Winter & Joint Pain: What’s The Connection?

As the cold season rolls around, so do it’s many changes in atmosphere and overall energy. As days become shorter and nights become longer, some people may feel both mentally and physically out of sorts — especially when it comes to their joints.

Joint pain is extremely tiresome and annoying. This type of inconvenience can be a huge damper on your physical wellbeing, and make it difficult to want to be mobile throughout the day. Of course, there are ways to fix this type of issue such as physiotherapy and massage therapy, but sometimes you just want a simple explanation for all of it. If you wonder why your joints start to hurt during the winter months, we here at York Rehab Clinic can help answer that question.

What Exactly Causes It?

Unfortunately, not enough research has been done to determine exactly why joint pain worsens in the winter. There is one reason that people have come up with, however. During these colder months, the body works extra hard to store more heat, resulting in sending more blood to your organs/the middle section of your body (the heart, lungs, etc). When your body is busy supplying blood to these important organs, the joints in your body miss out and have less blood running through them. This reduction in blood flow makes the areas more rigid and cold, resulting in pain and discomfort.

Other reasons for why your joints may be sore in the winter include the shift in what’s known as the barometric pressure. When it is colder outside, the pressure within the atmosphere changes resulting in inflamed joints and poor blood circulation.

What You Can Do To Reduce It

When you keep yourself warm, you are reducing your risk of developing joint pain & discomfort. If you still spend a lot of time outside (whether for a hobby or exercise) here are some things you can do to keep warm:

• Warm-up exercise: Taking the time to stretch reduces possible joint & muscle stiffness you may feel after exercising. This, in turn, reduces joint pain.
• Stretch afterwards as well: stretching before and after a workout minimizes your change of experiencing joint pain even more (and is generally good for you overall)
• Slowly come to a stop while exercising: Stopping completely can cause your joints to get cold and start to hurt.
• When in doubt, bring your exercise indoors: Sometimes it’s just too cold out to exercise. If this is the case, bring your workout inside instead.

Suffering With Joint Pain? We Can Help!

When you deal with any sort of joint pain regardless of it’s placement on the body, it can feel like life has put an obstacle in your way. Don’t let this physical ailment get to you and affect your daily grind — instead book an appointment for physiotherapy in Richmond Hill today! With our staff’s experience and use of highly advanced equipment, you can be certain that your bodily pain is being taken care of in the best way possible. To learn more about our services and how we can help, be sure to call us at (416) 350-1940 today!