Joint Stiffness

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* Your joint stiffness lasts more than six weeks.

* The stiffness follows a blow to the joint.

* The stiffness in your joints is worse in the morning and improves as the day does on.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Whether you think of them as simple hinges or ball-and-socket wonders, your joints allow you all the marvels of motion. Then a joint stiffens up—and to bend for the newspaper, reach for a rose, twist in your chair, hold a cup or even head out on that health-promoting walk becomes an uncomfortable challenge.

Most of the time, joint stiffness is related to the normal changes of aging and is not a symptom that arthritis may be just down the road. The ligaments and tendons that help joints function may become overstretched from years of use, leaving the joints less stable and more prone to wear and tear. And as a person ages, the lubricating membrane that normally allows each joint to slide and glide through its motion may become dried and contracted, constricting the joint's movement.

If a joint has been hurting you, then becomes stiff and "rickety"-feeling, your body may actually be making its own splint to protect the joint from further injury. Muscles surrounding the joint go into spasm to prevent the joint from moving, and those spasms contribute to stiffness.

You may notice the stiffness most when you first get out of bed in the morning, and feel it loosening up during the day. You may have swelling along with stiffness, though swelling is more likely when the stiffness results from an injury.

If you've been bedridden or stuck in a cast or have spent the winter on the couch watching sit-coms, your joints may feel frozen and stiff simply because of lack of exercise.

A long-since-forgotten injury may cause a joint to stiffen up years later. A new injury or episode of overuse (is it your bowling arm?) can bring on stiffness.

Rarely, some neurological or muscular disorders may be part of the problem, though these conditions will usually be signaled by other, more noticeable symptoms.

Symptom Relief

If the stiffness in your joints is severe or persistent, you'll want to see your doctor for a clear diagnosis. But no matter what the cause, here are some basic comforts that will help stiffness loosen its hold.

Relax with moist heat. Take a wet towel, put it in the dryer, but remove it while the towel is still wet and hot, says Bill Arnold, M.D., a rheumatologist and chairman of the Department of Medicine at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. To relieve those muscless, just wrap the moist hot towel around the affected joint and leave it on for 20 minutes or so. You might want to place an additional dry towel on top to hold the heat in. Or, you can use a moist heating pad.

Get a head start on stiffness. If you've been feeling stiff for a while, and know that it's worse in the early morning, head off the stiffness with over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication, Dr. Arnold suggests. "You can wake yourself around 5:00 a.m. and take Advil or Nuprin with a glass of milk, and by the time you get going at 8:00, you'll feel better," he says. "Or try taking two tablets the night before, and you may find that they will last you until the morning."

These medicines will help reduce pain in the joints as well, Dr. Arnold says. Steady use of anti-inflammatory drugs can lead to stomach problems, and taking them with milk will soften this effect.

Keep it moving. You can resist stiffness with gentle range-of-motion exercises to help your joint stay flexible and limber, says Kathleen Haralson, a physical therapist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

A slight variation in range of motion from person to person is perfectly normal, Haralson says. People with extremely mobile joints have a large range of motion, and bodybuilders may have less.

"Whatever is normal for you, you don't want to lose," she says. "Don't overstretch, but gently move the joint as far as you can several times a day," she suggests.

Regular exercise for your whole body is a good practice to keep all your joints toned and limber. Work yourself up to a brisk 20-minute walk at least three times a week.

See also Joint Inflammation; Joint Pain; Joint Swelling