4 helpful ways to relieve joint pain

Making some simple changes to your diet and daily activities – even just to the way you sit – coupled with taking a few key supplements a day, can save your joints reduce pain. Here are the top tips to help you where you hurt.

• Empty out any kitchen cupboard below waist level (or better still, ask someone else to empty them for you).
• You'd be surprised at how much unnecessary bending people do to get at low cupboards.
• If you have mobility problems, fill the empty cupboards with less-used items, such as the turkey roasting pan that comes out only at Christmas or dishes that you use only when you are entertaining.

• Use a wrist rest to keep your wrists straight, not to rest your wrists on.
• Resting your wrists on the pad when typing can compress soft tissues – such as tendons, nerves and blood vessels – in your forearms, reducing blood flow to your wrists and fingers.
• This, in turn, can increase pressure in the carpal tunnel located inside your wrists and ultimately lead to nerve damage. Instead, use the pad only for support during typing breaks.
• Even then, most experts recommend resting the palms of your hands, rather than your wrists, on the pad to reduce the risk of injury.

• The easiest way is to put water in a paper cup before you start, freeze it, then peel back the top of the cup to expose the ice.
• Now you can hold the ice against your arm without freezing your hand off.
• If, however, the tennis elbow arrives despite the ice, try this exercise: bend your arm at 90 degrees, keeping your elbow at your side, palm facing up.
• Hold this pose for five to 10 seconds, then slowly lower your arm. Do this ten times.

• Give the dishwasher the night off from time to time.
• The combination of warm, running water and light exercise, requiring complex movement of the wrist and hand, is an effective and low-cost way of rehabilitating the hand and wrist after injury or surgery.
• It will also keep your wrists and hands flexible with good blood circulation if you have arthritis or other painful problems.