| How to Treat Knee Inflammation Posted: 19 Mar 2018 05:00 PM PDT If your knee is red, swollen, sore, or warm to the touch, it is inflamed. Inflammation in the knee can be caused by a lot of different conditions, such as arthritis, tendinitis, bursitis, or an injury to the muscles or tendons around the knee. Once the knee is injured, inflammation begins as the knee starts to heal itself. Treating minor inflammation in the knee can usually be done at home with some general care and lifestyle changes. However, if you have ongoing or intense inflammation, you should seek out medical care. EditCaring for Inflammation at Home - Give your knee a break. If your knee is inflamed you should give it as much rest as possible. Activity on the knee will only increase inflammation. Rest will give your body a chance to heal the underlying cause.
- Rest your knee as much as possible. Most people still need to walk and do simple movements with a knee that has inflammation. If this is the case for you, at least try to avoid strenuous activity on the knee.
- If the inflammation has not improved after 1-2 days, you should see your doctor.
- Apply cold to the area. Inflammation can be reduced by icing the knee. Reducing the temperature of the area constricts blood vessels, which reduces swelling. It also decreases pain by numbing the area.
- Apply an ice pack for 15 minutes of every hour. Doing this for 3 to 4 hours in a row will reduce inflammation drastically.[1]
- You can use an actual ice pack to reduce inflammation. However, a bag of frozen vegetables works just as well. Wrap the frozen bag with a towel to protect your skin from the cold.
- Compress the area. Putting some compression on a knee that has inflammation can prevent or reduce swelling. Compress the knee area by wrapping it in a compression bandage. Compression bandages are available at most drug stores and big box stores.
- Be sure that you don't wrap the area too tight. A very tight bandage can cut off circulation to the rest of the limb. To make sure it's not too tight, ensure that you can slip one of your fingers under the bandage and lift the finger slightly. Also, if your toes or feet start to become numb, it is a sign that you need to loosen the wrap.
- Give yourself a break from the wrap every few hours.
- Wrapping your knee can also help to support the knee if you do need to walk on it.[2]
- Elevate the knee. Lift your knee above your heart so that circulation in the knee is increased. This is easiest to do when lying down. Once you are lying down, have someone put pillows under your knee until it is elevated above your heart.[3]
- Elevate your inflamed knee whenever you are resting. If you plan on watching TV, reading a book, or taking a nap, lift your knee while doing it.
- Take over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. Simple over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications, such as ibuprofen, can reduce swelling in the knee. They will also reduce any pain you are having due to your injury.[4]
- Follow the dosing directions supplied on the packaging.
- Talk to your doctor if you have any questions about possible drug interactions or problems taking anti-inflammatory medications with your specific health history.
EditReducing Inflammation With Lifestyle Changes - Eliminate activities that are hard on your knees. If you have repeated bouts of inflammation in your knee, you should start treating it more gently. Eliminate activities that aggravate your inflammation, such as high-impact exercises like running or tennis.[5]
- A lot of inflammation is rooted in injuries to tendons and muscles around the knee. High-impact exercises can exacerbate old injuries to these areas because of the force these activities exert on the joints.
- Similarly, daily activities can exacerbate knee problems for those who have conditions like arthritis. Scale back your activities to accommodate your needs.
- Start doing activities that are good for your knees. Replace high-impact activities with those that are easier on your knees. Low-impact exercises, like swimming, will keep inflammation reduced and will increase your overall health.[6]
- Some other great types of low-impact exercises include stationary bicycling, elliptical training, water aerobics, stretching, and chair exercises.
- Daily low-impact exercise will help your knees to heal over time.[7]
- Eat an anti-inflammatory diet. Inflammation in your knee can be connected to general inflammation in your whole body. To reduce the amount of inflammation you are experiencing, try eating anti-inflammatory foods. Some of these include:[8]
- Tomatoes
- Olive oil
- Green, leafy vegetables, including spinach, kale, and collard greens
- Nuts
- Fatty fish, including salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines
- Fruits
- Reduce your weight. Pressure on an inflamed knee can further inflame it and can decrease its ability to heal. If you reduce the weight it has to carry on a daily basis, this can increase its ability to heal effectively.[9]
- While many weight loss plans advocate for an increase in the exercise you are doing, keep in mind that you need to be careful with your already injured knee while you are doing that exercise.
EditGetting Medical Care for Inflammation - Visit your doctor for a definitive diagnosis and treatment. Knee pain and swelling should be treated by a doctor. A doctor can do tests like X-rays, MRIs, or an ultrasound that will give you a specific diagnosis about the issue. This will allow the doctor to prescribe treatments that are tailored to your specific problem.[10]
- If you have repeated bouts of inflammation from an injury or condition like arthritis, talk to your doctor about them when you go in for a checkup. They may be able to give some suggestions about how to prevent and treat the problem.
- Discuss options for pain management. If over-the-counter pain medications are not reducing your pain satisfactorily, your doctor may be able to prescribe you something that will. Talk to the doctor about your level of pain and whether stronger painkillers, such as opioids or corticosteroids, would be appropriate for your condition.[11]
- Your doctor may also prescribe capsaicin cream. This is a topical pain reliever that can help with joint inflammation.
- Corticosteroids are typically injected into the joint. This is done in a doctor's office and is a long lasting pain and swelling medication.
- Opioid pain medications, such as codeine, can be addictive. Be careful when using them and only use them when necessary to control pain.
- Discuss surgical treatment options. In some cases of severe knee injury, your doctor may suggest surgical treatment. If the inflammation you are experiencing is caused by a severe injury that you have not been able to heal with other methods, consider this as an option for you.[12]
- There are a wide variety of knee surgeries that may be suggested. They vary in intensity. Some people simply need to have an outpatient arthroscopic surgery. Others will need very invasive procedures that take months to heal from, such as a full knee replacement.
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| How to Organize a Small House Posted: 19 Mar 2018 09:00 AM PDT When you're living in a tiny house, efficiency apartment, or other compact abode, you'll need to make the most of each nook and cranny to ensure you have enough room for everything. Thankfully, there are plenty of tricks you can use to maximize your space without compromising on style. EditIn a Hurry? To maximize your space in a small house, try dividing up your living room into multiple quadrants or using your bedroom as an office or den. When possible, purchase furniture items that have multiple uses, such as foot rests that double as storage cubes. For your bedroom, try to purchase a futon or similar object that opens up additional space. Instead of having a separate dining table, game table, and desk, condense them all into a single furniture item. To learn how to make use of vertical space and better organize your existing objects, read on! EditDividing a Room into Separate Areas - Divide your living room into multiple quadrants. The living room is often the largest area of a house, but many people use it exclusively as a family or TV room. To open up more space, try dividing your living room into multiple zones with their own unique designs. These quadrants can stand in for rooms that you don't have enough space for, such as a dining room, playroom, or den.[1]
- To partition the area with dividers, purchase large curtains, tides, or free-standing walls and arrange them inside your living room.
- To create quadrants without using dividers, arrange objects in the room based on their specific function. If you'd like, create small signs stating what room each area represents.
- Use your bedroom as an office or den. For most people, a bedroom is a private area that doesn't easily convert into a family or guest room. However, bedrooms are often the perfect location for a home office, personal den, or other private space. Converting your bedroom into a multi-purpose personal area will open up more rooms throughout your house without removing any privacy.[2]
- If necessary, divide the room into quadrants so you have distinct areas for sleeping, relaxing, doing work, and the like.
- For particularly small rooms, see if your furniture items can serve 2 or more purposes, such as using your bed as a sofa or office chair.
- Eat in your kitchen instead of the dining room. Dining rooms make a lot of sense for people that entertain guests regularly. However, they're a bit out of place in tiny homes that don't get a lot of visitors. To open up an extra room for more important things, clear out your dining room and eat in the kitchen instead.
EditUsing Furniture in Multiple Ways - Purchase furniture that has multiple uses. When maximizing space, perhaps the best thing you can do is invest in furniture items that have 2 or more uses. Often referred to as smart furniture, these objects fulfill a main function, like seating, while hiding a second function within, typically additional storage.[3]
- Common forms of smart furniture include storage cubes that double as foot rests, tables that come with drawers, and cabinets that contain a desk-like board you can pull out.
- Look for objects around your house that can serve multiple functions, such as a chair you can attach a storage bag to or a TV stand you can keep things on.
- You can often find cheap furniture at garage sales, thrift shops, and flea markets, many of which either serve multiple purposes or can be easily converted into multiple-purpose objects.
- Buy a loft bed or futon. Depending on how much room you have, a full-sized bed may not be a good option. Instead, try going with something that better utilizes the space around it. For tiny houses, a loft bed installed over your bedroom will open up a massive amount space. For houses where the bedroom doubles as the living room, buy a futon so you have both a couch and a bed.[4]
- If you end up purchasing a regular bed, try to get a model that has drawers inside the bed frame.
- If you want to use your current bed, try holding it up on firm wooden blocks to create extra storage space underneath.
- Use a single table for multiple purposes. Try to replace multiple distinct tables, such as a dining room table, game table, and desk, into a single furniture item. This will open up a lot of additional space while providing the exact same level of functionality.
- If possible, convert your table into a storage area as well by placing a long tablecloth over it and hiding containers underneath.
- Attach shelves to stairwells and similar areas. Many houses have bulky areas in them that do little more than take up space. In most cases, you can outfit these spots with shelves and similar objects to make use of the extra room. Try turning the following places into storage areas:[5]
- The spot above a door
- The area beneath a stairwell
- The backside of a couch
EditMaximizing Visual and Vertical Space - Store items high on the wall. When possible, mount floating shelves on your walls to hold lightweight items like books, figurines, and small electronics. For bulkier items like musical instruments and potted plants, see if you can hang them by attaching adhesive hooks or anchor screws to the wall.[6]
- Install a pot rack in your kitchen to hold cooking supplies. Bulky items like pots and pans can take up a lot of unnecessary space in your kitchen cabinets. To fix this, try hooking them onto a wall-mounted pot rack or similar device. This will open up a lot of extra space for heavier and more fragile items.[7]
- Instead of a professional pot rack, try purchasing a large pegboard. This will allow you to arrange your supplies in any way you see fit, conserving space in the long run.
- Create an open-faced pantry to free up useful space. In many cases, concealed or walk-in pantries take up a lot of room they don't need to. Creating an open-faced pantry with a free standing or wall mounted shelf system will better utilize the available space while encouraging you to pare down and organize the supplies you already have.[8]
- Instead of using it to store food, keep bulky and non-perishable supplies in your pantry.
- Hang up drapes and mirrors to create the illusion of space. Even if a room is perfectly organized, it may still feel cramped and uncomfortable to live in. Thankfully, there are some ways to rectify this without taking up more room:[9]
- Floor to ceiling curtains will create long lines along the wall, making your house look taller.
- Large mirrors will act like a portal to another room, making the area seem deeper.
- Paint your room with light or contrasting colors to make it look bigger. The color of your walls can alter how large or small your house looks. To make a room appear bigger, paint the walls a bright or pastel color. In addition, cover any wall trimmings in an even lighter shade of paint, creating a subtle contrast that makes objects look further apart. Some good color choices include:[10]
- Off-white
- Beige
- Baby blue
- Pastel green
EditDecluttering Your Space - Throw out things you don't need. For many people, organization issues stem not from a lack of room but from how many unnecessary items they own. To better conserve your space, get rid of anything that you don't want or never use. This may include items like:[11]
- Cookware that you haven't used in the last 3 months.
- Old books, movies, and games that you don't plan on returning to.
- Decorative items and knick-knacks that you no longer care about.
- Purchase storage containers that look good out in the open. When you're living in a small house, you may not have a lot of room to hide bins, baskets, and other storage receptacles. Because of this, try to use containers that provide plenty of space but also look good. Some common examples include:
- Storage chests
- Vinyl equipment cases
- Decorative baskets
- Hat boxes
- Graphic bags
- Use bookshelves to create a more organized storage system. Though drawers are incredibly useful, they often end up storing things you don't need and, in many cases, may not even want. Keeping items on a bookshelf or other open-faced shelving unit will help you create a more focused, useful storage system that cuts down on junk and puts the things you really love front and center.[12]
- Use drawers and racks to maximize your closet space. Due to their odd shape, closets can be hard to organize effectively. To fix this, place thin dressers on the floor of the closet and install hanging racks, shelves, and similar items higher up. If you're left with a small patch of unused space, fill it with a plastic storage container, basket, or similar item.[13]
- If your house does not have a closet, keep your clothes in a dresser or similar container.
- Try keeping clothes and other small items inside purses, luggage containers, and similar objects.
- Purchase kitchen containers that stack. Often, kitchens fill up quickly because the owner purchases a lot of incompatible storage containers, dinnerware, cups, and similar items. To avoid this, do your best to purchase supplies that stack neatly together, limiting the amount of space each object takes up. This is especially important for tupperware containers since they're often designed to be large and bulky.
- In addition to stacking items, keep small objects inside large containers like dutch ovens.
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| How to Fix Yellow Tap Water Posted: 19 Mar 2018 01:00 AM PDT If you notice yellow discoloration in your tap water, you may worry about whether it is safe to drink and how to fix the problem. In most cases, however, yellow water is both harmless and easy to treat. Deciding whether your water provider or your internal plumbing has turned the water yellow is the first step to take. Then, once you've found the cause, hire a professional to help you decide on the best treatment option. EditDetermining the Cause - Avoid using the tap water until you determine a cause. Although water discoloration can be harmless, your safest option is to stop drinking it until you know what turned it yellow. Until you're certain what the cause is, drink bottled water and avoid cooking or washing with the tap water.
- Turn on your sink for several minutes to see if the water turns clear. If the water clears out after several minutes, the issue is likely with your house plumbing. You will need to contact a plumber to determine an exact cause. If it does not, however, and remains yellow, it is probably an issue with your city's mainline.[1]
- If the water does turn clear, you should still avoid drinking, cooking, or washing with it until you know what the problem is.
- Ask your neighbors if they have noticed any changes in their tap water. This can help you evaluate the extent of the problem. If your neighbors have also noticed discoloration in their water, then the issue probably reaches beyond your home. If your neighbors' water has not turned yellow, however, the issue will likely need to be investigated by a plumber.[2]
- To determine the extent of the water discoloration, you might try asking neighbors who live further away from your home or even people from a different, nearby neighborhood.
- Call your water provider to ask about any citywide problems. If the water discoloration does not seem to be strictly within your home, it may be caused by pipeline sediments in the water main. Contact your water provider immediately to ask about the cause and whether your household should drink bottled water until the problem is fixed.[3]
- Ask if your water provider has recently changed their source, as this could be the cause of yellow water.[4]
- Check to see whether you live near marshlands. If you recently moved to a new home and the water is yellow, the coloration may be harmless if you live in an area with lots of marshlands. As water moves through peat soils and is filtered, it usually retains a yellowish color. Although unpleasant looking, yellow water that was initially in marshes is harmless.[5]
- In the United States, these conditions usually occur in the Southeast, Northwest, New England, and Great Lakes regions.
- Distinguish between yellow or greenish water. While yellow water is often harmless to drink, greenish or greenish-blue water usually indicates that the copper piping in your home has corroded. Contact a plumber immediately and switch to bottled water until you can pinpoint and fix the cause.[6]
- Drinking water with copper corrosion can cause vomiting and gastrointestinal distress.
EditFiltering Your Water - Try filtering your water if the problem exists beyond your home. If you live near marshlands or your city is experiencing a pipeline sediment issue, you may want to filter your water. Contact your water supplier to make sure it is safe to drink. If so and you want to fix the discoloration, a filtration system can help clear your water.[7]
- You can purchase a filtration system from most home improvement stores.
- Ask a professional about which filtration system would best fit your needs. Consulting a plumber or water quality expert can help you find a system that is easily installable and can get rid of the source of your discoloration. Before you buy a system, ask one or several professionals for their opinion.[8]
- Install a water filter if you are primarily concerned about sediment. Most water filters are equipped to remove sediment, debris, and some bacteria from the water. They generally do not, however, eliminate viruses. If you know that the cause is primarily sediment from rust or peat moss, a water filter may solve the problem.
- Water filters with a charcoal element in their cartridges can remove unpleasant tastes, if this is an issue with your water.
- Choose a purifier to sterilize your water. Water purifiers use UV lights or chemicals to eliminate any pathogens, viruses, sediments, or debris that might naturally be found in the water. The main downside to purifiers, however, is that they can leave an unpleasant taste or odor in your water.[9]
- If your main concern about your discolored water is its taste or odor, you may want to choose a different filtration system.
EditReplacing Rusty Plumbing - Do not attempt to replace rusty plumbing unless you have experience. Fixing or removing rusty plumbing is usually too dangerous for the amateur plumber. Unless you are a professional plumber or have experience working on interior pine lines, avoid DIYing a potential plumbing issue.[10]
- Fixing rusty plumbing by yourself can result in serious injuries to yourself or damage to your home.
- Although fixing rusty plumbing on your own may seem like it will save money, you may end up worsening the problem and costing you more in the long term.
- Call a professional to find the cause of your water discoloration. A plumber can find the issue with your interior plumbing and assess the best method to fix it. If you have determined that the water discoloration is not caused by a mainline problem, contact a plumber.
- While searching for local plumbers online, check their company's reviews. Avoid companies with many negative reviews, as a bad plumber can cause even more damage to your home.
- Solicit the opinion of several plumbers for a more rounded opinion. Contact at least 2 or 3 plumbers for a house inspection before choosing an option. You'll be able to get more perspectives on the cause of your water discoloration and the best, most cost-efficient way to treat the problem.
- The cheapest option is not necessarily the best choice, when it comes to plumbing. Choose the plumber who has the most experience and can offer references or positive reviews from their previous clients.
- Review your home warranty to check if plumbing issues are covered. Depending on the cause and suggested fix, rusty or corroded plumbing may be covered by your warranty. Contact your insurance company after you have pinpointed the cause to determine what the out-of-pocket cost for repair will be.[11]
- If you don't currently have a copy of your home warranty, contact your insurance or home warranty company. As their client, you should be entitled to a new copy.
- Because yellow water is usually caused by iron or manganese concentrations, it is unpleasant but often safe to drink. Always contact your water provider and a plumber, however, to make sure that the issue is benign.[12]
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