Joint pain in winter

Joint pain in winter: Causes, symptoms and treatment

Last Updated: December 28, 2023By

Joints are referred to those portions of your body wherever your skeleton’s bones meet and connect i.e. shoulders, knees, elbows, and hips. They give support to your bones and allow them to move. However, when we talk about joint pain, it denotes the aches, discomfort, anxiety, and distress in any joint of your body. That increases in the winter season. The topic joint pain in winter: causes symptoms and treatment cover everything you need to know to get recovery.

It may be due to any disease, injury, arthritis, and weather conditions, and it results in a lot of pain in your body muscles. Joint ache is a widespread complaint in most people.

Especially winter season is a leading cause of more cold back pain, arthritis, knee joint pain, and aching joints. Since cold weather may stiff the joints and muscles of your body, so, joint pain can affect any of your body parts such as your back, knee, shoulder, ankle, feet, etc. Over time, when you get older, the aching joints become more popular among people.

Joint pain may be for a short period or long-time period. Short-term joint pain remains for a few weeks and refers to acute, whereas long-term joint pain continues for more weeks or months and refers to as chronic. Whether you have short-term or long-term joint pain, it will have an impact on your life.

Causes of joint pain

The underlying reasons and causes of aching joints include the following:

  • Arthritis is the foremost cause of joint pain. It nurtures gradually and affects body joints, i.e. knees, back, ankles, wrists, etc.
  • Soreness, stiffness, and inflammation of muscles.
  • Any injury, disease, or infection in your joints or muscles.
  • Lack of flexibility or extreme use of your body’s joint.
  • The collapse of cartilage in your kneecap.
  • The deficiency of Calcium, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B12 may weaken your bones.

Why does Winter Season Affect Joint Pain?

A drop in temperature affects your body’s joints and may be the foremost cause of painful joints, especially for those people who have arthritis in their joints. Why do my bones ache in winter? The answer depends on certain factors i.e. change in barometric pressure, delicate nerves in joints due to any injury, high humidity level, inactivity or fewer people’s movability in cold weather, bad postures, and gestures.

Causes of joint pain in winter

Both are associated with each other. Different studies reveal that there is a strong impact of the winter season on your joints. It may be due to the relationship between barometric pressure and pain in your joints. Cold temperature and changes in barometric pressure may cause more joint pain. Studies reveal that a change in barometric pressure is the most notable factor of joint pain among all other considerations. Sometimes barometric pressure changes before the start of cold weather that may expand your body’s tissues. This extension of tissues may create a space in your muscles and result in aching joints.

In cold weather, the muscles of the body drop more heat that may cause tightness and stiffness in your body and joints. Also, it results in more joint pain. Arthritis and weather conditions are also linked with each other. In cold weather, people with arthritis would have more aching joints.

Treatment of Joint Pain in Winter:

Regardless of various causes of joint pain, there are some specific pain-relief tips that you can use to get rid of joint pain in winter. You can get relief from cold back pain, knee joint pain, arthritis, and aching joints by using these ways.

  • Dress up with extra layers and warm clothes to stay warm.
  • Stay hydrated which will help you to reduce stiffness in joints, be active in cold and dry weather.
  • Reduce weight if you have arthritis joint pain.
  • Do proper exercise to get relief from joint pain and stay active and healthy. It will strengthen your muscles and alleviate knee joint pain.
  • Do swimming or take a bath with warm water.
  • The use of vitamins such as Vitamin D, Omega 3, Calcium, and fish oil capsules is also suitable for healthy bones as they lessen the level of inflammation in muscles.
  • Stay safe while going outside by using supportive shoes to avoid any injury or pain.
  • Instead of medication, treatment of joint pain is possible with a change in your lifestyle, proper postures, gestures, and self-massage.
  • Take a healthy diet that is full of proteins (eggs, meat), vitamin C (orange and pomegranate juices), Omega 3 (nuts), and vitamin K (green vegetables). Green tea is also suitable for healthy bones.
  • Keep moving as  “motion is lotion” means that movement acts as a lubricant for your muscles and joints.
  • Use a heating or ice bag to reduce soreness and inflammation of stiff joints.
  • Use turmeric as it reduces arthritis, inflammation, ache, and stiffness in muscles and joints.

Habits of life

Generally, it is recommended that a balanced diet, healthy body weight, exercise, a fair proportion of vitamins and calcium in the body are essential for people with arthritis to get rid of joint pain in winter.

To prevent knee joint pain, cold back pain, and arthritis people have to avoid foods such as processed, fried, inflammatory food, sugar, alcohol, tobacco, salt, preservatives, corn oil, and high-fat dairy products.

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