Five Ways to Manage Your Arthritis Pain During the Winter Cold

With winter’s chill also comes increased arthritis pain. While living with the pain and discomfort of arthritis is a challenge year-round, the cold weather of winter can bring increased stiffness, swelling, and reduced mobility. Fortunately, just like you might take action to protect your plants from freezing temperatures, there are preventative measures you can take to help alleviate arthritic flare-ups and make it through the winter with less pain.

STAY WARM

Keeping your body temperature up is one of the easiest ways to help reduce arthritic discomfort. You’re likely already keeping the thermostat in your home rather toasty, but you can’t always be huddled under blankets. Dressing in layers allows you to easily regulate your body’s warmth as you move through your day and experience varying temperatures. Pay special attention to cover your extremities like your hands and feet, as they’re more susceptible to the cold. Winter is also a good time to break out the heated blankets, warm baths, heating pads, and other warming devices for localized relief.

STAY ACTIVE

Bears hibernate. You are not a bear. While we may be tempted to act like one when the temperature dips, it’s important for humans to keep the physical activity up during winter. Staying active keeps the blood flowing and the joints moving, helping prevent stiff aches and pains. While it can be more difficult to do the activities you enjoy during the colder months, even simple, low-impact exercises like walking, yoga, and cycling can help keep your body flexible and robust. So let the bears sleep, and keep moving.

STAY HYDRATED

Odds are you know you don’t drink enough water. And if you think you do, you’re still probably not drinking enough. Proper hydration is crucial to overall health, especially joint health. And when the temperature drops, an ice-cold glass of water loses some of its appeal. But you can’t just rely on steamy cups of coffee and hot chocolate. Try using a dedicated water bottle that keeps track of how much you’ve drank throughout the day. Still struggling? Try adding flavors to your water to spice things up.

STAY RELAXED

Stress isn’t good for lots of things, your heart, your blood pressure, and yep, you can add arthritis to the list. With holiday shopping, travel, icy roads, and unremitting gray skies, it’s easy to let the winter season stress you out. Now’s a great time to brush up on your stress management techniques. Deep breaths, prayer and meditation, exercise, hobbies, or even binging your favorite TV show, everyone is different, but find and practice what works for you.

STAY ENLIGHTENED

Dealing with aches and pains in winter is nothing new, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some innovative new methods to help. Red and infrared light therapy has been shown to relax muscles and relieve pain, stiffness, and spasms due to arthritis. Infrared light uses specific wavelengths of light that penetrate deep into the muscles, stimulating a natural response to enhance overall cell performance. And best of all, it’s a simple process you can perform in just minutes a day from the comfort of your home. There are a wide variety of red light therapy devices available to fit your specific needs.

Until you move to the Bahamas, winter weather will be a part of your life. But with a holistic and preventative approach including warm clothes, physical activity, plenty of hydration, less stress, and red light therapy, you can help keep your arthritis under control and make the most of the season.

Ready to start reducing those winter aches with the help of light therapy? Check out our Wrist Wrap or other suite of medical-grade, FDA-cleared LED devices.