5 Ways the Elderly can Protect Their Joints

While getting older can have its upside, it also has major drawbacks – such as joint pain.

The frustrating thing about joint pain is that it can impair your ability to enjoy life. Joint

pain can interfere with even the most basic movements, from standing up out of a chair

to walking. While new techniques are being developed to deal with joint pain, including

stem cell treatment, below are some things you can do yourself.

Low-Impact Exercise

Exercise it any age is a great way to improve the overall health of your joints. Usually –

and especially if you’ve been fairly sedentary – it’s important to do this slowly and carefully.

Definitely get the advice of a physician first. For the elderly, low-impact exercises are

probably best. Jogging and similar activities resulted in too much impact on the joints and

can result in injury. Low-impact exercise will get your joints moving and your heart

pumping without actually damaging the joints.

Exercise with Others

Exercising alone is often a mistake, particularly for the elderly. If you happen to fall and

hurt yourself you’ll want somebody there to help you. And there’s also the motivational

actor. Exercising with others makes you more likely to engage in exercise. There’s also the

fact that you can visit senior friendly gyms that have low impact exercise equipment, such

as stationary bikes and elliptical machines.

You can also join other seniors in yoga, stretching and other group exercises that are

unlikely to damage your joints in any way. At the same time, they will provide your joints

with the motion they need and you will get a bit of cardio as well.

Remember Your Posture

People often fail to realize the damage that poor posture can do to their bodies. This is a

particular problem these days, since so many of us – including seniors – spend most of

our days sitting in chairs or at desks looking downward at tablets or phones. Holding this

position for hours at a time can cause real problems for your neck and spine.

Try to keep yourself sitting up straight to protect your neck and all of your other joints.

Also tried to remember the importance of posture whenever you are standing or sitting or

when you are carrying or lifting an object from one place and putting it in another. Even

airly lightweight objects can cause problems if you lift them incorrectly.

Control Your Weight

There’s no question that that it’s difficult to keep weight off as we get older, but it so

happens that this is exactly the time when you need to keep weight off with a healthy

lifestyle. Combined with sensible exercise, other lifestyle changes – such as eating more

sensibly – can help you minimize your weight problems.

Losing weight will take a lot of pressure off your joints – and particularly your knees and

ankles. This in turn will allow you to lead a more active life with much less pain and

stiffness in all of your joints.

Choose the Right Diet

Eating the right foods will help you keep your weight off and minimize pressure on your

joints.This will reduce the pain you feel in your joints and give you a much greater degree

of mobility. But there are other reasons why your diet can help protect your joints.

For one thing, the foods you eat represent the building blocks of your body, so you need

to eat right to help your body build strong, healthy joints. Ensure that the foods you eat

are full of vitamin D, omega-3 and fatty acids. You might want to take a supplement

containing these nutrients. Joint pain doesn’t have to be something you simply accept

as you get older. There are a number of things you can do right now to minimize joint

pain so that you can enjoy an active and rich life.