We’ve all experienced sore or achy muscles and bones at one point or another. For instance, maybe you’ve come home from a long day of work and your body just aches all over. Or maybe you’re more used to sporadic body aches that target one or more body parts with some amount of specificity. Either way, body aches seem to be a normal part of the human condition.
But while everyone experiences body aches at some point, you don’t have to sit back and accept them. Instead, there are lots of ways you can get rid of body aches naturally instead of relying on medication and popping pills over and over. Not only is the latter method dangerous, but it’s also irresponsible.
Let’s break down the best ways to naturally get rid of body aches.
Where Do Body Aches Come From?
If you have body aches, you’ll be comforted to know that every human on the planet experiences them sooner or later. But this also means that your body aches could be coming from any number of sources. While most of these are relatively easy to treat and essentially harmless, some of them are indicative of serious medical conditions or long-term issues.
Infections and Viruses
Many people experience temporary muscle aches when they become infected with a virus or cold. The flu or the common cold are arguably the two most common causes of body aches. You get aches since your immune system is sending white blood cells to combat the infection, which causes your muscles to inflame. This, in turn, causes the achy and stiff feeling you’re probably familiar with.
Fibromyalgia
A more serious example of body aches arises from fibromyalgia, which is a long-term condition that causes regular pains and achy symptoms throughout your body. Sometimes, fibromyalgia can change how your central nervous system sends or processes various pain messages whenever they occur.
If you think fibromyalgia is the source of your body aches, be sure to consult with a doctor.
Some Medications
Certain medications can also cause body aches, especially if they affect your blood pressure. Some blood pressure medications can cause your muscles to inflame or change how your blood vessels flex throughout the body, leading to achiness or stiffness.
Furthermore, certain medications designed to treat withdrawal symptoms from drugs and alcohol can have similar effects. Be sure to ask your doctor if you only experienced body aches after starting a certain type of medication.
Bad Posture
If you have bad posture, you might experience regular body aches. The reason for this is fairly obvious: your weight is being distributed in a way not designed for your skeletal system. For instance, if you slouch when you stand, a lot of your weight is placed on your lower back and your neck may be bent forward, particularly if you’re a tall man.
Later in life, your body might ache due to years of standing this way, leading to the slight curvature of the spine and muscle discomfort. Thus, correcting bad posture is one of the best ways to avoid long-term body aches in the future.
Joint and Bone Pain
Similarly, you could be experiencing joint and bone pain, leading to body aches. Many joint and bone pain-related issues are categorized as a type of arthritis. For example, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when your immune system attacks your own joint tissue by misidentifying the tissue as an intruder. Osteoarthritis occurs when your bone mass is too weak to adequately support your muscles and other tissues.
Either way, joint and bone pain should be treated regularly and quickly. Furthermore, preventative measures, like making sure you consume enough vitamin D and Omega 3, should be undertaken to make sure you don’t experience too much joint and bone pain as you grow older.
Stress
Stress is one of the lesser-known but still serious conditions that can affect your bodily health across the board. It can also lead to lots of muscle aches.
When you’re either consciously or subconsciously stressed, your muscles may constantly contract, even if you aren’t aware of it. In fact, your muscles could contract in such a way that you don’t even realize you’re flexing certain muscles across your body until you sit down and relax, releasing the tension and leading to a series of sweeping arches that spread from your head to toes.
It’s this kind of body ache condition that lots of people who work stressful jobs are familiar with. Lowering your stress levels and conditioning yourself to be less stressed is the best way to avoid or deal with these kinds of body aches.
Lack of Sleep
Lastly, you might also be experiencing lots of body aches due to a lack of sufficient or deep sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll be more stressed during the day, leading to the above symptoms. But you can also interrupt your body’s natural muscle building and reparative processes, leading to real physical pain throughout the day.
There are, of course, more things than these that can cause body aches. But the above causes are the main culprits.
Ways to Naturally Get Rid of Body Aches
Exercise
Exercise is one of the best ways to get rid of body aches, provided the aches aren’t too restricting. That’s because exercise can soothe away stress and helps your body lower its levels of cortisol: the primary stress hormone that’s responsible for long-term or chronic stress.
Plus, exercise strengthens your muscles and bones, making joint and bone pain less likely overall. As you gain strength, you’ll feel more confident, less stressed, and less likely to develop conditions like osteoporosis.
Try our exercise routines found in the Livingood Daily Book. By following the guide here, you’ll be supported in your journey toward better health and a stronger body.
Eat More Fiber
There’s some research to suggest that eating more fiber can actually help with certain types of body aches, at least if they are related to osteoarthritis pain. If you eat more fiber, your body will produce more short-chain fatty acids, which can help balance the microbiome in your digestive tract. Certain short-chain fatty acids can also act as anti-inflammatory agents, lowering the likelihood of muscle ache symptoms.
Sleep Well and Long Enough
It is, of course, critical that you sleep well and long enough every night. To do this, try to go to bed at the same time every night to train your mind and body for slumber. If you have trouble getting to sleep at night, try Livingood Daily Calm with lemon balm, and to help you get your full night of uninterrupted sleep, try Livingood Daily De Stress. You should also avoid looking at an electronic screen for about an hour before bed, as most electronic devices emit a type of blue-shifted light that can trick your brain into thinking that it’s still daytime.
Apply Heat to Aching Joints
If you have targeted or stress-related aches, try warming up your aching muscles or joints to easier discomfort. By warming up the aching part of your body, you’ll increase the blood flow to those affected muscles and loosen any stiff joints.
The heat also does a good job of distracting your brain from pain. You can make your own natural heat therapy tool by warming up a hot water bottle or by taking a hot bath.
Consume Vitamin C and Other Antioxidants
We’d also recommend you consume plenty of vitamin C and other antioxidants. Antioxidants are key anti-inflammatory compounds that can reduce free radical damage. This means that they reduce inflammation and protect your cells so they can stay healthy and function as they should.
Fortunately, you can get vitamin C and lots of other antioxidants through consuming certain foods or by taking regular vitamins, like Livingood Daily’s Multivitamin. Or, for a more direct dose of vitamin C, try out our Vitamin C supplement, which contains over 2500 mg of the vital nutrient.
Stay Limber
Another great way to get rid of body aches naturally is to stay limber. Try to stretch every morning before work, and work on your posture so that your limbs remain flexible and your body is able to twist and stretch appropriately. This can help prevent your joints from becoming stiff and immobile, and lead to a lesser likelihood of developing bone and joint conditions.
Meditate and Reduce Your Stress
Lastly, you might consider reducing your stress by undertaking meditation or other stress-reducing hobbies and habits. It ultimately doesn’t matter what you do – just do something to help bleed away the cortisol and give your brain something happy and relaxing to think about.
Avoid OTC Medications
Instead of taking over-the-counter medications, use Omega 3s with turmeric to naturally reduce your pain and inflammation at the same rate a toxic aspirin would. Not only will you reduce your pain without all of the harmful side effects but you’ll be supporting your heart, brain, and immune health with high-quality omega-3 fatty acids!
Summary
Dealing with body aches can be a real pain. But there are tons of things you can do aside from just taking more ibuprofen.
We’d recommend focusing on natural solutions as much as you can since this prevents medication dependency and will help you adopt habits that lead to a healthier overall lifestyle.
Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6880506/
https://www.arthritis-health.com/blog/11-ways-relieve-pain-naturally
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319985#possible-causes-of-body-aches
