Hotflashes - November 2025

Managing Joint Pain and Arthritis in Winter: A Practical Guide

As it gets a little colder here in Southwest Georgia, joint pain and early arthritis symptoms can intensify—especially in weight-bearing joints like knees, hips, and hands. While the change in weather can make stiffness and pain worse, consistent self-care and smart strategies, like the ones we cover in this article, can help you stay mobile and pain-free this winter.

Why Cold Weather Affects Joints

Cold and damp conditions can reduce blood circulation, making muscles tighter and joints less flexible. Lower barometric pressure may also trigger joint sensitivity, and winter’s shorter days can lead to reduced physical activity, and inactivity often worsens joint pain.

Tips to Reduce Joint Pain and Soreness This Winter

While you can’t change the weather, there are certain things you can do to make the cold weather’s impact on your joints a little better, including:

Stay warm: Part of the issue this time of year is the cold weather, so keep your joints warm by dressing in layers and apply heat to joints that are too stiff as needed.
Keep moving: When you’re experiencing joint pain, it can be tempting to stop moving altogether, but this is actually not helpful. As much as possible, you want to keep moving to keep the joints active. Aim for 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week. You can choose low impact activities like walking (indoors) and swimming (heated pool) and be sure to stretch before you start.
Fuel your body: Inflammation in your joints can be alleviated by anti-inflammatory foods like fatty fish, walnuts, chia seeds, and antioxidant rich berries. Staying hydrated is also crucial to keep your cartilage and synovial fluid from thickening and causing more joint friction. Additionally, adding in a vitamin D supplement, if it’s okay with your medical provider, may also be able to help.
Protect your joints: At a time when your joints are already sensitive, it’s more important than ever to protect them as much as possible. You can do this by maintaining a healthy weight to take pressure off your joints, wearing compression gear to boost circulation and retain heat, warm up before tasks to reduce the risk of injury, and rest your joints throughout the day.

https://www.healthline.com/health/cold-weather-and-joint-pain

When to Take Your Child to the Doctor or ER for Breathing Issues This Winter

With the colder weather comes colds, flu, RSV, COVID-19, and other respiratory bugs. While most of the time these issues can be managed at home, if you have a young child or an older child with asthma, these bugs can cause breathing problems. It’s important to know the signs of breathing trouble and when your child needs urgent or emergent care, which is what we’ll cover in this article.

Signs of Respiratory Distress

If your child is sick and showing signs of respiratory distress, they need to be taken to the nearest Emergency Room immediately. Common signs of respiratory distress include:

Labored breathing: If your child is gasping, grunting, breathing faster than usual, or showing chest retractions—where ribs visibly pull in—it’s a clinical emergency known as respiratory distress
Noisy breathing: Persistent wheezing or stridor (a high-pitched inhale sound) may signal narrowed airways from croup or asthma
Cyanosis: Blue or pale lips, face, or nails mean insufficient oxygen and require immediate care
Sudden onset after allergy or choking: Rapid breathing trouble following a bee sting, food allergy, or airway blockage can indicate anaphylaxis or foreign body obstruction

When to Contact the Pediatrician / Urgent Care

The flu, RSV, COVID-19, and even colds can cause other concerning symptoms that need to be addressed but are not necessarily an emergency. Examples of this include:

Faster/labored breathing without severe distress
Mild chest retractions
Wheezing or noisy cough
Persistent coughing fits, especially if sleep or play is disrupted
Fever over 100.4°F lasting more than 5 days
Reduced fluid intake or fewer wet diapers

While you may begin supportive care at home, consulting your pediatrician helps assess severity and rule out complications like pneumonia or bronchitis .

Home Care Tips for Respiratory Illnesses

If your child has a respiratory bug, but is not showing any signs of major respiratory issues, it can likely be managed at home. You can do this with some of these tips:

Use nasal saline sprays, suction for infants, and maintain hydration.
Warm steam from a humidifier or steamy shower can relieve airway tightness
Administer fever reducers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen (for kids over 6 months).
Honey (if over 1 year old) can ease coughs
Keep sick children home until fever-free for 24 hours and cough/cold symptoms are improving to prevent spreading illness.
Ensure flu (and when appropriate, RSV and COVID-19) vaccines are up to date before flu season peaks.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates
Ingredients:

6 ounces of creamy goat cheese
24 plump, Medjool dates
12 slices of thinly sliced bacon, cut in half
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
Kosher salt and black pepper
Candied or toasted walnuts

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Split the dates in half lengthwise without cutting all the way through. Remove the pit and discard. Stuff each date with goat cheese, then gently squeeze to seal.
Wrap each date with bacon and place seam side down on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dates.
In a small bowl, mix the honey, rosemary, caynee, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Drizzle half the mixture over the dates, with the goal of coating the bacon in honey so it caramelizes in the oven.
Transfer the cooking tray to the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, until the bacon is crispy. Serve warm or at room temperature with the remaining honey and toasted walnuts.

https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/goat-cheese-stuffed-bacon-wrapped-dates/