Last Updated: 12th October 20166 of the Best Ways to Use Supplements for Joint Pain
There are various supplements available to help ease joint pain, whether you have fibromyalgia, arthritis or chronic pain problems. Using the supplements in the best way to manage your pain is essential. Not everyone wants to take pills for the rest of their lives, and others want to find natural remedies to avoid issues that pharmaceutical products could produce.
Here are six ways to consider using supplements to help ease your joint pain. There are options that involve natural remedies and making it easier to swallow over the counter supplements.
Use Turmeric and Ginger Together
A first method is a natural option and one that you can have in and outside the house. Turmeric and ginger both have anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation within the body is one of the main reasons for pain. It can cause muscles to swell and crush the nerves. This is one of the main reasons people with carpel tunnel syndrome suffer flare-ups, all the way up to their elbows and even shoulders!
Turmeric has gained a lot of attention over recent years due to the antioxidant curcumin. You won’t get as much from the dried spice in your cupboard, but there are stronger options available in herbal remedy stores. Turmeric also comes in capsule form, which you can take with a ginger tea if you wish. Another option is to mix the two ingredients together to make your own tea.
All you need is two cups of water with half a teaspoon of both turmeric and ginger. Fresh options work better, but you will get some benefits from the ground spices when they both work together.
This can be a bit strong and spicy for some people. Try adding some honey to help take away some of the bites.
Whether you have it hot or cold is completely up to you. It does work well as an ice tea so you can take it on the go with you if you really want. The mixture will give you two servings, so try both hot and cold to find the best way for you to enjoy it.
Both of these remedies are used in herbal medicine around the world. They’re not just great for managing pain but also to offer other health benefits, like boosting immunity and getting clearer and healthier skin.
Add More Omega 3 Into Your Diet
Omega 3 is one of the best fatty acids you could ever add to your diet. It’s full of goodness for your brain, but it can also help to deal with joint pain. This is especially the case for those who suffer knee problems due to arthritis and swelling.
The fatty acid has a compound that helps to reduce inflammation in the body. The knees also get the lubrication they need to prevent wear and tear on the joints. You’ll aid your problems two-fold, by removing the reason for the pain instead of just treating the symptoms.
There are various ways to get Omega 3 into your diet. One of the best ways is by eating more oily fishes, including salmon and tuna. Sushi is a great way to get this, which keeps fish raw so all the natural fatty acids aren’t damaged. There are also no extra oils added in that can cause other health problems. Of course, if you’re pregnant or can’t eat raw fish for any reason, you will need to cook it. Cooking and eating the oily fishes is better than not getting any at all. If you are pregnant, you’ll always want to talk to your doctor first about taking fish oils on a daily basis, which is something we’ll move onto now.
If you don’t fancy eating fish, you can also get the supplement through cod liver oil. This is an acquired taste, but the good news is you’ll only need one teaspoon of it on a daily basis. You can also get capsules to swallow instead if you really don’t like the taste of the oil. Start your day with your dose to feel all the benefits of omega 3 getting to work.
Remember, you’re not just helping to reduce inflammation. The Omega 3 helps to boost the brain health, so you’re at a lower risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Soak in Epsom Salts
Soaking your muscles in warm water is one of the best ways to ease the pain. The warm water will help to relax muscles and reduce any swelling in the body. You’ll also help to boost the blood flow, which can reduce pain felt by the body.
Epsom salts in the water will work wonders for your pain management. They’re full of magnesium sulfate, which is a mineral that many nations have used for pain management over the centuries.
Magnesium is the active ingredient, which is needed for more than 300 responses within the body. Even if you don’t use Epsom salts in your water, make sure you increase the amount of magnesium you get in your food on a daily basis. The nerve endings and muscles relax much easier when you have the right amount of this mineral in your body, which will ease any type of pain. Your bones will also get more minerals needed to protect and strengthen them, also helping to ease joint pain.
You’ll need about a cup or two of Epsom salts in a bathtub of water; less if you’re going to use a large bowl to sit and soak. The way you use it will depend on where the pain is.
If you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome or joint pain in the feet or ankles, you’ll get away with a bowl of water to sit on the couch with and watch TV or read a book. If your joint pain is elsewhere, you’ll need to think about running a bath with some of the salts and enjoying a long soak.
Allow yourself to really soak with the salts. Fifteen minutes is the shortest time period you should consider, but longer periods will really help the body get all the magnesium it needs. Don’t remain in with cold water, as you’ll find your muscles tense and you could find that the pain gets worse.
While you’re using the Epsom salts, you can also get magnesium into your body in other ways. Look for foods that are high in the mineral or take supplements at the same time. Watch out for getting too much of the supplement. You just need enough to help the body responses to keep inflammation down and pain more manageable.
Moisturise With Olive Oil
Who would have thought that olive oil could help to deal with joint pain? Not only is it easy to use, but it’s also full of enzymes that help to reduce inflammation and ease the pain in the joints and muscles. Whatever the reason for the joint pain, you can benefit by using this natural product. Extra virgin olive oil is the best one that you should use to get all the benefits. Unfortunately, heat processes that are used to create other types will destroy the enzymes that your body needs. It’s also important to look out for olive oil that was created from just ripe olives.
Why does this work? The oil is full of enzymes that work like aspirin and Advil. They will ease the inflammation in the body, which takes away the pressure from the nerve endings; the main reason for the pain in joints. It can also add more lubrication to your joints, easing pain from arthritis.
There are various ways that you can use olive oil to help ease the pain felt on a daily basis. One of those is to use it in your cooking, which makes it one of the easiest options. You can use this oil in place of so many other fats and oils, whether you cook with butter or use vegetable oil on a daily basis.
Oil pulling is another option, which will help you absorb the benefits through your mouth. Oil pulling offers many other health benefits, including help to manage pain felt in the mouth on a daily basis. It will take the time to get used to, but it’s worth giving it that chance to reap all the benefits.
There’s also the option to create a moisturising cream out of your extra virgin olive oil. This can be applied directly to your skin and hair without being mixed in with anything else. One major benefit is you’re not trying to handle the extra calories you would intake if you used it in your cooking. You can also add essential oils, offering other ingredients to offer pain management benefits and improve the scent of your moisturising cream. You won’t need to use a lot of oil in this way, and you’ll also benefit the look and feel of the skin quickly. This method allows you to apply the oil directly onto the joints, allowing the skin in the area to soak it all in and pass the benefits straight through.
If you do use the oil as a moisturising cream, don’t forget about massaging into the painful areas. This will help to increase the blood flow around the area, also helping to reduce inflammation. Every little helps when it comes to pressure on the nerves.
Make White Willow Tea Daily
Aspirin is commonly used to help manage joint pain. It is a medical way to reduce inflammation and thin the blood to make it easier to move around the body. However, we don’t really know all the risks to using aspirin, and it’s not something that everyone can medically use for various reasons.
Long before aspirin was created, what did people use? White willow tea is considered the original aspirin. It was made from the bark of the white willow tree and is something that you can still use on a daily basis to help manage your pain and reduce inflammation. It was so popular in the past that even Hippocrates wrote about it and its benefits. It must be good, right?
White willow includes salicin, which turns into a salicylic acid within the body. This is the active ingredient in aspirin, meaning that this really is a natural, original aspirin to use on a daily basis. The benefit is you don’t have all the other chemicals and ingredients used within the medical painkiller to deal with.
One of the benefits of getting your salicin through the white willow tea is that the ingredient only becomes active when it has passed your stomach and is being digested through the intestines. There are fewer side effects noticed with it, and a little irritation. You really can focus on the benefits instead. Of course, there are some side effects and irritations noted in some, which is why there are so many other ways to use supplements to help your joint pain on the list.
It is possible to take white willow in capsule form. This is natural but you can get so many other benefits by getting a powdered version of the bark and mixing in with water to create a tea. Starting your day with a hot cup of white willow tea is an excellent option to ease your joint pain. You could also end the day with it if you’ve had a long day out and needed to ease the pain that you feel overnight.
It can have a strong taste, especially when you opt for it in tea form. You can ease that taste by adding some lemon or honey to your water. Allow the powder or crushed bark to steep for 30 minutes to take in all the beneficial properties.
Try Exercising More
This is likely the last thing you want to hear when you’re in pain, but it can actually be good for you. Exercising is an excellent want to release all the right chemicals from your brain, including endorphins, which are natural painkillers.
The benefit of exercise is that you can do it while using the supplements above! You’ll benefit in multiple ways, and you will find that the pain you experience on a daily basis isn’t as bad as you once felt.
Exercise helps ease joint pain in a few ways. Only one involves the release of the endorphins in the body. You’ll also lose weight, which takes away some of the pressure that you feel on your joints. This is especially beneficial if you suffer pain in your knees, hips or feet. Excess weight puts a lot of strain on these joints, and you’ll find that you suffer from swelling a lot more often.
Your muscles will also develop while you exercise. This helps to strength the joints and will support the cartilage. As more weight is placed on the joints and they go through more strain on a daily basis, the cartilage is worn down. This is what lubricates the joints, preventing the bone from rubbing against bone. As the cartilage thins, the bones connect to each other, and there is more pain felt.
There will also be more liquid to lubricate the joints due to the synovial fluid. This is a thick gel when cold, but will turn to a liquid when warm. You’ll find that your joints loosen up and are easier to move because of the exercise that you do.
But what about dealing with the pain after your exercise? How do you manage that? You can opt for the ways to get your supplements mentioned above. If you know you will seize up throughout the night, try a long hot soak before you go to bed in some Epsom salts and then get up early enough the next morning for another soak. This, along with some white willow or turmeric and ginger tea, will help to give you the best start to the day. You can then moisturise with the olive oil before you get dressed and be ready to deal with anything life throws your way.
You don’t need to do a large amount of exercise to benefit and reduce the pain you feel. Try just walking for 15 minutes a day to get yourself started. It will ease your joints and help with weight loss. As you get quicker and fitter, you’ll find that you can do more and could do up to an hour of walking a day!
Try stretching your muscles on a daily basis and do some strengthening exercises for your joints. These can be done from the comfort of your own home, and you won’t need any specialist equipment to complete it all.
It’s time to ease the joint pain that you feel on a daily basis. By following the above tips, you now have multiple ways to get your supplements to ease the pain, whether you have arthritis playing up on a daily basis or nerve problems that flare up every now and then. These are all completely natural, helping to protect the rest of your health.
Since these are natural remedies that aid the supplements for joint pain to become more effective, you are sure to get the best results. Now you never have to live through another day with this pain that can sometimes hinder you from doing the things you love.
