Joint pain is undoubtedly one of the most common medical conditions out there. While most of the people associate it with old age, the truth is that there is no such thing as “the age at which muscle or joint pain appears”.
As a matter of fact, people from all walks of life and people of all ages (from toddlers to seniors) can suffer from such a chronic pain.
Muscle and Joint Pain: The Causes
If you want to understand how to cope with muscle and joint pain, then you will also have to understand the causes that may lead to the development of such a condition.
There are many, many medical conditions that can be the cause for joint pain and before you start treating yourself you should understand exactly how they lead to this common symptom.
Arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are definitely among the most frequent causes for joint pain. Both of these diseases are related to the joints themselves, but the main difference between them is that the second one is an auto-immune disease.
Further on, both of them are very frequently associated with another auto-immune medical condition, the Celiac Disease.
Fibromyalgia is also associated with joint pain and although the causes that lead to its development are very confusing even for the medical world, the truth is that the syndrome can be managed.
As you will later on see, diet can play a major role in how patients with fibro can ameliorate their symptoms.
There are a lot of other potential reasons for which joint pain can appear (including injuries, tendonitis and so on), but in most of the cases a healthy diet will be something that cannot harm you, but actually help. Read on and find out more.
Your Pain is What You Eat: Foods to Avoid When Suffering from Muscle and Joint Pain
Although to some of you there may be absolutely no correlation between diet and bones or muscles, everybody out there should know that the food ingested can and will influence every single part of your body: starting with the brain and going down to the tip of your toes.
As mentioned before, joint pain can appear as the result of various medical conditions and it is important to know this because you will want to know which those foods are that you need to avoid if you want to relieve yourself from pain and start feeling better.
For example, if your joint pain has been caused by arthritis, you should know that everything that can make you put on weight should be avoided completely.
Putting on weight means putting pressure on your joints and you do not want that when you are in pain.
Thus, avoid any kind of fried foods, junk foods, processed foods, and so on. Furthermore, all these types of foods, refined sugars, dairy products and excessively salty products can also lead to an inflammation and that is something you do not want either, especially taking into consideration the fact that arthritis is an inflammatory disease.
If your joint pain is caused by arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis and you have also been diagnosed with the Celiac Disease, then you should avoid as much as possible any kind of food that contains gluten. Even the smallest amount of it can get you back in pain.
Furthermore, do bear in mind that you may be ingesting gluten without even knowing it and that is because a lot of the so-called “gluten-free” products out there actually do contain a small amount of gluten.
If you know for sure that you do not eat foods with gluten, but that you do eat “gluten-free” labeled products and your pain has gotten worse, then you should cut back on these as well.
If your muscle or joint pain was initially caused by fibromyalgia, then you should know that a healthy diet can help you a lot.
Fibro is a terrible medical condition and the only way to make it better is to change your life style, which includes a healthier diet.
Stay away from any kind of food that can irritate your bowels (especially if you have also been diagnosed with co-morbid irritable bowel syndrome).
Stay away from coffee, tea and anything that contains caffeine because this will make your sleep issues worsen.
Stay away from sugary products as well, because they can irritate you. Instead, focus on fatty fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables – all these things can energize you in a good way and they can actually change your mood!
