As we age, the state of our joints becomes more important. If we don’t pay attention to our joint health, we run the risk of losing mobility for good.
Your joints can start to lose function even earlier if you don’t pay attention to your diet and exercise. We’re going to take a look at keeping your joints healthy today, looking at some motions and exercises you can do to keep things in great shape.
More importantly, though, we’ll look at some vitamins for joint pain and other nutritional ideas you can use to keep your joints feeling great.
Let’s get started.
The Basics of Joint Health
Before we look at the vitamins you’ll need to stay healthy, let’s take a look at the general principles behind keeping your joints feeling great.
Joints require a certain amount of lubrication that comes from the cartilage between joints. Technically speaking, a joint is an area where two bones meet together and offer a range of motion to the individual. Between the joints exists a section of cartilage that allows those bones to move in unison without rubbing against one another.
Different forms of arthritis tend to be the cause of immobility in individuals with joint pain. In some instances, the tissue of the cartilage begins to wear away or the body produces an immune response to attack cartilage tissue unnecessarily.
How to Maintain Healthy Joints
The best thing you can do to maintain joint health is to exercise. Joints need movement to remain lubricated, get adequate attention from the body, and strengthen the muscle and cartilage tissue.
Healthy amounts of movement are key. When we’re giving our body a range of exercises and explore the full range of motion of the joints, we’re making sure that they’re well-kept. Some exercises, though, put undue pressure on particular joints and can lead to pain later on.
For example, running with improper form or the wrong shoes might put undue stress on your knees and ankles. Playing basketball or hockey can have the same impact as well.
You also put additional pressure on your joints when you don’t maintain a healthy weight. Issues like obesity can put a lot of extra strain on your joints that might cause them to wear out sooner than they otherwise would.
Further, you can work to establish anti-inflammatory habits. Much of the pain and distress of arthritis comes from inflammation. There are a lot of foods and dietary options you can include to try and reduce inflammation.
So, maintaining a healthy diet, exercise, and reducing inflammation are some of the key things you can do to ward off joint issues.
Vitamins for Joint Pain
Before we look at the vitamins and supplements to consider, we should make a note about how these products should be approached.
Supplements of any kind are meant to meet the dietary needs that your food isn’t offering. A foundation of a healthy diet is essential if you want to see significant results from vitamins or supplements.
Generally speaking, there’s a one-size-fits-all for the average person to have a great diet. Some people have particular needs or exceptions that have to be accommodated, but you can use the following approach as a starting point for a healthy diet.
Try to include grains, protein sources, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, and avoid processed foods. The more natural foods you eat, the better. Getting all of those categories into your regular diet and including a variety of foods within those categories should cover all of the bases you need.
You can dive as deep as you want to into figuring out your micro and macronutrient intake, but you don’t always have to. By including variety in your selection of natural foods from the categories above, you can reasonably assume that you’re getting what you need.
Why This is Important
If you try to include supplements before laying that foundation, you’re not going to see too many results. On the other hand, a healthy diet should start to provide you with a little bit of relief. You’ll get a sense of whether or not your diet was one of the reasons that your inflammation and pain were occurring.
Once you settle into that diet, you’ll be better able to pinpoint the things that are going on with your joints, as well as the rest of your body.
You might find that a significant amount of your pain is removed just by the improved nutrition you’re experiencing and potentially the weight that you lose.
If not, you’ll have the ability to isolate pain and problem areas more specifically. At this point, the introduction of vitamins and supplements will have more of an impact. You’ll be able to feel how these things change your experience with more nuance.
It’s frustrating that you have to tighten up your dietary habits for things to be more effective, but it’s the way that it is. If you want to use supplements to their full potential, you’ve got to have a grip on your diet and how it’s affecting your body. At that point, you can explore Wilson Supplements to find products that might help.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the vitamins and supplements for you to explore for joint pain.
- Fish Oil
Fish oil is one of the best anti-inflammatory supplements available. We need omega-3 fatty acids in our diets, but it’s one of the most difficult substances to get naturally.
In most cases, we take in omega-3s through fish. If you’re not a big pescatarian, though, odds are that you’re not getting a sufficient amount of omega-3 fatty acids.
These supplements should reduce the level of stiffness that you’re experiencing. You might notice a reduction in swelling and pain as well. That relief could give your body the break it needs to start repairing the joint damage on its own.
- Calcium
The strength of our bones is directly attached to the health of our joints. If we have weak and brittle bones, our joints are going to suffer and we’ll be much more prone to injury.
Calcium is a vitamin that our bodies cannot produce naturally. In a lot of cases, the body produces different vitamins and chemicals that are supplemented through our diet, but calcium must come entirely through one’s diet.
We’re often made to think that we only require a lot of calcium when we’re children, so that our bones will grow properly. Bones are always being recycled and replenished, though.
Bones take about ten years to be entirely replaced with new material, so the quality of your calcium intake is important throughout the life cycle. As we get older, we start to risk the loss of bone mass, meaning sufficient calcium is essential.
- Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency is an issue that leads to a lot of complications. This vitamin plays myriad roles in the body, and one of those roles is to support the growth and strength of bones.
Beyond that, though, vitamin D is thought to ward off inflammation and other issues with those experiencing chronic pain. So, not only will this vitamin help strengthen your bones and joints, but it will also reduce the immediate pain you’re experiencing from arthritis.
Some studies suggest that individuals over the age of 50 years old who have low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop joint pain. Particularly, that pain is local to the knees and hips.
More research has to be done to understand the full extent of vitamin D’s impact on joint health.
- Glucosamine
One of the primary compounds found in cartilage is called glucosamine. Again, cartilage is the material that serves to cushion the joints and allow them to express their full range of motion without any pain.
You can take glucosamine supplements and improve the quality of your joint cartilage. It’s shown to have some benefits for those experiencing osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Generally speaking, the supplement will help to reduce the pain but it won’t get rid of arthritis entirely.
Anti-Inflammatory Foods
If you haven’t noticed, one of the key things to reduce symptoms of arthritis is reducing inflammation.
You can start working on your own by adding some anti-inflammatory foods to your diet. Generally speaking, fresh fruits and vegetables are always a positive choice that could help inflammation. Further, any foods that contain a lot of omega-3 fatty acids are a great choice.
The same goes for nuts, seeds, and many legumes that contain omega-3s. Other foods to consider include leafy greens, grapes, blueberries, garlic, and spices like turmeric and black pepper.
Want to Learn More About Health?
Keeping your joint health in check is essential. There’s a lot more involved with the body to keep an eye on, though. We’re here to help you learn all you need to know about staying healthy as you age.
Explore our site for more ideas on diet, exercise, wellness, and much more.
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