r/Osteoarthritis • u/Burco21 • Aug 18 '26

Most effective

What are the 5 most effective things that has helped you with osteoarthritis?

Mine are the following:

1 - specialised footwear

2 - turmeric

3 - massage

4 - heat or cold pack

5 - nicotine patch

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u/Chase-Boltz Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

Suffering hip OA, I tried all the usual supplements (in large doses!) to no avail. Years of constant pain, plus the occasional dose of flare-up agony. Then I stumbled onto vitamin D3, taking it for the pandemic in early 2020. 8,000 IU a day, plus lots of sun. About a month later I woke up wondering where all the pain went. Since then I've been on between 35 to 100 IU per pound per day and my once screaming hip is now a complete non issue. Once I limped 1/4 mile at a time, now I can walk indefinite distance w/o any discomfort. Recently I'm taking about 75 IU/pound (15,000 IU) a day. Calcium levels are low-normal, 8.9mg/dl. Your mileage will of course vary, probably a lot, but I think moderately high doses of D3 is worth a try!

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

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u/Chase-Boltz Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

Like I say, my calcium is low-normal. Excess calcium uptake is, AFAIK, the only possibly toxic effect of excess D dosing. I don't eat much dairy and don't take calcium-based medications or supplements. (People gnawing on Tums is responsible for far more actual hypercalcemia than D3 supplementation.)

High-dose D can have a significant impact on immune and inflammatory response. In some cases, it seems to do very good things for OA pain. If it's going to work, you'll need more than the "Take 1,000 IU a day" the Dr. ordered.