Don't shrink despite cold weather
By Song Sang-ho
When the temperature goes down, your body also shrinks. You would want to lie down in your warm room all day long but that is not possible. A super-thick jacket is not good enough to protect you from cold weather outside. As winter has become harshly cold recently, you often feel as if your body is freezing to death.
In winter, the number of joint patients also increases because their pain can get worse when chilly winds blow, due to a decline of blood flow around the knees. When the weather gets cold, your body uses more energy than usual to maintain body temperature. In order to maintain energy consumption at proper levels, some physical functions are reduced. One of the phenomenon in such process is the decline of blood circulation. However, this causes stiff ligaments and muscles that support joints. Especially in low temperatures, the pain gets worse because joints feel more burden as tissues surrounding them get stiff.
How can you stay healthy without any joint damage in the cold season?
First of all, you should keep your body warm. When the weather gets cold, you should pay more attention to blood circulation. The arthritic patients should not expose their knees to cold wind by wearing underclothes. Also knee pads are great to keep your knees warm. Even in indoors, you’d better keep your knees warm all the time by using a heater and knee blanket.
There is just one thing you should be careful when you use a poultice. In the case of pain from degenerative arthritis, a poultice can be effective. However, an ice pack can be effective in the case of rheumatoid arthritis or infection. When you have swollen knees, therefore, you should use proper fomentation after receiving accurate diagnosis first, instead of recklessly using a poultice.
It is also good to exercise for between 30 minutes and an hour every day. Strengthening muscles and ligaments around knee joints is helpful in relieving pain. However, not many people are willing to exercise in the cold. Take care of your knee health through indoor exercise. Swimming or stretching can be a solution in such weather.
The stretching exercise is also important. Most people know that stretching is good for health, but not many people know that stretching is also needed for their knees. As an exercise that extends joints and muscles, the stretching expands the joints’ range of motion and relaxes muscles. Since it can be easily practiced in daily life without special exercise equipment, you can prevent or reduce the joint pain by paying a little more attention.
There are diverse stretching methods you can practice for your joints. The following method will be easy for you to practice at work. After sitting down correctly, lift up your left leg and then stretch it out as your toes face upward. Keep this posture for five seconds. Repeat this movement ten times and then do the same movement with your right leg. It helps relaxing your stiff leg muscles and keeping your joints healthy.
Though health care could be the most important, you should go see a doctor if you already have severe pain. Health is considered as the most important standard for a happy life as we are in the “age of homo-hundred,” where people expect to live for more than a hundred years. You can have a happy senior life by continuously taking care of joints. It would be so sad if you cannot do anything due to your health problems even though you set up the greatest plan for your later years.
The writer is the president of Wellton Bone & Joint Hospital.