Chronic pain, aching legs, joints and muscles are no fun. I am living proof of dealing with awful achy joints when my heavy metal accumulation was sky high and muscle pains from my Lyme Disease — both were unbearable. That’s why I thought it would be a good topic to chat about today with y’all. I know many of you are suffering from muscle or joint pain because I’ve heard from you and I wanted to send you some support to help alleviate your pain. It’s important to get to the root cause of the pain and address your gut health, fibromyalgia and other issues with your Integrative MD because muscle pain/joint aches can mask themselves in many viruses (like Lyme Disease) and autoimmune diseases.
Here are a few ways to quell your achy joints and muscles, as well as how to turn off the inflammation fire in your body!
Remove Inflammatory Foods
Gluten, dairy, soy and processed foods are all inflammatory and chances are – they’re contributing to your muscle and joint aches n’ pains. Remove gluten, dairy, soy and processed foods and try the Elimination Diet to remove these inflammatory compounds that can be toxic for your body. Read my Gluten-Free How To, Dairy-Free How To, Soy-Free How To Pages for more information. If you find that eggs are problematic for you after you finish the Elimination Diet, you can use the egg substitutes on my Egg Substitute Page.
Use a Hot or Cold Compress
Try using a hot water bottle (not electric) on the areas of discomfort. If that doesn’t help, try using a cold compress of chilled washcloths or a cold water bottle on the area of pain. Pay attention to see which gives you relief and which causes more pain. This is get information to give to your doctor to understand what’s going on.
Heal Candida
Sounds crazy but the reason for my chronic muscle pain for the last 5 years was a HUGE yeast/Candida/Dysbiosis issue in my gut that I had NO idea about. Read my Candida and Dysbiosis and Leaky Gut Pages for more information.
Acupuncture
Find an acupuncturist that can work on your muscles and areas of discomfort. They are great at finding where the root cause of muscle tension/pain is coming from.
Massage & Body Work
Find a massage therapist or someone who does medical body work that can work on your muscles or areas of discomfort. Cranial Sacral and Rolfing are two techniques I tried and were helpful at relieving pain at different times with my past muscle pain issues.
Increase Omega 3s
Increase your use of fish oil, flax oil, ground flax seeds and raw walnuts (or walnut butter). Cold water fish such as salmon are also helpful. You can also work with your Integrative MD on taking a high quality fish oil supplement.
Eat High Quality Protein
Always organic animal products (eggs, poultry, meat, etc.), as well as legumes, beans, raw nuts and seeds are great sources of high quality proteins you can add into each meal.
Get High Doses of Antioxidants
This means LOTS of fresh fruits and veggies like berries, beets, carrots, kale, collard greens, spinach, etc.
Take an Epsom Salt Bath
Read my Epsom Salt Page for more information.
Test for Inflammation
What is Inflammation? Check out my Inflammation Page on ways you can lower your inflammation. You can work with your Integrative MD to test for C-Reactive Protein in a blood test, which will tell you the amount of inflammation going on in your body. Here is more information on C-Reactive Protein testing from Dr. Mark Hyman.
Detox
Your body might need to get rid of toxins that are built up in your liver, gut and other organs, which can cause muscle and joint pain. Here’s some helpful information from Dr. Mark Hyman on detoxification that is helpful in healing achy joints and muscles.
Do Light Yoga/Stretch
Yoga has helped me tremendously with my muscle pains; start doing light Vinyasa yoga and deep belly breathing.
Meditate
Read my Mediation Page for more information.
Lower Stress
Read my Stress Page for more information.
xo
