What is actually a joint? The connection between two bones is called joint. A smooth connective tissue that is at the end of the bones- cartilage, cushions the joints and helps with their movement. Helps the joints to move easy and smooth.
Fin Also, it protects the bones. How? Well, it helps and prevents not to rub against each other.
There are different kinds of joints such as movable and rigid. The movable are those in your shoulders, knees, and hips. The joints between the bones in your skull are rigid.
Your joints control every movement from turning, standing, lying down, bending and all the way to lifting. With healthy joints, you can do all the things you want to do such as to play sports, to jump, run and walk.
The fact is that most of us underestimate our joints. Unless we start to feel swelling or pain.
The childhood years is the best time to start and to take care of your joints. You need to prevent joint-related issues and to keep and have healthy joints.
Keep your joints along with your bones, muscles, and ligaments stable and secure. That is the best way to take care for the joint of your children and also your own.
With appropriate dietary practices and an appropriate lifestyle, you do not have to worry about your joints.
10 Ways to Maintain Healthy Joints
1. Quit Smoking
The first thing you can do is to change your lifestyle and quit that bad habit. Cigarettes have harmful chemicals that prevent the body to absorb calcium, and with that, the bone mass is decreased. There for smokers have a higher risk of fractures and lower bone density.
Cigarettes make the chronic musculoskeletal conditions worse, like degenerative disc disease and low back pain. Also, smoking can affect the production of testosterone and estrogen.
In 2007, the Annals of Rheumatic Disease published a study that points out the connection between the risk of cartilage loss and knee pain in men with knee osteoarthritis and smoking cigarettes.
Smoking can increase the risk of fractures by making you too thin. Maybe this will add to the list why you need to quit smoking.
2. No More Soda Beverages
For pain-free joints and healthy joints, if you cannot stop at least limit the soda. Why? Because soda can reduce bone mineral density and can also increase the risk of fracture.
Too much soda can increase the phosphate level in your blood, which may lead to depletion of calcium from the bones.
An excess amount of soda can prevent the absorption of calcium. It would be very harmful for your joints and bones to have an imbalance in calcium-phosphorus ratio in your body.
Another thing that may arise from too much soda is a chronic joint pain, bear in mind that the caffeine in your soda drinks is also harmful.
In addition, there is too much sugar in soda. The body stores the sugar as fat which leads to weight gain.
And if your weight is important for the joints, because if you weight more, your joints will feel more pressure.
In 2014, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that points out that drinking soda can increase the risk for development of rheumatoid arthritis.
3. Maintain a Healthy Weight
The key to the healthy joints is a healthy weight. If you weight more than needed, that can increase the risk of having problems with your joints.
The more you weight, the more pressure your joints have to bear. This can lead to tear and wear on the joints. Excess body weight can increase the risk of the most common joint disorder i.e. osteoarthritis.
Also, too much weight can cause inflammation in your body, and that will contribute to feel pain in your joints.
You need to lose weight in a gradual, slow manner if you already have pain in your joints. That can prevent additional joint problems.
In 2012, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation published a study that reports that with weight loss and reduction of body fat may help and reduce the biochemical and mechanical stressors that lead to joint degeneration.
In 2005, the Arthritis Rheumatism published a study that points out that with each pound lost the knee-joint loads reduce with obese and overweight adults that suffer from knee osteoarthritis.
4. Strengthen Your Joints with Exercise
To protect your joints from damage, you need to exercise on a regular basis. With regular exercise, you can strengthen the ligaments and muscles surrounding joints and make your bones strong.
In the same time with regular exercise, you can lose weight, and that will help additionally to your joints because they shall need to bear less pressure.
You can do cardio exercises that have low-impact forms like cycling, swimming and walking. These cardio exercises can help you to strengthen your joints and bones.
Do cardio five days a week for thirty minutes.
Twice a week, you can lift light weight and with that strengthen your joints. Do that along with other exercises such as relaxation and stretching.
Consult your physical therapist about some range of motion exercises and what you need to do.
No matter what exercise you choose to do, do not forget to rest after exercising. This can give time to your muscles and joints to repair. Choose your exercise according to your body composition.
Consult a physiotherapist in case of joint-related problems. The physiotherapist can make a program of strengthening and stretching exercises.
5. Warming Up Before Exercise Is A Must
Do not forget to do at least a ten-minute warm up every time before you start to exercise. The warm up is crucial and vital because it helps to increase the circulation of your blood and with that, your body prepares the joints and muscles for the upcoming workout.
Also, you can improve the flexibility of the joints thereby the joints can move in their full range of motion. The ligaments, joints, and tendons around them loose up.
Always warm up because if you don’t the joint will stay stiff and with that, they are more prone to injuries.
You can do a light warm up, before playing a sport or before exercising like jogging for ten minutes. Also, you can do stretching exercises to help your muscles and joints additionally.
