Joint Pain After 40: Why Are My Joints Hurting?

Maybe it started with your knees, then your hips, or your low back, or your shoulders.  You're not doing anything dramatically different, so why are you suddenly dealing with aches, stiffness and pain?  Are you experiencing stiffness when you first get up, your knees start aching on stairs?

Look Beyond the Pain

Pain is a message.  Pain is an early warning sign.  Pain tells us that something is out of balance, or your body is missing something, or has something it shouldn’t have.  The key question in situations of pain is “what is the precipitating cause?”   About a year ago, I sprained a knee.  As someone who is an active outdoorsman, gardener and martial artist, this was frustrating.  As a natural healer who is well versed in physical, hands on healing, energy medicine, herbal medicines, homeopathy and nutrition, I have successfully treated myself many times from other injuries.  That time, however, my healing progress stagnated.  No matter how much I treated it or what type of remedies I used, it failed to improve. I’ll have more to say about this knee a little later in this blog.

So, What Causes Your Pain?

There can be a variety of triggers for pain. In the case of my knee, it was stepping awkwardly into an unseen hole. Arthritis can be osteo or rheumatoid – “wear and tear” of aggravations by toxins and/or infectious organisms.  Aging may cause decrease in muscle, tendon or ligament strength, which is often compounded by nutritional deficiencies.  Pain in internal organs can

The location of the pain is important—but so is understanding the bigger picture.  Nutrition, inflammation, physical activity, body mechanics, injuries, stress and other factors can all influence how your body feels.  This is why simply trying to silence pain without understanding contributing factors may not give you the long-term answers you're looking for.  Dr. Cage can help you with a proper evaluation of your symptoms and lifestyle and develop a plan to correct those root causes.

Movement Still Matters

When something hurts, your first instinct may be to stop moving.  Sometimes that makes sense—especially with an acute injury.  But over time, avoiding movement altogether can contribute to stiffness and loss of strength.  Dr. Cage’s system of physical manipulation of bones, ligaments and tendons – called HSIF, the Human Structural Integrity Field Method of Kinesiological Physiotherapy – is a very gentle, non-force technique which can greatly accelerate your healing.

Does Age Matter?

The short answer is “Yes, No and Maybe”.  There is one aspect of aging that left uncorrected, can greatly inhibit your ability to heal.  That is your percentage of active stem cells.  Stem cells are your body’s natural repair mechanism.  After about age 30, 50% of your stem cells have become dormant, in other words, non-functional.  By age 60, the dormant rate is up to 90%.  This was the key last year to my knee’s inability to heal.  As soon as I started the X-39 Lifewave stem cell patches, however, my pain disappeared quickly, by month 3 my strength was returning, and by month 6, my knee was back to normal.  I’ve been able to return to hiking, martial arts, gardening and all my various activities.  Based on this personal experience, I am of the opinion that anyone dealing with acute or chronic musculoskeletal injuries needs to be using the X-39 stem cell patches.  Please call my office to get started.

At Dr Cage Wellness Clinic, we take a naturopathic approach that considers the whole person.

If you're tired of simply managing discomfort and want to understand your health from a broader perspective, let's talk.

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