The weather is getting colder, and for people with knee arthritis, it has reached a painful stage. Because of the cold weather, the amount of activity is reduced, the knees are getting more and more painful, and they are more and more afraid to move, forming a vicious circle; For people with sore shoulders, even 50 shoulders, getting up, changing clothes, brushing their teeth and washing their faces are all struggles with their will. How to maintain joints in autumn and winter?

Why are inflamed joints more painful in autumn and winter?

Xu Jialin, a rehabilitation physician at Huifu Clinic, said that arthritis patients will feel more pain in autumn and winter, which is actually due to the body's "self-protection mechanism". Because the weather gets cold, the muscles will automatically contract to keep warm, but the swollen joints "will be wrapped tighter and more uncomfortable like a condom."

In addition to muscles, blood vessels will contract because they do not dissipate heat, and the waste efficiency of metabolic inflammation will also decrease. The increase of temperature and humidity will also make the sensory nerves more acute, so the pain will increase a lot compared with summer. However, since it is a protective mechanism to keep the body warm, it can actually alleviate the pain as long as the joints are warmed up by other means.

How to maintain joints in autumn and winter?

1. Hot spring/hot water soaking

"Hot water is my most recommended health activity, which is cheap, relaxed, effective and comfortable," said Xu Jialin. After getting up, you can wash your knees with warm water and relax your joints. Soaking in hot springs at night can relax muscles and increase blood circulation. The point is, "You are too busy to take care of yourself. Washing with hot water saves time and effort."

Remember to wrap it tightly when you leave the bed.

When you leave the bed, the temperature difference is too large, muscles and blood vessels will contract instantly, and the pain will suddenly surge. Therefore, when you leave the bed and go out, you'd better wear knee pads to protect your knees, and put on a coat to let your body adapt to the temperature drop slowly. Don't change too much at once, which is prone to cardiovascular diseases. In addition, don't get up in a hurry, because there is no activity for one night, and getting up in a hurry is easy to hurt your joints. It is recommended to get up early 15~20 minutes to wake up slowly without hurting your knees.

3. Exercise your knees every hour.

Xu Jialin said that arthritis is characterized by immobility and discomfort. You will want to pull and kick from time to time, and joint inflammation will destroy the body's positioning system "proprioception", that is, when we use muscle exercise, the joints can't smoothly complete the action from the received feeling, which makes the joints easy to be damaged repeatedly.

So you can squat around your knees to help your knees move, do some activities that require your thighs and calves to work hard around your knees, and slowly find your muscle strength and feeling. You can also refer to "Does arthritis hurt?" What kind of muscle strength exercise can protect the knee joint? "This article needs to do some exercises.