I have arthritic knees and my doctor says I have to live with it and just take some anti-inflammatories. I hear this quite a bit and it is disappointing when I do because this is not evidence-based practice. We know there is plenty of things that you can do to improve your symptoms and function with osteoarthritis. Not least progressive exercise individually prescribed and adapted to you and your tolerances. What about the medication side of things? Is it bad to take anti-inflammatories for a chronic problem like osteoarthritis? Here we will look at the evidence behind this and answer the question, “Should you take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for osteoarthritis or are they potentially bad for you?”
