Introduction:
If you know someone with arthritis, you know exactly what questions they might ask most often. Most common questions to a knee arthritis doctor are- if a patient with arthritis can safely drive a car, or would it hamper their temporary comfort or not, or can it continue to alleviate their pain or not? All the questions have one answer: yes, a patient with arthritis can drive a car safely and with complete comfort. It is time to see how an arthritis patient can drive their vehicle comfortably.
What Causes Arthritis Patients to Have Difficulties Driving?
Stiffness And Pain In The Joint: One of the dreaded symptoms within an arthritis patient is that their joint becomes stiff and painful at the same time even to move appropriately. It becomes difficult even to look back or sides to make a turn or brake, resulting in accidents.
Medicines: The medications used for arthritis are mostly painkillers, which have side effects like dizziness and sleepiness, and numb the function of the brain for some time, thus making it dangerous for the person to drive a car.
Fogginess: The pain created by arthritis distracts the mind and clouds the cognitive process for some time, which can result in unwanted accidents.
How Can You Drive Safely With Arthritis?
The Correct Car:
As the manual cars are not safe for patients with arthritis, it is recommended by doctors that patients should use automatic transmission cars. This car has large mirrors, power brakes, and power steering, which is entirely automated.
Proper Car Adjustments:
The seats, the rear and side mirrors, and the steering should be appropriately adjusted so that the patients do not feel uncomfortable.
Strong Steering Wheel Cover:
The strength, in this case, refers to rubber or silicon material which will be easier to grip, especially for arthritis patients. This enables less pressure on the hands and lower impact on the joints or tissues. The grip gets balanced, and the risk of slipping from pain decreases.
A good spinner knob:
This attachment is installed on the steering wheel, allowing for less hand pressure. With this, it becomes less required to grip the wheel.
Foot Controls:
This is a massive help for those who have severe arthritis in the legs and knees. The brake is essential if you are driving a car, and someone with arthritis driving it becomes dangerous. With this hand and foot control, the mobility function increases, and the pain decreases.
Conclusion:
Other equipment like the heated chair cover and support pillows can be kept to comfort patients with arthritis. Other than that, disabled parking and driving tickets are available to make driving safer on the road. In case you want to know more about why running on a treadmill is important for your health, you can read this article here.
