Your joints take a lot of punishment. Even when you’re completely healthy, daily activity and exercise put strain on them. But when you have arthritis, your joints become cranky and creaky, susceptible to flare-ups. Here are thirteen simple ways to get the best from your joints while minimising pain and discomfort.

Your joints are wondrous, complex configurations of sinew, bone, cartilage and fluid – tough but fragile, flexible but limited. You need to keep them moving or they’ll seize up. You need to rest them or they’ll swell. So what are your options?

• Start with heat, end with cold: many people find that they can have an enjoyable and beneficial workout by combining warm and cold compresses to arthritic joints;
• Start slowly: Whether you’re going for a walk or pushing weights, start gently. If your exercise involves walking the dog and it’s an energetic hound, let it run around and burn off some energy first;
• Choose appropriate exercise: you might enjoy playing rugby, but you need to face up the fact that it’s bad for your joints. Try range-of-motion exercises such as swimming, t’ai chi, yoga, or even ballroom dancing;
• Stick to your routine: You should do range-of-motion exercises every day, or every other day at the most. You can vary their intensity, depending on how much pain you have, but you should make a point of moving the joints to keep them flexible;
• Wear a brace: lightweight casts and braces are very effective at restricting the movement of joints. Some people feel a little self-conscious about wearing them, but they work;
• Get help: no one will call you a hero for carrying eight bags of shopping to the car. Use a trolley or pay someone to carry for them. The same applies to transferring washing from the washing machine to the tumble drier;
• Invest in gadgets: Replace your fancy tap handles with handles. Get fat foam sleeves to fit over your slender pens and pencils;
• Bury your dignity: you might think you look like a crock when you walk with a cane. You don’t. You look dignified and distinguished. And it’ll ease the load on your knees;
• Don’t rule out surgery: Having a knee or hip replacement might seem like a huge event, but these procedures are now refined and successful. People who’ve had them done find that they have great benefits;
• Lose weight: Even a few extra kilograms will add to the strain on your joints. You needn’t be a rail-thin, but keeping your weight down or losing weight can significantly add to the mileage you’ll get out of your joints;
• Know when to get help: Familiarise yourself with the symptoms. Know when to see a doctor, such as when your pain is accompanied by a fever, or if the pain in say, a wrist is accompanied by numbness or tingling in the fingers.
• Listen to your body: If a joint becomes inflamed, ease off until the inflammation subsides. You can’t “work though” the pain of an inflamed joint;
• Harness technology: qualified professionals employ a dazzling variety of pain relief techniques. Be open to suggestion, even if you haven’t tried a technique before, whether it’s ultrasound, acupuncture, TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), or biofeedback

(Susan Erasmus, Health24, updated February 2011)