very painful because you have to close your hand, you know, quite tight. So the trick there is to put in a larger grip on the toothbrush so that you don't have to close it quite as tight. Tight, of course the size of the grip will depend on your ability to close and what's painful and what's not.

Speaker 1:

The other thing that arthritis affects quite often is mobility and balance. Arthritis in your hips, in your knees, in your feet, can easily affect how you walk, stand, climb stairs. You know, I have Morton's neuroma at the bottom of my left foot and if I wear the wrong shoes at the end of the day I am literally limping to the point where I have to lay down for an hour or so just to relieve that pain so that I can walk again, just to get to bed or whatever. So it can be very debilitating and I don't want neuromas, not arthritis, but the point is the. So it can be very debilitating and I don't want neuromas, not arthritis, but the point is the pain can be very debilitating, to the point where you just don't want to do anything. You know, maybe you have shoulder arthritis and you just have a hard time getting dressed or showering and you tend to avoid those tasks because it is so painful. And the one thing chronic pain can easily make you tired, make you depressed, make you anxious. So please take those things into consideration and understand that it is just from having to deal with this constant chronic pain doesn't have to be from arthritis, but arthritic pain can certainly be very chronic if it's not able to be treated well or if it's severe enough, all right.

Speaker 1:

So what are some things that you can do in your home to make things a little easier for you if you're dealing with arthritis? So one is the very first thing to do and is to replace any round knobs that you have, be it on cabinets or doors or anything at all, any round knobs. Replace it with a lever knob. I did that for myself as well. I replaced all the levers in my home my doors, my closets, my cabinets, everything has a lever, everything that comes out easy enough so that, if need be, I can just put my hand over the lever and push up or down you know, down, I guess to open the door, but this way I don't have to try to hold on and turn. I even did that with the faucets. Everything is a lever and with the faucets actually I went with one handle because it's much easier to manage one handle than to try to do both, especially if you have one side is weaker than another, maybe due to some kind of neurological impairment or stroke or anything like that.

Speaker 1:

The second thing you want to do you can do is to install grab bars or safety bars or handrails, whatever you want to call them. You know, install them one both sides of your stairs. I I did that as well a few years ago. You know, any steps going in and out of your home, even if it's just one or two steps, put on those. Put those grab bars or handrails, anything. If you're going down a long hallway, my mom had a long hallway into her bathroom. I don't know why they designed it that way, but it was several feet long before she actually got into the bathroom. So we ended up putting a grab bar on that long hallway so that she could use it just to get herself down into the bathroom area. So anywhere that you would need, if you're going around a corner and you need a grab bar there, anywhere that you would need a grab bar or that you feel you need one. There's so many beautiful ones nowadays. I think it's worth having them throughout the house. I think it's worth having them throughout the house.

Speaker 1:

Smart assistive devices A lot of people don't think about voice-activated devices like Alexa or Google Home to help you turn on lights, adjust the thermostat, make phone calls. Smart plugs to automate appliances let you know your dryer is done. Anything that you can do to make life a little easier for yourself so that your smartphone can notify you, or that you can use your voice to activate or deactivate an appliance or a light. That keeps you from not only having to get up and move if you have mobility problems, but also to use your hands if you have problems with your hands or if you're having a flare-up. I mean, we all know anyone who suffers from arthritis knows that there are times and days when you simply just have a flare-up. You know, I fractured my wrist several years ago and to this day, there are days and times that I just have an absolute flare up and it hurts more than I can say, and I wear a brace during that time to just try to keep it. You know, from hurting as much that you can do to not have to use your hands or hips or anything during those flare-ups. And voice activated devices are only getting smarter and smarter every month, it seems like.

Speaker 1:

So some arthritis friendly tools that you can use, of course, are electric jar openers, easy grip utensils, button hooks for dressing or just simply avoid buttons altogether. There are, there's lots of clothing now that uses velcro to close, and there's buttons on the outside that, of course, are. They're just for decoration. But or there are some others that are magnetic, not even with velcro. They just use magnets to close a shirt or pants or anything like that. Velcro over your shoes, anything that avoids having to manage small and to manipulate small items like like shoelaces or buttons or zippers, anything like that can certainly help.

Speaker 1:

And speak with your occupational therapist, get a referral for an occupational therapist. They can show you so many tools that you can use for your specific needs. There's a ton of stuff available these days, much more so than when I was an OT years ago. So check it out. Check it out, use a reacher or grabber tool. I use a reacher almost all the time just to reach the higher cabinets, to pull down things like paper towels or anything like that. I even use a long. It's called a critter grabber and it's what you use to pick up a dead bug or anything. That's why I don't have to get one, one, I don't have to get down to the ground to pick it up, and two, I don't have to pick it up with a hand or paper towel. So the critter grabber is amazing. Um, you, just, you, just, I get. I get all these things on amazon. But you can just pull the trigger. It opens up, it grabs the bug or whatever and throws it out. You can throw it out. It's the best tool for anybody.

Speaker 1:

And then you want to definitely adjust your furniture, your layout. If you have furniture, if you have seating that's too low, you want to get a higher seating, be it a cushion, be it chairs with arms, any with seat risers, or just go ahead and invest in a lift chair. You know, I have a friend who has trouble getting up from a chair due to need surgery and he's had poor mobility anyway, but you know, even before the knee surgery, but now he's having to have surgery on the other knee and anyway he has a very difficult time getting up and I can see him getting up. He has to rock himself a little bit to get up and it's going to come to the point where at some point he's going to rock himself right over to and he's going to fall. It's. I've seen it a hundred thousand times. But trying to convince him and his wife that they need a lift chair is it's difficult because no one wants to admit that they need anything like that. But I mean it's, it's a regular recliner. It just happens to have a button that helps you to get up. But a lot of people think, no, no, it keeps my ex, it keeps me getting some exercise that I normally would lose. But the reality is you may have already lost it because of whatever illness is causing the mobility issue. So in the meantime you you're straining your muscles from your back, your shoulders, your hips, your knee, your good knee or both knees, so you're straining them. So it's only going to cause more injury or re-injure the original injury. So there's certainly no point in doing that. It just perpetuates the problem and makes it worse.

Speaker 1:

So feel free to use the tool. This is what helps to keep you independent. Are all these amazing tools? They're out there. I mean, when we're younger, we use tools to do things right. We use a hammer, we use a manual can opener. You know, we use baskets in the back of our cars to put in groceries. I mean we use tools. As younger people, we use GPS units. Now we use the smartphone. These are all tools to help make life easier and safer and more independent for all of us. So why not just continue using the tools? I mean they're different tools, but they're still tools and gadgets to help you stay safe and independent.

Speaker 1:

So you want to look at things like bed rails, leg lifters. You want to keep pathways in your home clear? Definitely remove those throw rugs. If you absolutely have to have a rug for decor, consider vinyl rugs. They're extremely thin, they're non-slip and they give you that sense of decoration. Plus, on top of that, they're super easy to clean. A Roomba goes right over them. A mop goes right over them. You don't have to worry about your dog or cat peeing or pooping or anything in the house vomiting, because it cleans up like just like a floor vinyl rugs. I recommend them to everyone and, plus, that makes cleaning much easier as well.

Speaker 1:

But use these tools to help you maintain your, your health. You know you don't want to, like I said, over strain your muscles. You know you don't want to, like I said, overstrain your muscles to the point where you end up injuring yourself again. It's just like somebody who I remember years ago I would live I used to live in a community that they they had a tennis club thing there or the. You know they would play I don't play tennis, but they would do the tournaments or whatever they call them to play. I don't play tennis, but they would do the tournaments or whatever they call them to play.

Speaker 1:

I would go to parties in the neighborhood in the evening and I would see people hobbling about, I mean all bent over or in pain, or they're sitting on the sofa with an ice pack on their hip or their knee or their ankle or elbow arm, and I mean I'd be several of them at the party and it's like what in the world happened to you? And it's like, oh, I had to play tennis today. You know, I was in the league and I had to play and I'm like I think your body is telling you, no, you shouldn't be playing. So it's so interesting to see how people will continue pushing, pushing, pushing themselves to the point of injury where at some point, the body ends up just really not able to tolerate anymore and then you end up with a chronic pain type of injury. So I never quite understood that. But if you're listening to this or if you're watching this video, please take heed and listen to what your body is telling you. Talk to your doctor, chiropractor, therapist, whatever you know about these kinds of injuries, and see what they recommend. But I personally think everybody can just listen to their body and try to understand what's going on and avoid any future damage.

Speaker 1:

All right, so what are some investments that you can make? Some products. There's some small investments and big investments. Obviously, the lever handles are small investments. You don't have to do it on every single doorway or faucet or whatever all at once. You can do it in bits and pieces. Grab bars can certainly be inexpensive. Depends on how many you need and you know what infrastructure needs to be put in, because grab bars do need to be put on a block. They can't just be installed on the drywall, so there has to be a very good support system behind there. So, yeah, there may be some issues where you have to have that kind of construction on there Reacher tools and non-slip mats and easy grip kitchen tools and anything that you can do to enhance the width of a toothbrush or a tool that you use, or a paintbrush anything at all.

Speaker 1:

Those are usually very inexpensive. You can find them mostly on Amazon and our websites that provide equipment for arthritic hands or arthritis. The bigger investments that may be worth it, depending on you know, on your budget and your level of need is a stair lift, residential elevator, a smart system, flooring upgrades if needed, a walk-in tub or roll-in showers or zero threshold showers. All of those may require, you know, will require some construction, but it may be worth it to you.

Speaker 1:

It depends on how long you plan to stay in the home, it depends on your level of ability or inability, and the point is that all of these things can help to keep you more independent and to be safer at home, and, at the end of the day, that's what I think every person living at home, aging at home, wants, and even their families. Everybody wants to be able to do what they want to do in their own home for as long as possible, until they pass away, hopefully. But until that happens, you want to make sure to make the last several years of your life, or however long you have you know could be 20 years you want to make it safe and and secure and independent so that you can enjoy it. That's the whole point of being home and making home your safe haven. You want to enjoy it. So these tools can help to make your arthritic pain less painful maybe hopefully it won't exaggerate it.

Speaker 1:

Again, speak with your therapist. You know if you're seeing a PT or an OT or hand therapist or whomever you're seeing rheumatologist on what your pain issues are, what they recommend, who they recommend for you to see, because there are some amazing tools out there that can really help you to live with that pain, and we all know anyone who has arthritis know that it can be extremely painful. All right, take care of yourselves. I hope this information was useful for you. Please give us your comments. You know, like the video, unlike the video, let us know what you think. Let us know if there are any topics you would like us to cover in, you know, in future episodes, and we will respond to everything you say. Okay, great, thank you, have a wonderful day and I'll see you next time.

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Esther C. Kane, CAPS, C.D.S.

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