When the cold wind blows, my waist and legs ache. What should I do? See here →

As the weather gets colder, do you often feel stiffness, discomfort, or even pain in your waist and legs? Recently, Aunt Zhang's knee joints have been aching from time to time, especially at night when she sleeps. It feels like a cool breeze is blowing into her knee joints, and it hurts even more when she does some housework. After a checkup at the hospital, Aunt Zhang was diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis affects 100 million people

Osteoarthritis is often related to age. We can compare the knee joint to a "bearing" that rotates frequently. As we age, joint aging gradually worsens. The synovial membrane in the joint and the cartilage on the surface of the joint are the "elastic coating" of the bearing contact surface. Normal synovial membrane and cartilage can absorb shock, bear load, and increase joint flexibility. Once the synovial membrane and cartilage are damaged, the bones deep in the cartilage lack the necessary stress buffering, and hard friction will occur, which often leads to knee swelling, pain, bone hyperplasia, and even joint deformation and other serious consequences. Therefore, severe osteoarthritis is also known as a "disability killer."

Osteoarthritis is a widespread disease that affects approximately 355 million people worldwide, including more than 100 million people in my country.

Is joint pain really caused by freezing?

Because the subcutaneous tissue around joints is relatively thin and mostly covered by tendons and ligaments, joints are more sensitive to temperature changes. Once the temperature drops, the surface temperature of the joint bones will be lower than the surface temperature of the bones covered by thick muscles. There are often abundant nerves around joints, so the local relatively low temperature directly stimulates the sensory nerve endings around the joints, which will cause pain over time.

When the joints are exposed to cold, local capillaries will contract, affecting the blood circulation around the joints, resulting in insufficient local blood and oxygen supply and causing pain. In addition, when osteoarthritis wear worsens, a large amount of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, etc., will be released in the secreted joint effusion. These inflammatory cytokines can directly stimulate or accelerate the progression of arthritis through immune inflammatory reactions, and aggravate the pain. These inflammatory factors can also be diluted and eliminated by penetrating into the blood vessels around the joints. However, due to the relatively low temperature of the local joints, it will stimulate the contraction of surrounding blood vessels, causing the inflammatory factors produced to gather together and cause obvious pain. Winter will also directly stimulate the synovial secretion to reduce synovial fluid, thereby increasing joint friction, which is especially obvious when standing or walking suddenly in a resting state, resulting in dryness or soreness of the knee joints.

In addition, osteoporosis is also a problem that cannot be ignored. Since osteoarthritis mostly occurs in the elderly, and osteoporosis is also the most common among the elderly, osteoporotic bone pain will aggravate the symptoms of osteoarthritis to a certain extent.

From this we can see that joint pain caused by cold weather is usually caused by a variety of factors.

If you want to avoid leg pain, keeping warm is the most important thing

The most effective way to prevent joint pain caused by cold weather is to keep warm. Since joints are most susceptible to cold, maintaining a suitable temperature is very important for joint health. Try to avoid cold, damp or cold wind in the joints. We can protect the joints by keeping the temperature relatively warm indoors and taking warming measures such as wearing long pants, long socks, knee pads and elbow pads. For patients who have already experienced joint pain, methods such as hot compresses and physical therapy can significantly improve peripheral blood circulation and promote the disappearance of inflammatory cytokines. When "the wind blows and your mother tells you to go home and wear long johns" or "there is a kind of cold that makes your grandma think you are cold", you have to think about it carefully. In fact, wearing long johns is also a healthy attitude. Most of these suggestions are based on their own leg pain and protection experience.

When the weather gets cold, exercise also needs special attention. Since the strength of the muscles around the joints has a significant protective effect on joint stability, lack of exercise often leads to varying degrees of muscle atrophy. Moderate exercise is very helpful in preventing and treating bone and joint diseases, such as walking, aerobics and Tai Chi (avoid bending the knees for a long time). However, for people with joint pain, it is recommended to avoid weight-bearing exercise. Because excessive pressure within the joints will aggravate the wear of the cartilage, swimming or lying in bed for lower limb pedaling exercises are recommended for common weight-bearing joints such as the knees, ankles and hips, which can reduce the load on these joints during exercise. In addition, pay attention to warming up before exercise. Proper warm-up can increase blood circulation around the knee joint and promote the secretion of lubricating fluid by the synovium, thereby avoiding discomfort during exercise.

Daily lifestyle is an important factor leading to joint pain. With the improvement of living standards, the number of obese people is increasing. Obesity invisibly increases the burden on the hip, knee, and ankle joints, and promotes the occurrence of inflammation. Therefore, for obese people, a healthy diet and moderate exercise can restore body weight to a normal level, which is the key to relieving joint pain. In addition, climbing stairs less and carrying less heavy objects are also important means to reduce the burden on joints. At the same time, some actions that are not good for joints should be avoided as much as possible, such as squatting to choose food, washing clothes, mopping the floor, and sitting cross-legged, which will lead to muscle strain around the joints and worsen inflammation.

When treating joint pain, anti-osteoporosis is also an important supplement. For the elderly, calcium deficiency will increase neuromuscular excitability and lead to muscle spasms; at the same time, bone pain caused by osteoporosis will also aggravate joint pain. Therefore, while ensuring adequate intake of nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K, protein, magnesium and zinc, a personalized anti-osteoporosis treatment plan should be selected according to individual bone density and bone metabolism indicators to strengthen bones.

When joint pain occurs, appropriate medication can be used to relieve the symptoms. For example, oral glucosamine sulfate or intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate and other drugs that lubricate the joints can supplement the stiffness and soreness of the joints caused by lack of joint fluid; and anti-inflammatory analgesic drugs such as loxoprofen sodium can be taken orally or topically for patients without a history of asthma, which can effectively improve blood circulation, eliminate local inflammation, and relieve pain.

Of course, there are many other causes of joint pain, such as ligament injury, meniscus injury, bone tumors, etc., which are not obviously related to cold. Therefore, after the beginning of autumn, if symptoms such as joint pain, swelling, and difficulty in joint movement occur and gradually worsen, you should still seek medical attention in time and treat the cause.

Joint pain is 30% treatment and 70% care. After learning about bone and joint health knowledge and adjusting her lifestyle, Aunt Zhang quickly solved the problem of joint pain. Only by paying more attention to the health of bones and joints can we enjoy the autumn and winter scenery while avoiding bone diseases.