Making a Joint Effort with Diet and Lifestyle Can Remedy Stiff Joints

Making a Joint Effort with Diet and Lifestyle Can Remedy Stiff Joints

  • The older people get, they are likely going to feel it a bit difficult to get up in the morning. Reason? Stiff joints!
  • All the years of making full use of those joints, the muscles and bones are now finally catching up with them, causing discomfort along with the stiffness. Most of the time, this stiffness occurs in the morning, as you wake up.
  • But OK, age is one of the reasons, but there are other reasons too.
  • Before we go on, the different types of arthritic stiffness such as osteoarthritis, although they might be age-related, certainly does not mean it is a natural symptom of old age [1]. No! It is one of the biggest misconceptions about stiffness in the joints and arthritis. Read here. It is not a consequence of pain – it is not inevitable!

What are stiff joints?

The discomfort from stiff joints can range in severity as well; many of us look at how we can reduce joint pain in winter; the time when joint stiffness seems to be at its worst. You might notice only mild symptoms one day, which affects your mobility just for a while, but other times it can be more serious and cause major discomfort and decreased mobility.

Ouch! Usually, with stiffness, you can be pretty sure there is pain and inflammation, and like we said not all joint stiffness is because of aging. Other conditions that cause stiffness can be gout, arthritis, bursitis, lupus, and bone cancer – what about the degenerative joint disease?

But this isn’t a doom and gloom story – fortunately, weight, diet, and other lifestyle factors can impact your stiffness and mobility and change things around for you.

Why is it that my joints are always stiff in the morning?

Many people just assume they’re getting old when they wake up in the morning with stiff joints. But old age alone does not cause stiff joints in the morning. Usually, it’s an indication of muscle tightness, worn joints, or inflammation from arthritis.

wake up in the morning with stiff joints

And stiff tendons and weak muscles tend to tighten up as you sleep. If you have osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis[2], both of these can trigger off morning stiffness.

You can find relief with the best joint supplements and treatments

Before starting to treat your symptoms yourself, first see what your doctor says because then you can see what is causing your particular stiffness. He will diagnose the problem and start recommending ways to ease it.

Let’s look at what he might suggest to treating your discomfort:

  1. First of all, there are over-the-counter medications that can relieve mild symptoms of joint pain. These are NSAIDs like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen that help and are often used to treat arthritis.
  2. You get hot and cold compresses, which can help a lot. The cold reduces the swelling and the heat relaxes the joints and muscles.
  3. Then there are steroids which can help to reduce inflammation and swelling that causes stiffness.
  4. Physical therapy and exercises help improve mobility and keep your weight in check along with reducing joint stiffness.
  5. There is a chemical called Glucosamine sulfate – this chemical occurs naturally in the fluid that surrounds the joints and reduces pain and stiffness.
  6. Taking fish oil supplements contributes to easing joint stiffness as well.
  7. Have you heard of Flexoplex and Relief factor before! These are natural and can be used by anyone who suffers from joint pain. They have ingredients in them specifically to address joint health. With these two natural supplements that you can choose from, you can prevent further deterioration of the problems and be able to at least live a pain-free existence. Isn’t that great news? Both these supplements will help you with pain and inflammation and provide relief from typical arthritis symptoms. These powerful supplements can block pain signals and ensure the adequate nutrition of the joints, restoring health to damaged joints.
  8. And while there is no particular diet or “miracle-type” foods that are going to cure arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions, each person can benefit from eating a well-balanced, healthy diet to maintain good joint health. Some of the conditions might be helped by making changes to your diet.
  9. Many people swear by the wonderful benefits of Read what research says about acupuncture for treating stiffness in joints. You might want to try it.
  10. Water therapy is wonderful for arthritis and stiff joints. Soaking them in warm water is one of the oldest and cheapest forms of complementary therapy, and they are quite effective at relieving aching muscles.

Could your emotions be the cause of your joint pain?

joint pain

Exactly where you experience arthritic stiffness in your body can well be a clue what hidden emotions and trauma in your life you are suppressing. For example, pain in your neck could be related to your inability to see another side of an issue. Pain in your knee might mean you are being stubborn or inflexible.

Pain in the hand might be you holding onto something that is not working for you like you are not able to “handle” everything. It is time to acknowledge that your emotions can play a huge role in arthritis – what about anger, criticism, and resentment?

Arthritis on your left side of the body is about creativity and relationship problems whereas arthritis on the right side is about career and finances, etc. You need to express your emotions and then release them as part of your healing [3].

A manuscript, published in the journal Psychological Reports, examined the relationship between pain and emotion among women suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Associate Professor and lead author of this manuscript mentioned that people often think of emotions as a consequence of pain and stress, but that their findings suggest that negative or complex, mixed emotions, under certain circumstances, can promote inflammation [4].

Conclusion

Our joints are extremely complex – there are many components of our joints and that includes the ligaments, the cartilage, and the tendons that surround the joint. All these members can fall victim to joint pain and we can’t afford that in our lives seeing as our joints are designed to allow different ranges and different types of movement.

Our bones, too, are at their strongest and thickest in early adult life, with their density increasing until our late 20s. From around age 35, we are already beginning to lose some of our bone density gradually.

Even though it’s a completely normal process that happens to us all, sometimes the rates at which we lose our bone density can occur faster in others. It’s this increased sensitivity that makes us more vulnerable to fractures, injuries, and osteoporosis.

We need to, as a top priority, keep active and fit and eat a very healthy balanced diet. If need be, you may opt for top joint pain supplements in the market to support your bone health, after consulting your medical advisor. You can overcome it.

References

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2818253/
  2. https://www.healthwebmagazine.com/joint-health/home-remedies-rheumatoid-arthritis/
  3. https://arthritis.ca/living-well/stronger-together/mental-health/the-link-between-emotions-and-arthritis-pain
  4. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-emotions-anger-sadness-pain-result.html

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