Why Are My Joints Aching

Your joints don’t have to hurt just because you are over 50, many of my friends have aching and painful joints and most of them think it is normal as they are all in their early fifties. We even call one friend Bruce because every time he stands up he makes noises like martial arts legend Bruce Lee. I actually think it has become a badge of honor for some of them as they compete to prove who is in the worst shape.

If you are like them you need to know that it does not have to be like that, joint pain is not connected to your age and there are many studies now that are showing that joint pain is becoming more common in people of all ages. Even children are reporting painful joints and this further indicates how age is clearly not the main cause., if aching joints is not caused by getting older, what is it caused by?

What Causes Joint Pain

Just for the record, this is not medical advice in any way as I am not a medical professional, this is just based on what I have learnt and my opinion based on my own experience.

So if getting older does not automatically cause aching and sore joints, what does?

There are obviously lots of different factors to take into account but in my experience aching or sore joints generally have 3 main causes with the biggest cause probably being the last one you would suspect. Once you know what the causes can be it is much easier to figure out how to improve your own situation.

Joint Pain Caused By Injury

If you had a bad accident where one of your joints was badly injured or if you played a sport that involved heavy impacts or strain on your joints these can have a long lasting affect on your joints and cause pain due to the damage you received. Taking part in extreme activities that put huge strain on your joints such as endurance running can also cause long lasting damage to joints due to severe wear and tear.

Joint Pain Caused by Illness

There are many illnesses and diseases like arthritis that can cause joint pain and while some of them are inherited or caused by other factors such as viruses a lot of “illnesses” can actually be caused by our own behaviour.

One of the most common illnesses that cause joint pain is Osteoarthritis and this essentially refers to the breakdown of the cartilage in your joints, usually from excessive use and leaves your joints working without lubrication.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the other big player in this area and generally refers to inflammation in your joints. Inflammation in any area of your body usually means that your body has found something it thinks is not right and is sending your autoimmune system to attack it. This causes inflammation and swelling and is why parts of your body will feel hot to touch and painful to move, these instances are usually referred to as autoimmune conditions and the list of illnesses that are all linked to inflammation will probably shock you.

Joint Pain Caused By Your Lifestyle

Believe it or not the single biggest cause of most instances of painful or sore joints is due to your how you live your life or Lifestyle as it is known. What you eat, how much you move and what type of movement all play a massive part in looking after your joints and not just in the ways that you would expect.

Diet

What you eat has the biggest impact on your joints of any element in your life and eating a diet high in processed foods and sugar has long been proven to cause inflammation in most peoples systems. There are many other foods that are known to be potentially inflammatory but unlike sugar and processed foods these seem to affect people differently and not everyone reacts badly to them, things like gluten, dairy, alcohol, caffeine and even night shades (Tomatoes, potatoes etc) can cause inflammation in some people. This inflammation can show up in various parts of your body such as your stomach (Chrohns disease, IBS), your skin (Eczema), your brain (Alzheimer’s) and especially your joints as Rheumatoid Arthritis). When you do this over an extended period of time and your body is constantly inflamed this pits the rest of your body under massive stress. Imagine being under attack internally every day for years….

Lack of movement

As we get older this leads many people to be less active and I have even heard people tell me that exercise is bad for you as you get older, this is absolutely not true and is the opposite of what we should be doing. As we get older we gradually start to lose our muscle mass to a condition called Sarcopenia so we actually need to work harder to maintain our muscle, if we don’t build and maintain muscle we will get to a point where we are not strong enough to support ourselves. We might find it difficult to get up stairs or even stand up and we will find that our joints and muscles will start to ache as they are just not strong enough to carry out simple day to day activities.

Lack of mobility

If movement and exercise is about making sure our muscles are strong enough to support our joints then mobility is about making sure we are flexible enough to be able to use them properly. If you spend every day sitting in front of the TV then not only will your muscles gradually waste away but the ones you do have will stiffen up causing you pain when you try to move them. If your upper leg muscles are stiff they will contract and put pressure on your knee joints which will then lead to pain and discomfort even when sitting still.

How Can I Make The Pain Go Away

The first thing to know is that you don’t have to live with pain in your joints and like any part of your life you can work to improve it.

The second thing to know is that you don’t need to transform your life overnight as even small changes can have a really positive impact on how you feel.

Actually, in my opinion, the best way to improve is to make small, gradual but sustainable improvements. If you exercise 5% more this month than last month this can be really small and easy to achieve, if you then exercise 5% more the month after it is another small step that is much easier to maintain but now you have improved at least 10% and the power of compound growth means your improvements accelerate. So what small improvements should you make…..

If your pain is due to an injury – Whether you were an athlete that got injured or were involved in an accident, any previous injury to a joint can cause pain later on. This is much harder to deal with but there are still plenty of things you can do to help alleviate your pain.

• Go to see a proper injury rehabilitation specialist – these are like a physiotherapist but specialize in treating injuries, they will ensure that you recover properly from your injury and provide you with a program that will help you to minimize the effects of it. This may involve strengthening other areas to support the joint or support devices like a knee brace if required in extreme cases
• Consider supplementary activities to improve mobility and support your injury such as Yoga or Pilates
• Follow the advice below to ensure all other areas of your life are optimized

If your pain is due to an illness – Please consult with a medical specialist as just leaving your condition is never a good option., if you have a severe medical condition like Diabetes it is crucial that you manage it correctly.

I would also recommend going to see a Functional Medical Specialist, I know a lot of people think these are quacks but in my experience they do what GP’s are supposed to and never have the time, they will look at all areas of your life to see what is connected rather than looking at one specific illness and prescribing drugs to treat it. My wife developed shoulder pain and she went to see various specialists before being diagnosed with Fybromyalgia and put on pain medication. After going to see a functional medical specialist and given a program all of her symptoms cleared up and she stopped all pain relief.

• Main point – DO NOT just accept that pain is something you have to put up with

If your pain is due to your lifestyle – This is the biggest cause and also the easiest to improve, all three of the main elements can be improved but personally I would work on them in the following order:

Diet – What you eat has the biggest impact on your body than anything else and no matter what else you do, if you diet is poor then you will struggle to see big improvements.

• Remove as many highly processed foods as possible from your diet, these have usually been changed from their natural form by having extra ingredients that you can’t pronounce added.
• Eat as many things as possible that come in their natural form – Meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, eggs and dairy
• Remove as much sugar as possible – most processed foods have sugar added in some way
• Make sure you eat enough protein to maintain your muscles

Movement – Look after your body as you only have one, exercising regularly is one of the best ways to protect your joints

• Be aware of your staring point and exercise accordingly – this is not a race so making small changes is perfect
• Start with gentle low impact exercise if needed – Swimming, walking and cycling are all good forms of exercise to start you on your fitness journey
• Add resistance training to build muscle, I wrote a post on how to start with strength training in your 50s

Mobility – Maintaining flexibility is often the most overlooked element but is crucial to ensure your pain free joints are usable.

• Start with some gentle dynamic stretching at home – this involves stretching by moving rather than static stretching which puts more strain on your joints and muscles.
• Take up an activity that supports your mobility – Yoga and Pilates are two of the best ones for this.

There is a lot of information above as it ended up longer than I planned but the biggest thing to take away is that you don’t have to let joint pain rule your life

There is so much that you can do to improve your joint pain and in my experience doctors just don’t tell you about it. If you work through the above points to find the relevant ones for you I am sure your joints will improve considerably. Remember that it is not about perfection and it is ok if you are not consistent initially, the main thing is to get started and try to keep making small improvements to your lifestyle that will serve you well for the rest of your life.

I hope this was useful and if you have any feedback or suggestions please leave a comment below, good luck with your journey and I wish you pain free joints going forward

Pete