Thread: sore joints et al.

I have lived a rather rigorous life. My occupations have always been physical and I have often had to push myself beyond my physical capabilities. This of course has taken its toll on my joints. I notice the pain when I slow down but at work the pain disappears so that when I need to push myself I don't notice the pain but my knees are getting worse and if I lay on my right shoulder just right while sleeping I wake up screaming...I have learned to stay on my left side while sleeping. To summarize my pains: my left ankle, left and right knee and also the tendon behind my left knee, both elbows, my right shoulder, sometimes my right ( or is it left? ) hip and sometimes I get an odd pain in my back bone.

Getting old and having to pay for my younger years is a bitch but yet I still push myself when needed and the thought of a desk job literally makes me sick to my stomach so I ask all you out in SRP land, what do you do to deal with your pains when you have no choice but to keep going? A friend of mine advised fish oil but there are so many brands on the market place. I have also heard that glucosimine (sp?) is a good product for joint troubles but again, so many brands. Home remedies, pharmaceuticals, whatever, just tell me how you manage. I have never been one to take pills for pain and will not likely start, what I am looking for however is something that will help my joints heal so that the pain will subside because there is no reason for the pain but not because I numbed the pain. Keep in mind, I am not a rich man so surgery and expensive physical therapy are likely out of the question.


I am surprised my hands don't hurt compared to the rest of my body as they have seen more action than all my other body parts.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Massage can help alot, especially with back pain. Fish oils are good, as are hot showers and baths.

TBH though, pain is your bodys way of telling you somethings not right and the only way to alleviate the problem long term is to give the body time to recover. Supplements, physio and drugs can help you keep going longer and mask/reduce the pain, but ultimately the problem will still be there and it wont stop until you let your body heal.

Originally Posted by Stubear

Massage can help alot, especially with back pain. Fish oils are good, as are hot showers and baths.

TBH though, pain is your bodys way of telling you somethings not right and the only way to alleviate the problem long term is to give the body time to recover. Supplements, physio and drugs can help you keep going longer and mask/reduce the pain, but ultimately the problem will still be there and it wont stop until you let your body heal.

We are in agreement which is why I pointed out that I wanted something to help in the healing instead of just hiding the pain...Jeez Stubear, you should learn to pay closer attention

Hehe! Hey, I mentioned massage and hot baths..!

Are you using any artificial sweetner? I used to use nutrasweet and had terrible joint pain. Once I stopped using the sweetner and diet sodas the pain didn't just get better, it went away. Completely. Gone.

I now drink lots of water and use natural sugar for my coffee.

That stuff is poison!

Well if it only hurts when you slow down...Don't bloody slow down ya lazy sod...
Fish oil and massage...Glucosimine is good while you take it but doesn't do you any good healing wise from what I've heard. Stretching and limbering exercise is a good thing. I had some of your issues too, and a light stretching routine daily, really sorted out some issues that I had. Would probably solve some of them if I wasn't so damn lazy about it too.


Mick

I just remembered another thing that might make a difference. Do you have any of the silvery metal fillings in your teeth? Those have mercury in them and can lead to joint pain.

My dad had terrible arthritis for years and as soon as the dentist changed his fillings over to the white ceramic ones and right away the joint pain cleared up.

That might be something to look into..!

Just two things to suggest:

1. Strength training. If you start slow (this is key), you can often develop the muscles around a problem joint so that they stabilize/support it. This has made a world of difference for my father, who basically destroyed the cartilage in his shoulder after years of playing competitive tennis. He literally can't lift his elbow above his shoulder, but he can now do everything else with it pain-free.

2. Warming up muscles and joints before stressing them. Seems obvious, but when someone says "hey, come give me a hand with this", it can feel a little silly to stop and spend several minutes doing knee bends and swinging one's arms around. A lot of people refuse to do it, and those are the sore people.

All the above is good advice. However, there is no amount of massage that will help with osteo-arthritis in the knee (5 knee surgeries here). Spas provide some good relief because of the deep penetration of the heat. I have to use ibuprofin to help with the inflamation. If, in fact, you do have osteo-arthritis, the problem you have is not strucutural in nature (i.e., no ligament damage, torn meniscus, etc...). Go see a doc to find out what the real issue(s) is/are so you can best treat it (them). Going on everyone's advice here doesn't address the central problem(s) you have.

I've had a lot of experience with what you're describing Mark. Twenty years of ironwork beat me up pretty good. Anyhow, stretching exercises found here helped me a lot and continue to help. What Northpaw said about strength training (free weights) also helps greatly. As Stu said, deep tissue massage, by a practitioner who knows the trigger points, is also great if you can afford it.

In my younger days, when I was ironworking, I took a lot of ibuprofen , naprosyn and other anti inflammatory drugs. Ate them like popcorn at times just to keep working. This has led to liver damage and I can't take them anymore and have to rely on the stretching, exercise and massage to see me through.

I had good results with glucosamine. There is a company called Enzymatic Therapy that was a pioneer in that stuff and has a patented formula. It is a few bucks more but when I take it that is the one I buy. The fish oil I take , when I take it , is Carlson's. Imported from Norway, it is the real McCoy.