Still telling yourself your stiff, aching hands are just your age?A rheumatologist explains why your joints feel worst first thing in the morning, and the simple thing many women now wear instead.

When my 61-year-old patient Diane came in, she described exactly what I hear every week: stiff, aching hands every morning, less grip strength, and everyday tasks that used to be automatic now taking real effort. “I suppose it’s just my age,” she said.

It’s what almost every woman tells me. And age does play a part. But it isn’t the whole story.

Here’s what I explained to her. While you sleep, your hands barely move for seven or eight hours. The fluid that cushions your joints thickens, a little like honey left in a cold cupboard. And your hands and wrists sit at the very end of your circulation, so they’re the first place where blood flow slows down. Less warm blood reaching those small joints means more stiffness by the time you wake up.

That’s why your hands feel worst first thing, and why they loosen a little after a warm shower or a cup of tea held in both hands. Your joints haven’t worn out overnight. Your hands are waiting for the circulation to catch up.

It also explains why the creams, supplements and painkillers Diane had tried only helped for a few hours. A cream works on the skin. A painkiller quietens the pain signal. Neither does anything for the circulation in her wrists, so the next morning the stiffness was back.

So she tried something simple her grandmother had always worn: a solid copper bracelet, left on from morning until night. Pure copper worn against the skin supports circulation at the wrist, gently and all day long, right where the hands need it most. That’s what the old tradition was about all along.

Within a few weeks she reported that the morning stiffness felt noticeably lighter. Opening jars became easier again. She stopped thinking about her hands quite so much.