Globalti
Legendary Member
As you enter your 50s and 60s the poor old body begins to protest under the strains of life and odd aches and pains begin to manifest themselves. Many are caused by sudden trauma such as the back muscle that goes into spasm after you lift something awkwardly and those usually go away after a couple of days. But it's taken me a while to understand that those other longer-lasting aches and pains can be caused by my habits.
For example: For a few years now I've been troubled by a vague deep aching pain around my left hip joint, especially around the posterior of the hip towards the gluteal area. Recently I realised that while sitting I'm in the habit of rocking to the left and that hip joint is perfectly placed to press down hard on the seat. I've been trying to sit straight so that my weight is taken equally by the muscular part of both thighs and I've begun rubbing in some Ibuprofen gel before going to bed. The result? The niggling deep ache has almost disappeared. Quite a relief.
Another example: I've got chronic soreness in the ball of my left foot, which hurts when I'm cycling. From the web I think it's called metatarsalgia, a general term for pain in this area. Been puzzling about this one for a while, wondering why it's completely confined to the left foot then this morning the penny dropped: twice or thrice a day I scoop food into the cats' bowls and to do so I sort of genuflect, taking most of my weight on my left knee and bending the toes of my left foot sharply forwards. It's undoubtedly this, which is causing the chronic pain exactly under the forward part of the ball of my foot. Another change of habit required. The body can't put up with abuse in the form of bad position as it ages.
Generally I find that odd aches and sprains respond very quickly to Ibuprofen gel, which is surprising as I find it hard to believe that the molecule can penetrate the skin and reach underlying tissue so easily, but the instructions do warn you not to use it topically and take it orally at the same time. Taken orally I find it works well including as an anti-inflammatory for mild bronchitis but it does constipate me badly.
What I'm trying to explain is that it's habits that are actually causing the problems and you need to think carefully about those habits, even though you may think you lead a healthy lifestyle. Hope this is of interest to chronic sufferers of unexplained aches.
For example: For a few years now I've been troubled by a vague deep aching pain around my left hip joint, especially around the posterior of the hip towards the gluteal area. Recently I realised that while sitting I'm in the habit of rocking to the left and that hip joint is perfectly placed to press down hard on the seat. I've been trying to sit straight so that my weight is taken equally by the muscular part of both thighs and I've begun rubbing in some Ibuprofen gel before going to bed. The result? The niggling deep ache has almost disappeared. Quite a relief.
Another example: I've got chronic soreness in the ball of my left foot, which hurts when I'm cycling. From the web I think it's called metatarsalgia, a general term for pain in this area. Been puzzling about this one for a while, wondering why it's completely confined to the left foot then this morning the penny dropped: twice or thrice a day I scoop food into the cats' bowls and to do so I sort of genuflect, taking most of my weight on my left knee and bending the toes of my left foot sharply forwards. It's undoubtedly this, which is causing the chronic pain exactly under the forward part of the ball of my foot. Another change of habit required. The body can't put up with abuse in the form of bad position as it ages.
Generally I find that odd aches and sprains respond very quickly to Ibuprofen gel, which is surprising as I find it hard to believe that the molecule can penetrate the skin and reach underlying tissue so easily, but the instructions do warn you not to use it topically and take it orally at the same time. Taken orally I find it works well including as an anti-inflammatory for mild bronchitis but it does constipate me badly.
What I'm trying to explain is that it's habits that are actually causing the problems and you need to think carefully about those habits, even though you may think you lead a healthy lifestyle. Hope this is of interest to chronic sufferers of unexplained aches.
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