Something you notice as the years stack on is that there always seems to be something new going on with your body. Unfortunately this something new isn’t usually an improvement.
Pain management is just something you have to deal with as you age. You may notice that your joints ache at times. While participating in activities your knees may hurt. Or maybe you wake up with a stiff neck or your back hurts from too much sitting in front of a computer.
Even for sporting activities that you used to do with ease, it now takes several days for your muscles, ligaments, and tendons to recover from the activity. Tightness and soreness are just part of the game now.
But rather than throw in the towel and give up your favorite activities, there are things you can do. Keeping your body in shape with weight bearing resistance training as discussed in the Fitness section is one of the best things to keep your aging ligaments and tendons from getting less flexible. Stretching also becomes more and more important every year you add on.
And of course there are orthopedic supports, shoe inserts, and other sorts of devices that you may have not once needed, but now they can give your body a little extra help it needs.
Below are some of the most common pain points in an aging body.
Back Pain
Gravity is not a friend to your back. It’s constantly pulling your body down and putting pressure on your spinal discs.
However, sitting for long hours is the worst offender for backs for most people who haven’t experienced some sort of injury to the back. And it’s probably not just the sitting but leaning forward with your shoulders hunched forward that is the worst part of sitting.
Most people are now either sitting in front of a computer or staring at their smartphones and all this screen time is causing poor posture. That poor posture is causing back pain or neck pain. Fortunately there are ways to improve your posture.
Of course there are also injuries to the back that we may not have control over so we can try to address these through exercise orthopedic supports to try and avoid surgery.
Joint Pain
There are dozens of reasons your joints can hurt. Sprains, tendinitis, dislocation, and arthritis are just a few. Once again physical therapy, exercise, and stretching can help here. There are also joint supplements that help some people.
Applying heat to the joint may help if the pain is caused by muscle spasms around the joints. Applying a cold therapy wrap may help if the problem is caused by inflammation.
Neck Pain
The same computer and smartphone usage that is causing back pain also causes neck pain. Your head is actually quite heavy and when your neck leans forward for hours on end your neck simply can’t support that weight.
To solve this problem you have to develop new habits with your screen time. There are neck-training devices to help you with this if need be.
Knee Pain
The poor knees take a lot of abuse. If you are the active type that likes sports, injury is quite common. Twisting, turning, and making fast and sudden moves can strain or tear ligaments and tendons.
If you are overweight you need to know that every pound of excess weight exerts about 4 pounds of extra pressure on the knees. For example, a person who is 10 pounds overweight has 40 pounds of extra pressure on his knees. That’s a lot of extra pressure your already heavily used knees don’t need.
Strengthening the muscles around the knee and using knee braces during activity will help reduce pain.
Foot Pain
Just like joint pain there are dozens of reasons for foot pain and you’ll likely need a doctor to diagnose the problem.
Plantar fasciitis, bunions, Achilles tendon injuries, bursitis, and Morton’s neuroma are some of the problems. Massage rollers, cold therapy wraps, pain relieving foot cream, metatarsal pads, arch supports are some of the things that can help.
Here at Verve2o we have personal experience with lots of these issues so we review solutions for all of them.