If you often experience pain as you get up in the morning, your knees and hips ache frequently or your hands feel stiff when doing simple activities, you might be having a serious problem than the normal aging. Apart from aging, joint pain during pregnancy is also a serious problem among young women. As the pain intensifies, many people tend to use regular medicine, such as Tylenol or Motrin to help them feel better. Pain in the joints and the related inflammation can make you stop doing certain activities which cause pain irrespective of how important the activities are.

Causes of Joint Pain

Although most people experience pain during pregnancy, there are several other causes of chronic joint pain. Most women who experience this pain during pregnancy usually fear that they might have developed arthritis. However, only one in five women with pain in a joint has some form of arthritis. There are more than a hundred different arthritic conditions, but the most common ones are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder which causes inflammation in the synovial fluid found in a joint. This arthritis has several symptoms which include stiffness of more than 30 minutes in the morning, a warm or hot feeling in the joint and pain which can last for the entire night. Osteoarthritis on the other hand worsens with activities you do throughout the day. This type of arthritis is caused by the breakdown of joint cartilage. Joint pain during pregnancy is also caused by many other causes outside of arthritis.

Soothing Joint Pain, Arthritis and Inflammation

There are many natural ways of solving pain and inflammation problems right from its source, whether arthritic or not. These include cheap medicine and foods. Studies have shown that some of the joint damages can be reversed using natural remedies. These solutions also ease joint pain during pregnancy.

Take anti inflammatory foods: Inflammation causes painful swelling in your joints which can be eased by taking these healthy foods. These foods include bing cherries and omega 3 fatty acid foods. These foods are antioxidants and therefore reduce free radical damage. Omega 3 is available in certain species of fish or in supplements and help in protecting the heart and normalizing cholesterol levels. These supplements can be purchased at your local health food store.

Turmeric and Ginger: Turmeric which is commonly used in curry dishes is a medicine for arthritis and is also used as an anti inflammatory. Ginger is also a good anti inflammatory spice used in making tea tasty and eases stomach upsets.

Evening Primrose Oil: It is a powerful anti inflammatory plant oil which is sold in most health food stores. Studies have shown that primrose oil can help to reduce your joint pain by 50%.

Increase Intake of Vitamins: If you suffer from arthritis, you should increase your intake of vitamin A, C, E and B complex. You should also increase your intake of mineral zinc.

Avoid Calcium-Rich Foods: Although calcium is important to the body, its proportion to magnesium should be maintained. Low calcium intake will increase your bone density which will in turn reduce the joint pain. Anyone experiencing joint pain during pregnancy should take more magnesium supplements to ease the pain.

Although exercise might be difficult for anyone with a joint pain problem, yoga is the most appropriate exercise for an arthritic patient because it involves painless movements and does not stress the joints.