It's a bit inevitable. As you age, you have undoubtedly begun to experience aches and pains in your joints that come with rain or long days. While it may feel like you have no choice but to be sore all the time, there are ways you can lessen this pain and protect your joints from further wear. If you want to safeguard your joints from the comfort of your home, the following tips may help.
Improve Your Nutrition
The first way to get healthier joints at home is to improve your nutrition. Everything you put in your body is fuel. While your body can get nutrients from fast food, it may not be getting everything it needs. Over time, this lack of proper nourishment can leave your joints wanting. Your aches and pains may not be directly caused by poor nutrition, but the issues can certainly be exacerbated by it.
The solution? Eat healthier, more wholesome foods. When you're planning out your meals, look for things that are high in Omega-3s, healthy fats, and whole grains. These tasty snacks can help prevent inflammation in your joints while providing adequate nutrition to the rest of your body, allowing you to continue moving without pain.
If you feel like you have a healthy diet but still want to fill in the gaps, adding in a supplement such as collagen or dermaval may be the solution. These supplements are designed to cushion the cartilage supply in your joints, which keeps the bones from knocking together painfully. By improving your nutrition, you can lessen current pain while preventing further damage.
Continue Moving Regularly
The next way to get healthy joints at home is to continue moving regularly. While it may seem counterproductive to stay active on sore joints, exercise can keep your skeletal system healthy and working properly.
One of the main ways that working out improves your joints is by strengthening the muscles around a flex point. For instance, if you have bad knees, working your legs can help prevent your knees from slipping out of their proper position and getting sore. If your spine is weak, strengthening the many muscles lining it can help keep it properly aligned and functional.
Another way exercise helps your joints is by increasing blood flow and lubrication in your cartilage. Between the bones that make up a joint, there is a supply of cartilage that keeps everything hinging smoothly. When you increase the blood supply to these areas, you help prevent damage to this vital cartilage, therefore keeping you mobile and pain-free.
Learn To Adapt
The third way you can protect your joint health at home is by learning to adapt. If you find yourself with some sort of joint pain, whether that's arthritis, fibromyalgia, or an injury, you may have to change your normal routine around a bit to accommodate that. While you may want to carry your groceries inside in one trip, you may need to make two or three trips to protect your joints. Similarly, while you may want to take the stairs every day at work, you may need to get used to hopping on the elevator on high-pain days.
Along similar lines, you may need to get used to asking for help. No one likes relying on other people to get things done, but if you live with joint pain, it can become an inevitability. There will be days when you simply can't get a task done because of your joint pain, and that's okay. Asking for help doesn't make you weak or make you a failure; it just means you've adapted to your new reality. By evolving as you need to, whether that's changing your routine or getting help when you need it, you can keep your joints safe from further damage.
In summary, joint pain may feel unavoidable as you age, but it doesn't have to mean that your lifestyle is over. With these three tips, you can protect your body from further damage and live a full, pain-free life.