Daily habits bad for your joints

Everyone has achy joints every now and then, though, for some people, joint pain is a constant struggle. Whether it’s in your hands, knees, or ankles, it can have a major impact on your quality of life. Sometimes you form certain habits that are not healthy for your joints. Maintaining joint health is about learning to avoid the common habits that can leave lasting damage. Continue reading about the bad habits that hurt your joints.

Wearing Wrong Shoes: Worn-out shoes don’t support your feet and ankles enough. That’ll throw your knees, hips, and back out of whack. Wearing shoes with poor arch support or using any ill-fitting footwear is one surefire cause of joint pain in the feet and ankles. Improperly fitted shoes put your feet in awkward angles, forcing you to change the way you walk. This can even have an impact on the knees and hips as well. 

Poor Posture: It is important to always practice good posture. When you slump in your chair, it puts more stress on your muscles and joints and tires them out. Keeping your shoulders back, knees aligned and back straight while walking will put less stress on your joints.  

Cracking Knuckles: As satisfying as that feeling might be, cracking knuckles consistently can also wear away the cartilage in your joints over time, resulting in pain-causing inflammation within your joints. However, despite what a lot of people may warn you, it does not cause arthritis.  

Wearing High Heels: Wearing high heels may be fashionable and make you feel taller and sexier, but that comes at a price. High-heeled shoes can cause a plethora of foot problems while impairing stability and increasing the risk of injury. Leg, back, and foot pain are among some of the more common complaints. 

Being overweight: Your joints, which link your bones together, are sensitive to heavy loads.  People who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for joint trouble in their ankles, knees, and hips. Being overweight also triggers inflammation. That can make all your joints, including your hands, stiff, painful, and swollen. 

Texting too much: Like with any other repetitive activity, moderation is key to avoiding injury. Thumb texting too much can cause the tendons to get irritated, feel pain and lock your thumb in a curled position. To avoid joint pain, take breaks. And consider relying on the speech-to-text function on your smartphone.  

Carrying heavy bags: Carrying heavy bags can cause neck and shoulder pain. Heavy weight on one shoulder throws off your balance and your walk. If you tend to carry things only on one side, the constant pull overstretches your muscles and tires out your joints. The best way to avoid this is to keep your bag as light as possible, and rather than carrying it on one side of your body all the time, try alternating sides every day. 

Sleeping on your stomach: Some sleeping positions are better for the joints than others, but sleeping on your stomach is the worst position for your spine. Sleeping on your stomach pushes your head back and this compresses your spine. This position also forces us to turn our necks while we sleep, straining our muscles and bones. Hence this is a position of sleeping that is best avoided.  

Don’t get enough/ quality sleep: A study found that people with arthritis felt more pain after restless nights. The pain of arthritis makes it tough for many people to get a good night’s sleep. Worse yet, tossing and turning at night can actually increase the perception of pain. If people with arthritis can improve the quality of their sleep, they can usually reduce their day-to-day pain.” 

A closeup shot of fresh fruits with different medicine on a wooden spoon

Missing Out on Vitamins and Minerals: The two most important nutrients for bone health are calcium and vitamin D. Check your levels regularly to keep up with your requirements. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to get both, like dairy products. If you think you might need a vitamin supplement, talk to your doctor. 

Skipping strength training: As you age your bones start to get thinner, making you more prone to injuries and conditions like arthritis. Strength training not only helps build muscle but can also slow bone loss and trigger new bone growth. Together, they stabilize your joints so you’re less likely to get hurt. 

Skipping the stretch: Stretching is an important part of any workout routine. It helps warm up the muscles to ensure they’re not strained when performing physical activities. Also, regular stretching can help strengthen your muscles and tendons. It also can make them more flexible. That allows your joints to move more easily and helps the muscles around them work better. 

Smoking/ tobacco use: Nicotine from tobacco cuts down on blood flow to your bones and to the cushioning discs in your back.  It also decreases calcium absorption and slows the formation of new bones and it slows new growth that thickens bones. While it might be difficult to quit, dropping cigarettes could one day save you a broken bone. 

Too much computer time: This is literally a pain in the neck, along with elbows, wrist, back and shoulders. The problem here is holding the posture for long hours that leads to overworked muscles. It also puts pressure on the discs in your back.  Get up and walk about every 30-45 minutes and your joints will thank you later.

Consuming inflammation causing foods: These foods generally include read meat, refined sugar, fried foods, soda, pastries, cookies etc. These foods can worsen joint pain.  Similarly, foods like fish, like salmon, mackerel, green leafy vegetables, flax seed oil and various nuts are considered anti-inflammatory and can help alleviate inflamed joints. 

Ignoring pain: When you work out and have muscle pain/ soreness you might think you just need to power through it. But that’s not true if the pain lasts for days or if you cannot move your hands or your muscles are too sore even to touch. In such cases, be sure to talk about it with your doctor. Failing to do so can cause the pain to become worse, potentially causing lasting damage. 

Maintaining your joint health doesn’t have to mean turning your entire lifestyle on its head. All it takes is a bit of extra time and attention to ensure bad habits don’t leave lasting consequences. With consistent effort, you can help relieve and prevent joint pain for a more carefree and active life.