Aching muscles and sore joints can plague someone whether they are 25, 45, or 75. Aches and pains can develop for a variety of reasons – exercise, chronic illness, injury and more. When they occur the severity can vary significantly between a dull annoyance and debilitating pain. While your first instinct may be to reach for the aspirin or ibuprofen, or perhaps something even stronger, a prescription pain killer, it is not the best choice. Though any of those may mask the pain, they will not address the root of the problem, the source of the pain or discomfort. Further, things like aspirin or ibuprofen are not ideal for long term use and prescriptions can become addictive. If you suffer from muscle aches or joint pain, the first thing you should do is speak to your naturopathic doctor to begin examining your body’s health and wellbeing so that you can address the source of muscle aches and joint pain.
First, let’s take a closer look at joint pain. WebMD provides a helpful and informative description of joint pain, as well as an explanation of what may cause joint pain, “Many different conditions can lead to painful joints, includingosteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis, gout, strains, sprains, and other injuries. Joint pain is extremely common. In one national survey, about one-third of adults reported having joint pain within the past 30 days. Knee pain was the most common complaint, followed by shoulderand hip pain, but joint pain can affect any part of your body, from yourankles and feet to your shoulders and hands.” Muscle aches are also common and may arise from time to time due to injury, illness or from use during exercise. But, muscle aches can also occur from nutritional deficiencies or other underlying issues. A deficiency of Vitamin B-12, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin D, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, or Potassium could all lead to muscle aches or soreness. Naturopathic doctors are interested in whole-body health and this holistic approach to healing will begin with a complete health assessment. To help manage the pain, naturopathic physicians may implement a number of treatment options including herbal medicine, nutritional supplements, physical medicine such as spinal manipulation such as Naturopathic Manipulative Therapy (NMT), chiropractic adjustments, changes to nutrition or diet, oriental medicine including acupuncture or acupressure, nutritional intravenous therapies and therapeutic injections containing vitamins, minerals and amino acids, homeopathic medicine, minor surgery and more. When you experience muscle aches and joint pain, speak to a naturopathic doctor so that they can look at the cause of muscle aches and joint pain, not just the effect and get to the root of the problem to help not just mask the pain, but mitigate its symptoms or heal the problem altogether.