Smoking health

 

Exercise is essential for maintaining or enhancing joint health. What else can you do, though? Here are a few additional simple suggestions for maintaining healthy joints.

Move forward

Because they worry that it would exacerbate their pain or further harm their joints, many persons with arthritis avoid engaging in regular physical activity or exercise. Our joints allow for movement since the body is designed to move.

In actuality, exercise helps us maintain a healthy weight, lowers joint pain, and strengthens the muscles that surround the joints. Keep moving because the advantages are genuine.

Guard Your Joints

Everyone should safeguard their joints, but especially those with arthritis. Joint-protection concepts seek to minimise

Do Low-Impact Exercises

The desired benefits of regular physical activity and exercise can be achieved with low-impact exercise—a gentler type of exercise that minimizes the stress put on joints during high-intensity workouts.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, low-impact exercises that are easier on your joints include aquatic sports like swimming, social sports like golf, as well as walking and cycling.2

Strengthen Your Muscles

The muscles that support our joints must be kept as strong as possible. You can work on maintaining or improving your muscle strength by doing strengthening exercises.

Weight training is often used as part of a strengthening regimen. Be careful to pace your workouts and not overdo it. With proper strength training, you will increase the stability of your joints, while decreasing pain.3

Try Range-of-Motion Exercises

Arthritis is characteristically associated with limited range of motion. To preserve your current range of motion or improve it, you should routinely put each joint through its full range of motion.

Extend, bend, or rotate each of your joints. Range-of-motion exercises improve flexibility, relieve stiffness and pain, and help keep our joints functional.

Eat an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Reducing inflammation is part of keeping arthritis symptoms under control and improving overall joint health. An anti-inflammatory diet involves avoiding foods that increase inflammation while including more foods that decrease inflammation. Many sources suggest that a Mediterranean diet is a good choice for keeping inflammation under control.4

 Diabetes and the Mediterranean Style Diet

Prioritize Vitamin D and Calcium

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.

Many people need some supplementation. A healthcare provider can order a blood test to determine if you are deficient in vitamin D. Low calcium is associated with decreased bone density and increased fracture risk.5

Stop Smoking

Most people are unaware that smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.6 Smoking also increases the likelihood of injuries involving bursitis or tendonitis. Smokers also have a higher risk of low back pain and rheumatoid arthritis. Stop smoking to improve bone health and joint health.