Top Tips for Joint Pain Relief

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Whilst joint pain is common, especially as we get older, it can be very uncomfortable to live with. Read our top tips for joint pain relief & easing joint pain here.

Joint pain is common, especially as you get older. There are a few things you can do to ease the pain, but you should always get medical help if it’s very painful or it does not get better with treatment. Sometime joint pain can occur in one joint, or more than one at the same time, such as the knees and hips, or shoulders and wrists.Man running

Joints form the connections between bones. They provide support and help us move. Any damage to the joints from disease or injury can interfere with your movement and cause a lot of pain. If you are suffering from painful joints and need to discover ways to shift the pain, carry on reading for our tips on joint pain relief.

What causes joint pain?

Joint pain is discomfort, aches, and soreness in the body’s joints. Joint doesn’t typically require you to visit the hospital. Arthritis is a common cause of joint pain, but there are many possible causes of joint pain. It might be caused by an injury or a longer-lasting medical problem.

There are a wide range of conditions that can lead to painful joints such as:

  • Osteoarthritis, a “wear and tear” disease, is the most common type of arthritis.
  • Rheumatoid arthritisis an autoimmune disorder that happens when your body attacks its own tissues.
  • Bursitisis when sacs of fluid that help cushion your joints get inflamed.
  • Goutis a form of arthritis that most often affects your big toe joint.
  • Strains, sprains, and other injuries.

Arthritis

One of the most common causes of joint pain is arthritis. The two main forms of arthritis are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Osteoarthritis is most common in adults over 40 and tends to affect them in commonly used joints like the wrists, hips, hands and knees. Joint pain due to osteoarthritis results from a breakdown of the cartilage that serves as a shock absorber for the joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis commonly affects women, it can deform and debilitate the joints over time. Rheumatoid arthritis causes pain, inflammation, and fluid build-up in the joints as the body’s immune system attacks the membrane that lines the joints.

What are symptoms of joint pain?

In some cases, your joint pain will require you to see a doctor. You should make an appointment if you don’t know the cause of your joint pain and are experiencing other unexplained symptoms. Your symptoms might give you an idea of what could be causing the pain. A few of the potential symptoms you may feel are:

  • Pain, swelling or bruising after intense or repetitive exercise
  • Over the age of 45, pain worse when walking and stiffness after moving
  • Hot, swollen joint that’s more painful when you move or press on it
  • Pain and stiffness felt in both sides of your body that’s worse after not moving
  • Hot, swollen toe joint with very bad pain that comes on suddenly
  • Hot, swollen joint and a high temperature or feeling hot and shivery.

Tips for joint pain reliefMan in pain

Joint pain can range from mildly irritating to debilitating. It may go away after a few weeks, meaning the pain is acute, or last for several weeks or months, which would make it chronic. Even short-term pain and swelling in the joints can affect your quality of life. Whatever the cause of joint pain, you can usually manage it with medication, physical therapy, or alternative treatments.

Keep moving

Many people with arthritis resist regular physical activity or exercise because they fear it will increase pain or further damage their joints. The body is supposed to move, our joints allow the body to move in the way that it does.

In fact, movement eases joint stiffness, reduces joint pain, strengthens the muscles which surround the joints, and help us maintain a healthy weight.

Maintain your ideal weight

With regard to optimal joint health, it is necessary for us to maintain our ideal body weight. Carrying excess body weight adds stress to our joints, especially our weight-bearing joints. Weight loss and maintenance significantly reduces knee pain, function, and stiffness associated with knee osteoarthritis.

Strengthen your muscles

The muscles that support our joints, along with ligaments, must be kept as strong as possible. You can work on maintaining or improving your muscle strength by doing some strength training exercises.

Weight training is often used as part of a strengthening regime. Make sure to pace your work outs and to not over do it.

 

Medical joint pain relief

Your treatment options will depend on the cause of the pain. In some cases, your doctor will need to draw out accumulated fluid in the joint area to test for infection or gout or other causes of the joint pain. They might also recommend surgery to replace the joint. If you seek medical support and advice for your joint pain relief, your doctor may suggest help such as:

  • Strong Painkillers
  • Antibiotics, if they think the cause is an infection
  • Refer you to physiotherapy
  • Refer you to hospital for a scan or specialist treatment, such as steroid injections or surgery.

 

Vitamin D and Calcium for joint pain relief

Elderly women with joint pain

Vitamin D and calcium are two nutrients that are required for healthy bones. Vitamin D is actually needed for calcium absorption. You can obtain vitamin D through sun exposure, diet, or supplementation.

 

Vitamin D is vital for bone and muscle function and may have anti-inflammatory effects. As a result, many people believe that vitamin D plays a role in relieving joint pain, particularly where inflammation is the cause.

Joint pain can be uncomfortable for many of us and it can be worse for some depending on the cause of the pain. There are ways to get positive joint pain relief, but the most prominent is to keep moving! If you do feel as though your symptoms are getting worse, or you have reoccurring pain in your joints, then you should seek medical advice from a trusted health professional.

That is our guide on tips for joint pain relief done and dusted, we hope it’s given you a solution on how to ease your joint pain, if you want to find out more about the aches and pains we feel in our bodies, and what may the root cause, why not read our article on elbow joint pain next?

 

Footer Copy:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/joint-pain/

https://www.verywellhealth.com/ways-to-keep-your-joints-healthy-189256

https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/guide/joint-pain

https://www.healthline.com/health/joint-pain#causes

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