Aching Joints & How to Relieve Them
Aching joints are not only painful, but they are incredibly inconvenient as they can make normal, everyday tasks seem infinitely more difficult. If you are experiencing joint aches and pains, you are surely exhausted by the time you go to bed at night due to all of the extra stress it causes your body. Unfortunately, additional aches and pains come with the aging process. However, there are some tips that you can follow to help ease some of the pain that you are suffering from:
Speak To Your Doctor:
The first thing that you should do when you are experiencing any pain that is new or getting worse is consult with your doctor. He might not only be able to give you a name to what you are feeling, like arthritis or carpal tunnel, as well as provide you with a course of action to give you some relief. We’ll go over some of those tips in the following sections.
If the doctor tells you that carpal tunnel is, indeed, what you are suffering from, try shopping around for the best carpal tunnel brace to help you reduce the painful swelling in your wrists.
Losing Weight:
Absolutely no one wants to hear that they need to lose weight. But if you are experiencing pain in your knees and you are overweight, working hard to shed some of that excess will give you some much needed relief as your knees will not have to support as much. Swimming, water aerobics, or even just water walking are all great ways to get a workout and the water will be gentle on your aching joints.
Of course, losing weight is not just a good thing for joint pain but it will also help improve your overall health and is something that should be taken seriously.
Ice & Heat:
A regimen of applying cold and hot is also an excellent way to help give some love to your aches and pains. Start with applying either an ice pack or a Ziploc baggie full of ice onto the painful area. It is winter and the last thing anyone wants is to be colder, but the ice will help to not only numb the pain but to reduce any swelling.
After about fifteen minutes or so with your ice treatment, move onto the much-needed warmth! You could take a nice, hot shower or invest in a heating pad as the heat will help dull away any of the remaining pain. The cold and hot treatments are also nice because they can be completed as you are relaxing on the couch with your favorite show or the book that you have been dying to crack open! If you’re a pro athlete, you may even even have access to a Cryotherapy suite, which is all in at the moment!
Take A Break:
If you are hard at work and getting into a good flow, it would seem counterproductive to give yourself a break. However, if you experience aches and pains in your joints, it will provide you with relief throughout the day. Continuing to work through the pain is only going to exasperate the issue, leaving you feeling even worse once your day is complete. Allow yourself to rest for ten or so minutes every few hours. Whether that be simply sitting down for a spell or using a hot or cold treatment, it will help ease any tension or swelling throughout the work day.
While joint pain is a natural part of getting older, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that you can do to help improve the problem. As always, consult with your doctor for the best course of treatment because surgery or medication might be needed if your pain is more severe.
