You know that feeling when you turn your windshield wipers on without turning the water on first? The rubbing sound your car makes is so horrendous that you can’t turn our wipers off quickly enough.
It’s similar to what happens to your joints when they don’t have enough lubrication. Even though you can’t always hear them, when your joints are not lubricated with enough slippery fluid, they become as bad as rusty hinges on an old door.
You make even less of this lubricating fluid as you grow older, so we’ll be looking at how you can boost your body’s natural joint lubrication. Read on for more information about how to lubricate knee joints naturally so you do not need medication. So let’s get right to it.
Lubricating Your Knee Joints Naturally – How It’s Done
Here are some surefire ways to help you get your knee joints lubricated and moving smoothly again.
Movement
Simply getting up and moving around is an excellent way to get lubrication flowing to your joints again. Working out pumps more lubrication into your joints while also releasing more water into this lubricating fluid to spread over the cartilage surfaces easier.
Moving your joints regularly, and exploring their full range of movement first thing in the morning, will cover all of the essential areas of your joints. Your body will thank you for getting up and moving about on a regular basis.
Eat more healthy fats
The same omega-3 vitamins that reduce inflammation in your blood vessels will also relieve inflammation in your joints. Healthy fats offer some fantastic benefits to your body, lowering your risk of stroke and heart disease, lowering harmful cholesterol levels, and preventing abnormal heart rhythms.
You can find plenty of this omega-3 in trout, salmon, nuts, olive oil, avocados, and supplements that are high in DHA omega-3s. Eating enough of these will promote lubrication in your joints, which can help alleviate pain and get your entire range of motion back.
Medical treatment
As we mentioned earlier, your body naturally loses a lot of joint fluid as you get older. When this happens, your cartilage can begin to rub together and wear down, leading to osteoarthritis, pain, and a limited range of motion.
If you are suffering from any form of joint condition, talk to your doctor about getting some form of treatment. There are specific medical treatments that protect your joints, while others will help you deal with some of the uncomfortable symptoms that come with poor joint lubrication, such as pain and inflammation.
What Causes Knee Pain?
There are a number of causes of knee pain that might not necessarily be linked to low joint lubrication. Here are some of the most common causes:
Injuries
An injury to your knee can affect the tendons, ligaments, or bursae that are around the joints in your knees and the cartilage and bones, as well as ligaments that make up the actual joints.
Fractures
The bones of your knee, including the kneecap, can be broken during accidents. If a condition like osteoporosis has weakened your bones, you might be at risk of sustaining a knee fracture simply by stepping wrong.
ACL injury
This injury involves a tearing in the anterior cruciate ligament, which is one of the ligaments connecting your thigh bone to your shinbone. ACL injuries are highly common in athletes, such as individuals who play football, basketball, tennis, or other athletic activities that involve sudden directional changes.
Knee bursitis
Certain injuries to the knee cause bursae inflammation. Bursae are the tiny fluid sacs that provide cushioning to your knee joint so that your ligaments and tendons move smoothly over the joint.
Torn meniscus
Your meniscus is rubbery, tough cartilage that absorbs shock that occurs between your thigh bone and shinbone. It can become torn if you twist your knee suddenly while also placing weight on it.
If you are struggling with pain in the knee, consider Feel Good Knees, which provides rapid relief. The therapy is based on a historical treatment of pain and can reduce your knee pain by up to 50% in minutes.
Arthritis
It might surprise you to know that there are more than 100 different forms of arthritis. The varieties that are most likely to impact your knee include:
Rheumatoid arthritis – This is the form of arthritis that is the most challenging and is an autoimmune disease that can affect nearly any joint in your body, which includes your knees. While rheumatoid arthritis does happen to be a chronic illness, it often varies in severity and can even be cured completely.
Septic arthritis – The joint in your knee can sometimes become infected, which leads to pain, swelling, and redness. It is generally accompanied by fever and there’s often no trauma before the pain begins. Septic arthritis might rapidly cause intense damage to the knee cartilage, so if you think you might have septic arthritis, be sure to contact your doctor as soon as possible. They will help you alleviate your symptoms and treat the illness.
Osteoarthritis – Also called degenerative arthritis, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. It is a condition that causes wear and tear and can occur when the cartilage in your knee begins to deteriorate with age and use.
Gout – Gout is a form of arthritis that forms when uric acid crystals begin to accumulate in your joint. It can occur in the knee, but it most commonly affects the big toe.
Mechanical issues
We’re not talking about problems with your car. Some examples of physical-mechanical problems that cause knee pain include:
Dislocated kneecap – As the name suggests, this injury occurs when the triangular bone covering the front of your knee slips out of place, most commonly to the outside of your knee. Sometimes, the kneecap will become displaced in such a way that you’re able to see the dislocation.
Loose body – Bone or cartilage degeneration can cause a piece of bone or cartilage to break off and float in the joint space. This might not cause any issues unless the loose body interferes with the movement of your knee joint – when this happens, the effect can be thought of as a pencil being stuck in a door hinge.
Pain in the hips or feet – If you are experiencing pain in the hips or feet, you might alter the way you walk to alleviate this pain. However, this change in your gait can cause more stress to your knee joint, subsequently causing pain in the knee.
For a comprehensive guide to alleviating joint pain in the knees, consider The Comfort Zone. It is a series of eBooks that provide you with best practices and top tips to help you relieve knee pain at home and is an excellent alternative to having to take countless medications with unwanted side effects.
Final Thoughts
Now you know how to lubricate your knee joints naturally. As you can see, it does not take too much out of your day, and doing so will help your range of motion, pain levels, and flexibility. We hope that the above information will be just the first step on your journey to pain-free knee joints and happier, healthier life.