Originally published May 3, 2017. Reviewed & Updated August 28, 2026.
By Helen Chow, ND, Dip Herb, UK-qualified Naturopath & Herbalist, Food Therapist
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Joint pain can quietly shrink your life.
You stop taking the longer walk. You think twice before climbing the stairs. You avoid kneeling in the garden. Perhaps you stop an exercise class because you’re worried that movement will make things worse.
And gradually, without really intending to, you start doing less.
But joint pain after 50 does not automatically mean that you should stop moving—or that aching joints are simply something you must accept as part of getting older.
The right way to relieve joint pain depends first on why the joint hurts.
Osteoarthritis is common after midlife, but joint pain can also come from an injury, tendon or bursae problems, gout, rheumatoid or other inflammatory arthritis, infection, referred pain and several other conditions.
If you’re unsure what’s causing yours, start with our guide
Joint Pain After 50: What’s Normal, What’s Not & When to Get Help.
The goal isn’t to promise that every painful joint can be made permanently pain-free. It is to find the combination of strategies that reduces pain, restores function and helps you remain strong and independent.
And frequently, there is much more you can do than simply live with it.
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1. Keep Moving ~ However, Move Intelligently
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One of the most important things to understand about joint pain is that complete inactivity is usually not the answer.
When a joint hurts, resting it feels logical. Short periods of rest can certainly be appropriate during an acute injury or painful flare.
But continually avoiding movement can weaken the muscles surrounding a joint, reduce mobility and make everyday activities increasingly difficult.
For osteoarthritis, therapeutic exercise is now considered one of the core treatments recommended by NICE . Exercise should be tailored to the individual, including local muscle strengthening and general aerobic fitness.
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NICE also makes an important point: discomfort may temporarily increase when you first begin exercising, but regular, consistent exercise over time can reduce pain and improve physical function and quality of life.
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The NHS also describes exercise as one of the most important treatments for osteoarthritis, whatever your age or current level of fitness.
You don’t have to begin with an hour in the gym.
- A ten-minute walk may be enough to start.
- Or five minutes on a stationary bicycle.
- Or gentle exercises beside a chair.
The important thing is to begin at a level your body can manage and build gradually.
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For practical ideas, visit Best Exercises for Joint Pain After 50: Stay Strong Without Aggravating Your Joints.
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Think: movement rather than punishment
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The best exercise is not necessarily the hardest one.
For someone with painful joints, useful choices can include walking, cycling, swimming or water exercise, tai chi, appropriately modified yoga and progressive resistance training.
Your aim is to become more capable, not to prove how much discomfort you can tolerate.
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2. Strengthen the Muscles That Support Your Joints
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This is one of the most useful long-term strategies for preserving mobility after 50.
Your muscles do far more than make you look toned. They help stabilise and support your joints.
If the muscles surrounding your knees, hips, shoulders and spine become progressively weaker, ordinary activities can place greater demands on already-sensitive joints.
That is why strengthening is such an important part of joint rehabilitation. And this is the reason strengthening forms an important part of therapeutic exercise for osteoarthritis in the current NICE guidance.
Depending on your present ability, you might start with:
- sitting down and standing up from a sturdy chair
- calf raises while holding a support
- light resistance bands
- wall push-ups
- light dumbbells
- carefully selected gym machines
The appropriate exercise depends on the affected joint and your present ability.
If pain has already significantly changed the way you walk, stand or move, a physiotherapist can be particularly useful. Instead of guessing, you can have an exercise programme tailored to your strength, mobility and specific joint problem.
The principle is simple:
Strong muscles help you remain physically capable.
And physical capability becomes increasingly valuable with every decade.
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3. Try Heat or Cold Therapies ~ It Depends on What Your Joint Needs
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Simple measures can sometimes make a surprising difference.
Heat may feel particularly soothing for a stiff or aching joint. A warm shower, bath, heat pack or hot-water bottle can help some people feel looser and more comfortable.
Cold may be more useful when a joint is irritated, swollen or painful following activity.
Heat or cold can both provide symptom relief for some people with osteoarthritis.
There is no prize for choosing one over the other.
Notice how your body responds.
Just remember that heat and cold help manage symptoms; they don’t tell you why the pain began.
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4. Use Physiotherapy & Practical Support When You Need It: Physiotherapy Can Help You Move Better
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Sometimes the quickest route forward is not another home remedy.
It is getting somebody knowledgeable to look at how you are moving.
A physiotherapist may identify weakness, reduced range of movement, altered movement patterns or other factors contributing to the problem and help you progressively rebuild function.
The NHS lists physiotherapy among the treatments that may be used for joint pain.
Occupational therapists may also be able to suggest ways of making everyday activities easier and less painful.
For lower-limb osteoarthritis, NICE says walking aids such as walking sticks can be considered.
Braces, insoles and supports, however, are not recommended routinely for everybody with osteoarthritis. They may be appropriate in selected situations, such as instability or abnormal loading.
The objective isn’t to make you dependent upon aids.
It is to help you keep doing things.
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5. If You Carry Excess Weight, Losing Some May Help ~ However, This Is Not Advice for Everyone
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Weight gets discussed so frequently with knee and hip pain that it deserves some nuance.
If you are living with overweight or obesity and have osteoarthritis—particularly of a weight-bearing joint—losing some excess weight can improve pain and physical function.
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NICE advises that any amount of weight loss is likely to be beneficial for people with osteoarthritis who are overweight or obese, although larger reductions may produce much greater benefit.
But not every woman with aching joints needs to lose weight.
After 50, we also need to protect muscle, bone and nutritional status.
The Health Sifu Objective:
Not to Simply Weigh Less. But to Carry an appropriate amount of body fat while remaining well nourished, muscular, mobile and strong.
That distinction will become increasingly important as we Build Your Next 20 Years.
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6. What About Painkillers, Gels, Sprays and Patches?
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There isn’t one generic “pain patch” or spray that is automatically appropriate for joint pain.
For osteoarthritis, current NICE recommends that medicines be used alongside non-drug treatments such as therapeutic exercise, rather than replacing them.
For knee osteoarthritis, NICE recommends a topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). A topical NSAID may also be considered for osteoarthritis affecting other joints.
If topical treatment is ineffective or unsuitable, an oral NSAID may sometimes be considered.
But this is not a trivial decision.
Age, other medications and gastrointestinal, kidney, liver and cardiovascular risks all matter. NICE therefore advises using medicines at the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time.
The NHS osteoarthritis treatment guide also explains the medication options used for osteoarthritis and why treatment needs to be individualised.
This is a good area to speak with your doctor or pharmacist rather than simply buying several different pain products and experimenting with them.
And importantly:
Pain relief is not necessarily treatment of the underlying disease.
If the cause of your joint pain is rheumatoid arthritis or another inflammatory arthritis, medical treatment matters because disease-modifying medicines can reduce inflammation and help prevent or slow joint damage.
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You can read more about this in the NHS guide to rheumatoid arthritis treatment.
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7. What About Acupuncture?
Acupuncture deserves a more balanced answer than either “it definitely works” or “it’s nonsense”.
Research and clinical guidelines don’t all reach exactly the same conclusion.
The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reports that acupuncture may produce modest improvements for some people with osteoarthritis, particularly knee osteoarthritis.
However, UK guidance is more cautious. NICE recommends that acupuncture or dry needling should not be offered specifically to manage osteoarthritis.
So I would regard acupuncture as a possible complementary approach, rather than a primary treatment or a cure.
If you enjoy it, can afford it, have no contraindications, and receive treatment from an appropriately qualified practitioner, you may wish to discuss whether it has a place in your own pain-management plan.
But don’t let acupuncture replace the strategies with considerably stronger evidence ~ especially appropriate exercise and strengthening.
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8. Tai Chi and Yoga Can Be More Than “Gentle Exercise”
Research summarised by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health suggests that tai chi can improve pain, stiffness and physical function in people with knee or hip osteoarthritis.
Yoga may also help some people, although considerably less research has been conducted.
The important word is: Modified.
A pose that is appropriate for one 55-year-old woman may be completely inappropriate for another woman with an unstable knee, painful wrist or hip replacement.
You do not have to force your body into dramatic positions to benefit from movement.
Tai chi also trains something that becomes increasingly valuable with age: Balance.
Protecting your ability to remain upright, mobile and confident is part of protecting your independence.
We will explore this much more in How to Stay Active After 50: Strength, Balance, Mobility & Independence.
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9. Massage May Feel Wonderful ~ However, You Must Know What It Can and Cannot Do
Massage can reduce muscular tension, encourage relaxation and make some people with chronic pain feel better.
There is some evidence that massage may help osteoarthritis pain, but the evidence remains limited. The NCCIH review of complementary approaches for osteoarthritis notes that the studies have generally involved small numbers of people.
That doesn’t mean massage is useless.
It simply means we should describe it accurately.
Use it because it helps you relax or move more comfortably ~ not because somebody tells you they can massage away the underlying cause of arthritis.
And avoid aggressive massage over an acutely swollen, hot, injured or medically unexplained joint.
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10. And What About Reiki?
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Health Sifu has always been interested in the relationship between mind, body and wellbeing, so we don’t need to pretend practices such as Reiki don’t exist.
But we do need to distinguish personal experience from established clinical evidence.
According to the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Reiki has not been clearly shown to be effective for any health-related purpose, and there is no scientific evidence establishing the proposed energy field through which Reiki is traditionally said to work.
That doesn’t stop someone using a Reiki session for relaxation, quiet time or personal spiritual practice if she enjoys it.
But we shouldn’t present Reiki as a treatment that has been demonstrated to heal an arthritic joint.
That is an important distinction.
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11. Do “Natural” Joint Remedies Work?
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Natural doesn’t automatically mean ineffective.
But it also doesn’t automatically mean proven or safe.
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Turmeric and Curcumin
Turmeric has a long history of traditional use, and curcumin supplements have become particularly popular for joint pain.
There are encouraging findings.
The NCCIH review of turmeric and curcumin reports that several analyses of clinical trials have found positive preliminary results for knee osteoarthritis pain and stiffness.
But the evidence still isn’t strong enough to conclude definitively that turmeric or curcumin is an effective treatment, and different supplements can vary enormously in formulation and absorption.
There is another reason to be cautious: highly bioavailable curcumin formulations have been associated with cases of liver injury.
Using turmeric as a culinary spice is also very different from swallowing a concentrated supplement.
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Ginger
Ginger supplements might help symptoms of knee osteoarthritis, but much of the research has been of relatively poor quality.
Ginger supplements may also produce side effects and interact with medications.
Once again: Natural does not mean automatically harmless.
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Glucosamine and Chondroitin
These remain enormously popular.
However, results have been inconsistent, and it is still uncertain whether they produce a clinically meaningful improvement in osteoarthritis symptoms. The NCCIH overview of complementary treatments for osteoarthritis describes the evidence as conflicting.
In the UK, NICE specifically advises against offering glucosamine for osteoarthritis because there is no strong evidence of benefit.
So rather than building your joint-health strategy around a cupboard full of supplements, establish your foundations first:
diagnosis → movement → strength → appropriate body composition → good nutrition → symptom management → professional treatment where necessary.
Then complementary approaches can be considered intelligently around those foundations.
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12. Sleep, Stress and Pain Influence One Another
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Joint pain is physical.
But our experience of persistent pain is affected by much more than the joint itself.
Poor sleep can make pain harder to tolerate. Pain can interrupt sleep. Stress can increase muscle tension and make chronic discomfort feel more overwhelming. And after months of pain, people may begin worrying about movements that once felt completely ordinary.
This does not mean “the pain is all in your head”.
It means the nervous system, sleep, mood, physical activity and pain interact.
Relaxation, meditation, slow breathing and other mind-body practices can therefore have a legitimate place in a wider pain-management programme—even though they aren’t repairing cartilage or treating inflammatory disease.
For Health Sifu, that distinction matters.
We can support both body and mind without confusing one for the other.
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When, Indeed, Your Joint Pain Needs Medical Attention…
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Don’t assume every new ache is “just age”.
The NHS joint-pain guidance advises seeking medical help if joint pain is stopping you carrying out normal activities or affecting your sleep, if pain or swelling is worsening or keeps returning, if it has not improved after home treatment, or if your joints remain stiff for more than 30 minutes after waking.
Seek urgent medical advice if a painful joint becomes hot and swollen, particularly if you also feel generally unwell, feverish, hot, cold or shivery.
Very severe pain after an injury, inability to walk or bear weight, an obviously displaced joint, or numbness or tingling after an injury requires urgent assessment.
And persistent morning stiffness, swelling in several joints, symmetrical hand or foot symptoms or other signs suggestive of inflammatory arthritis deserve investigation rather than repeated self-treatment.
With rheumatoid arthritis, early treatment can reduce inflammation and lower the risk of further joint damage.
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So, What Actually Helps Joint Pain After 50?
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Usually, there isn’t one magic remedy. There is a combination.
Find out what is causing the pain.
- Keep moving appropriately.
- Strengthen the muscles that support you.
- Use heat or cold when useful.
- Get physiotherapy when you need guidance.
- Address excess weight if it genuinely applies to you—but protect muscle.
- Use medicines intelligently rather than indiscriminately.
- Treat complementary therapies as complementary.
- And seek professional assessment when your symptoms tell you something more is going on.
Above all, don’t let painful joints persuade you that your active life is over.
Your aim isn’t merely to have “less pain”.
- It is to keep walking.
- Keep travelling.
- Keep carrying your shopping.
- Keep getting yourself up from the floor.
- Keep climbing stairs.
- Keep playing with your grandchildren.
- Keep living independently.
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Joint health is ultimately about preserving what your body allows you to do.
And that is very much part of building Your Next 20 Years !
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Health Sifu Medical Note
This article is for education and general information and is not intended to diagnose or treat an individual medical condition. Joint pain has many possible causes. If you have persistent, worsening, unexplained or severe symptoms, obtain appropriate medical assessment. Speak with your doctor or pharmacist before using medicines or concentrated herbal/supplement preparations, particularly if you take prescription medication or have other health conditions.
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