As you get older aches and pains can creep up on you but there are things you can do to ease them says James Witts.
How to reduce your aches and pains
Make sure you stretch
We all know we should do it, especially if we’re rehabilitating from an injury, but there’s conclusive evidence that regular stretching reduces musculoskeletal pain while improving your joints’ range of motion.
Take a 2012 study by Professor Phil Page that showed regular stretching – especially static stretching, where you hold a stretch for a certain period of time before releasing – reduces muscle stiffness and improves muscle function in those suffering from musculoskeletal disorders, like arthritis and osteoporosis.
Page’s paper, ‘Current Concepts in Muscle Stretching for Exercise and Rehabilitation’, hammers home that daily (or extremely frequent!) stretching is required to induce long-term changes in tissue flexibility and pain reduction.
Use a foam roller
There’s a reason Tour de France riders enjoy a massage – or endure if it’s a particularly deep one – after each stage: it eases out pain and knots in an effort to refresh the legs for the following day’s absurd 200km-long ride. It’s recommended, as is buying yourself a foam roller.
These are tubes of plastic covered with foam that are often smooth but sometimes feature ruffled areas. Either way, the aim is similar to massage: to relieve muscle tension. On the face of it, foam rollers couldn’t be simpler. You place the roller beneath the specific area, apply bodyweight on the roller and, well, roll…
But key is that you elicit the right pressure. Too light and the result will be akin to stroking your leg; too hard and you could make the situation worse. That’s why it’s worth having a professional therapist start you off. You can bag yourself a foam roller from as little as £10.
Top up your omega-3 fatty acids
Chronic inflammatory diseases are a leading cause of death around the world, contributing to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and many more. Inflammation can also lead to a range of conditions that leave sufferers in everyday pain like arthritis.
That is where omega-3 fatty acids come in. These anti-inflammatories are predominantly found in fatty fish, like salmon and mackerel, and have been shown in myriad studies to reduce pain intensity especially around the joints.
You can obviously supplement, too, with doses of 1,000 to 3,000mg a day of combined fatty acids EPA (eicosapentaenoic) and DHA (docosahexaenoic) commonly used in research. Benefits are usually seen after six to 12 weeks of use, albeit seek out quality high-purity supplements.
Make sure you are a healthy weight
If you’ve enjoyed one too many post-hike pints in an effort to wash down one too many pub snacks, your extra baggage won’t just raise your chances of heart disease, but also everyday pain. You see, gaining one pound equates to an extra four pounds at the knees when walking (this is more when running).
- 10 vegetables to fight and beat belly fat
- What's the best alcoholic drink for my waistline? We check out the healthiest choices...
That means an extra 56 pounds driving through your knee joints. The result is an increase in mechanical pain that’s compounded by chronic inflammation, leading to more pain. Which is worsened again in overweight individuals, as studies show obesity lowers your pain threshold.
Why is not 100% known but it’s commonly accepted that it’s down to inflammation altering how the brain and spinal cord process pain. In short, eat healthily and not to excess. The NHS suggests an average man needs 2500 calories a day, while an average women needs 2,000 calories.
Make sure you drink enough water
As I type, the UK and Europe is in the midst of a heatwave. Sleepless nights might make us all that bit more delicate – okay, moody – but there’s evidence that the heat can also crank up the pain dial to 11. That’s down to dehydration, which has been shown to not only increase pain sensitivity but worsen muscle cramps and contribute to headaches.
Dehydration’s catalogue of pain boils down to a loss of electrolytes, such as sodium, and the fact that your joint-lubricator, synovial fluid, is mostly made of water. So, when you’re dehydrated, your joints simply feel stiffer and achier. To remedy the situation, aim for two to two-and-a-half litres of water, or water with an electrolyte tab popped in, per day, but more when hot or exercising.
Signs you’re not drinking enough – apart from pain – are dark urine, a dry mouth and dizziness.
Try acupuncture
Sometimes you’ve got to suffer more to suffer less. As no-one said ever. But the point (of the needle) is that many studies and reviews support the use of acupuncture for easing pain. Take 2012 meta-analysis by Andrew Vickers and his team that assessed 29 quality studies, involving nearly 18,000 patients, and concluded that acupuncture is significantly better than both sham acupuncture (a placebo where needles don’t penetrate the skin) and no acupuncture for back, neck and headache pain, plus osteoarthritis.
How acupuncture relieves pain is due to myriad mechanisms: it stimulates the central nervous system to release painkillers like endorphins; it affects how pain is processed in the brain and spinal cord by altering neurotransmitters; it may reduce inflammation; and local needle stimulation improves bloodflow and relaxes the muscle.
Other wide-ranging ideas for easing aches and pains that have a body of evidence behind them include yoga, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), quitting smoking, limiting sugar intake, cold therapy and strength training.
