Today's topic
Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I'm going to be talking about joint pain at night.
So, joint pain in the menopause is very, very common and I have talked about this before in a general way.
Why does my body ache at night in bed?
But a lot of women are coming to me saying that they are finding that they're okay during the day and it's only in the evening and at night that they're starting to feel that their joints are aching. It is important, if you are getting joint pain on a regular basis or, to get this checked out by your doctor first, just in case it's not related to the menopause.
But one of the things we do find is that joint pain in the menopause is not often recognised as a menopause symptom.
So, why does the body ache at night? There are a number of reasons for this.
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Hormonal changes
Falling oestrogen is one of the main causes of joint pain, either during the day or during the night.
As oestrogen falls, it can affect the ligaments and tendons of the joints, and these are what keeps the joint stable but also allows free movement. So, if your ligaments and tendons start to stiffen up, then that will affect your joints' mobility and range of movement.
And that, in turn, will cause pain and inflammation as you're actually moving the joint. The other thing that happens here is that falling oestrogen can affect your body's hydration. And what happens here is that the joints themselves end up becoming dehydrated, especially in the major joints.
You have these big cushions in between the joints of cartilage and these help to stop the joints rubbing together. So, if the water in these cartilage decreases, then this can end up causing the joints to possibly rub together and that can cause your aches and pains as well.
Feeling tired
The second thing is, one of the reasons they can get worse during the night is we're tired by that point. And the more tired you are, the more aware you are of aches, pains, and other symptoms that you're getting through your body.
Sleep environment
It can also be to do with poor sleeping arrangements. You know, there's this whole idea that you should change your mattress every eight years. So, is your mattress an old one? Is there lack of support because, if there is, then, again, that's certainly going to affect your posture during the night.
It's the same with pillows. If you have the wrong pillow, if you have old pillows, if you have pillows stacked up (you know, some people sleep with maybe three or four pillows), having the wrong pillow or the wrong number of pillows can affect your joints - especially the neck, the shoulders, and the spine.
Pain perception
The other thing that can happen is that, as we get more tired, our pain perception increases. So here we are, we've got joint aches and pains at night, our pain perception increases, we're having a very uncomfortable sleep, so we don't sleep well.
And, if we don't sleep well, we become more tired, become more aware of the pain, and this sets up a real vicious cycle. And, if it gets to the point where you know you're going to have a bad night's sleep, the body is already in that frame of mind, so you're going to bed knowing you're not going to sleep well and that will contribute to this whole vicious cycle, too.
How to ease menopause joint pain at night
So, what can you do about this? There are a number of little things that you can do that hopefully can make a difference.
Have a warm bath before you go to bed
This is wonderful for fatigue. It's wonderful just to help you relax, which can be of benefit. But what you can do here is you can get magnesium bath salts and that can be really lovely.
We know that magnesium is a lovely mineral that can help to relax muscles and can help to ease joint pain, too. So things like the Dead Sea salts and or even Epsom salts put in your bath can sometimes make a difference to ease the joint aches and pains, but also to give you that little bit of a better sleep as well.
Look at your bedding
Have you changed your mattress for a long time? One of the things that can really help is these memory foam toppers. You know, you don't need to spend a lot of money getting a full new mattress. But these memory foam toppers can be really helpful for supporting your body and giving you a good night's sleep.
All I would say about these is to make sure you get one that ventilates during the night – these toppers are quite dense and, if you're also getting hot flushes or night sweats during the night, they can make you sweat more, so make sure that it's one of the newer kinds that actually allow circulation through the mattress to give you a better night's sleep if you get really, really hot.
Rub Atrogel into achy joints
This is a licensed product that's traditionally used to help ease joint aches and pains. You can apply this just before you go to bed and that, hopefully, will help to ease any discomfort that you're getting.
Take some magnesium
You can also take a magnesium supplement. If you're going to do that, make sure you take it with food.
A lot of women are saying to me that they're taking magnesium, but they're taking it on an empty stomach just before bed. That will very often go through you without being properly broken down and absorbed. So, make sure that you take the magnesium with your evening meal and that can often make quite a lot of difference.
Take Devil's Claw every day
We also have a licensed remedy for joint aches and pains called Devil's Claw, and this is something you can take every day. You can either take the tablets, which is the licensed version, or you can take a tincture, if you prefer to take it that way.
Other ways to help ease menopause joint pain
These are some other things that you can do to help your joint aches and pains generally.
Remember the water
This is so important. Dehydration will affect just about every single menopause symptom that you have.
And a number of women have come back to me to saying that all they've done is increased their water intake, and their joint aches and pains have decreased quite considerably. So this is a really simple one to do.
Menopause Support
If it's appropriate, you can look at our Menopause Support, as this is known to very gently raise and balance your oestrogen levels.
A.Vogel Menopause Support | For Perimenopause, Menopause & Postmenopause Symptoms
Nettle
Also, you can look at the herb, nettle. If your joint aches and pains are rheumatic or sort of gouty (so you're getting kind of scrapings in a joint, if you feel your joints are making noises or you feel they're very, very uncomfortable), then nettle is a lovely joint cleanser.
So, you can add that into whatever remedies you're taking or just take a couple of cups of nettle tea a day. And this is great for all sorts of other menopause symptoms as well, such as itchy skin, so it's a good all-rounder. Try and get some gentle exercise in too, although I know this is a difficult one.
Strengthen your muscles
A) If you're fatigued and B) if your joints ache and you get the pains, strengthening the muscles either side of your joints will help to stabilise the joints better. So, especially if you're getting things like hip pain, knee pain, or ankle pain, then gentle exercise can really be of benefit. If this is really hard for you then you can look at swimming.
That's a great one because that's going to take the weight off the joints and that will allow you to get some good regular exercise.
Watch your weight
We know that weight gain can be an issue during the menopause. And, if you put on weight, that can affect the weight-bearing joints, so these would be ones like your hips, your knees, and your ankles.
Although I know this can be quite a difficult one, I have posted blogs on this. So, if this is you, then please do look at these blogs for some help.
Look at your diet
Acidic foods will irritate your joints further. And, especially, look at what you're having for your evening meal and anything that you're having for supper before you go to bed – those foods could possibly have a knock-on effect on your night time symptoms.
So, we're looking at caffeine. Avoid caffeine in the evening. So this would be things like tea, coffee, and fizzy drinks as well. All of these can be really bad for the joints. Plus, for some people, fruit juices can be an irritant. So, at night, if you're wanting something nice to drink, you can look at the rooibos tea, or some of the herbal teas, or even something like our Bambu Coffee, which is caffeine-free.
Look at citrus fruits. Citrus fruits can also irritate your joints. So that would be things like your oranges, and lemons, and limes. With some of these foods, if you avoid them for a few weeks, you might notice a difference.
The other foods to avoid for joint aches and pains are members of the deadly nightshade family, and I'm quite sure you're thinking, "I don't ever eat the deadly nightshade family!"
Members of the deadly nightshade family are potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes, and peppers. And, especially during the summer months, we tend to eat more of these salad vegetables and that can make your joints ache, too. So, again, avoid these maybe for a month and see if that makes a difference for you.
Other foods to avoid include, obviously, your processed foods, your high salt, and your high sugar foods.
So, I hope this has been helpful for you. If any of you out there have any other tips that will help you with the joint aches and pains at night, please share them with us. We would love to hear about them.
