Osteoarthritis worsened by stress?

[SadAboutMyHip]

I’m waiting for a hip replacement next year due to what has been described as significant osteoarthritis on scan & considerable pain. (Also reacted well to the diagnostic local anaesthetic injection.)

The last 4 months at work have been horrendous- a colleague has been off throughout this time (ironically with stress) & I have had to cover for her. I am so exhausted that I’m really struggling to get through each day. It’s been really bad. (Plus I am single parent & carer for elderly relative.)

I have noticed during this period of intense work stress my hip has got dramatically worse. Mobility is now very limited. Basic things like dressing, washing, are now very difficult & the pain is so awful, honestly I could weep from it. Really struggling to care for my children & wondering how to get through Christmas given I can’t even stand now!

So my question is- can stress worsen osteoarthritis? Is this possible? Has anyone else experienced it? Or could there be some other explanation?

Hello OP, I don’t know about osteoarthritis particularly, but I think it is a thing that pain response can definitely be made worse by stress. Pain is a very individual thing and it could well be that the additional stress produces more pain in your body. It could also be true at the same time that your hip is deteriorating.

I guess it’s a question for your consultant. The only way you can test it is to try to reduce your stress, which sounds hard because the situations in your life are somewhat beyond your control, or mitigate it some other way.

I don't find that my arthritis is worsened by stress but I would feel 100% worse if I was covering for a colleague - due to not standing up as much and walking round etc because you are covering your work as well as hers. See if you feel better with short breaks and standing if you don't currently do that. For me, sitting for too long makes the pain awful.

Can you raise the lack of cover with your manager as otherwise you will be on dick leave as well

Thanks very much both. I think this may well be about the relationship between mind & body & pain perception. I realise now our bodies are systems, not collections of parts!
Plus the sitting point is a good one! Very few breaks recently 😬.

Finally enough, I was listening to a podcast about this earlier today.

The answer seems to be-yes! Although I’m not sure that I recognise that in myself.

One of the links is here: https://ard.bmj.com/content/83/Suppl_1/203 and you can listen to the whole podcast if you look for one called “in a nutshell, the plant based health professionals UK podcast“ and it’s the one that came out today, 19 November. It does advocate a plant-based i.e. vegan diet as well but the study, which I think was a Dutch study, Incorporated diet, movement, group meetings to sustain effort and there was definitely a reference to stress reduction.

Hi - I could have written most of your post Sad, you have my sympathy. I've been waiting over a year for a hip replacement while working full time and dealing with aged mum and stroppy teen.

I am nearing a date for my op now but it is gruelling at times. I try not to take pain meds as most of the ones that work cause me to become emotional...

Can you work from home?? I do some office days and for various reasons work has been intense recently. I'm not sure my emotional state is so much the problem as being tense, frustrated and not going for a walk which I love to do usually. I eat reasonably healthily but I have also discovered that various things set the pain off including wine (!) and sugar.

It does just deteriorate over time though unfortunately.

We are twins! The sugar point is interesting. I have literally been working (at home) from school drop off to pick up without stopping & just eating biscuits etc or whatever I can find in the kitchen to keep me going. No time to shop or plan for food (though I do try to give kids something decent). So my diet has really fallen apart- before my colleague went off I was all about liniseed blueberries no UPF lots of healthy proteins etc now it’s just carbs & sugar!

I feel if there was just time to kind of metaphorically sit down for a few days & relax & take stock it would really help. But no!

Much sympathy, monster. It is a very hard stage in life & this pain is horrible. I hope your new hip arrives soon.

Take a couple of sick days off to reset and get your home admin back on track.
You are in danger of getting seriously unwell if you don't take care of yourself now. A couple of days now could save weeks or months down the line.
And please don't say they can't do without you. Yes they can. If you got rushed into hospital tomorrow, that's have to. You can say it's stress caused by pain and overwork.

Unlikely but it is very likely that your arthritis is worsening, just because it does and that your lifestyle isn't helping!
Can you let the hospital know you're desperate and try to get on the list for a cancellation for your op? Cancellations occur quite a lot. Your op will (should) be transformative!

That’s really interesting, thank you. I wonder what the diets of the participants were like before the intervention- were they for instance largely whole food based anyway?
I feel I’ve been kind of doing my own exact opposite experiment for the past few months having gone from a fairly healthy largely plant based diet to maxed out stress & sky high sugar & carb consumption! My results seem consistent with theirs…..😬

Thank you @NotbloodyGivingupYet that is good advice.