Why do many people feel pain all over their body after the age of 50? Doctors explain the reason

Many women feel pain all over their body after they turn 50. They treat the headache by treating the head and the foot pain by treating the foot, but the more they treat, the more painful the area becomes.

Women are indeed born to be prone to body aches, but they can’t figure out what’s wrong with the aches?

Pay more attention to physical and mental changes.

Menopause, osteoporosis, body pain

"No one hurts me, but I feel pain everywhere!" Qin Lan is 51 years old. She has felt uncomfortable all over since menopause. Today, my waist hurts, tomorrow, my knees hurt, and my back hurts as if I am carrying a big stone slab. She also suffers from tendinitis and tenosynovitis frequently. She went to the hospital to check her bone density and found that it was caused by osteoporosis.

Xie Xinhui, chief physician of orthopedics at Jixi Jikuang Hospital in Heilongjiang Province:

In the outpatient clinic, I have met many women of this age group, and pain all over the body is very common. There are two main reasons for this:

One is the age factor. Aging is a process that humans must go through. When we are young, we work too hard, endure too much fatigue, and suffer some injuries. As time accumulates, problems begin to emerge.

The second is hormonal changes. Women will face menopause at the age of 45 to 55, and estrogen will drop precipitously. Estrogen plays an important role in maintaining bone health, resisting inflammation in the body, and repairing injuries. This is equivalent to a layer of protection for women before menopause. After menopause, the protection becomes increasingly fragile, and problems will appear.

Women are very likely to lose bone mass during menopause due to the precipitous drop in estrogen levels. A 10% decrease in bone mass will cause significant pain, and when the bone mass decreases by more than 20%, there is a risk of fracture. Osteoporosis-induced back pain in women is easily ignored.

If the above situation occurs, it is recommended to go to the hospital for dual-energy X-ray examination, which is the gold standard for diagnosing osteopenia or osteoporosis. If osteoporosis is diagnosed, it is recommended to take bone resorption inhibitors appropriately with the help of a doctor, and also strengthen bone formation, and you can take active vitamin D orally. At the same time, we should also pay attention to some details in life, such as doing appropriate weight-bearing exercise, paying attention to a high-calcium diet, and paying attention to sun exposure.

If the pain is really unbearable, you can take some analgesics orally. It is not recommended to take it for a long time, otherwise it will cause certain irritation to the cardiovascular system and gastric mucosa. You can also consider some physical therapy.

Stress, fibromyalgia symptoms, body pain

Wang Ju, 48, was laid off by her company. She often felt pain all over her body at home for more than a year. She was examined by orthopedics and neurology departments, but the cause of her illness could not be found. She also suffered from insomnia. Later, the doctor recommended her to see a rheumatologist or pain doctor, and she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome.

Feng Zhiying, chief physician of the Pain Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine:

Fibromyalgia syndrome is more common in adult women, and most patients have typical diffuse body pain that lasts for more than 3 months.

According to the American Rheumatology Association, fibromyalgia syndrome is the third most common rheumatic disease after osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The incidence rate in women is much higher than that in men, and the average age of patients is 49 years old.

The symptoms of fibromyalgia syndrome are mainly muscle pain in multiple parts of the body, often accompanied by skin tenderness, which can be mild or severe. More than half of patients will experience insomnia, dreaminess, lack of energy, severe fatigue and other symptoms. Because blood tests, electromyography and other indicators of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome are generally normal, it is easy to miss or misdiagnose.

If this disease is not treated actively, it may accompany the patient for life. Fibromyalgia syndrome requires comprehensive treatment, and medications need to be taken on time to relieve symptoms. Physical therapy such as shock waves can relieve pain, and outdoor activities in the sun can improve the patient's condition. At the same time, the understanding and support of family members are also important. After the pain symptoms are gradually relieved and sleep treatment is improved, the medication can be gradually and slowly reduced until it is stopped.

In clinical practice, such patients often face great psychological and life pressure. Once their mentality improves, their symptoms will be greatly relieved. Therefore, patients can engage in more social and outdoor activities to distract their attention and relax their minds.

Always anxious, depressed and in pain all over

Zhao Rong, 55, is an accountant in a state-owned enterprise. In the two years since his retirement, his neck, shoulder, waist and back pain have become more severe. He thought it was caused by fatigue, so he did massage, acupuncture and physical therapy, but the pain was not relieved significantly. He thought it was related to menopause, and his hormone levels were normal. Later, he went to the Department of Psychology and was diagnosed with moderate depression.

Bao Feng, Director of the Geriatric Ward at Beijing Anding Hospital:

Unlike young people, more than 80% of elderly patients with depression clinically present with physical manifestations. Women are relatively sensitive and more prone to anxiety and depression.

Some elderly people feel a lot of discomfort in their bodies, often with headaches at first, which then gradually develop into back pain, body pain, panic, palpitations, anorexia, abdominal distension, sweating, hot and cold sensations, etc., but objective examinations cannot find corresponding organic diseases. If there are such problems, they are actually manifestations of depression.

The fundamental way to treat this type of pain is to first treat the depression. As the depression improves, the pain will gradually disappear.

Because depression is prone to recurring, the treatment of depression generally requires three stages.

Acute phase treatment: 6 to 8 weeks, the goal is to control symptoms and achieve clinical cure as much as possible.

Recovery period treatment: 4 to 6 months. During this period, the patient's condition is prone to fluctuate. In principle, the drugs and dosages used for acute phase treatment should continue to be used in order to consolidate the therapeutic effect.

Maintenance treatment: maintenance treatment dose or slightly reduced dose. The current consensus is that maintenance treatment for the first depressive episode is 6 to 8 months, and patients with more than two relapses should receive long-term maintenance treatment in order to prevent relapse.

In addition to drug treatment, family members should also pay attention to the principle of caring for the elderly with depression. They should ensure that the elderly have enough food and clothing, feel less lonely, have someone to rely on, and live a fulfilling life. They should encourage the elderly to do some housework within their ability to make them feel valuable, and encourage them to have their own interests and hobbies to avoid being isolated from society.

Taking care of the kids makes me so tired and painful

Li Mei, 63, lives with her son and daughter for half a year each year, taking turns to take care of their children. She didn't feel any problem in the past few years, but in the past two years, she felt that her body couldn't take it, with back pain and pain all over her body. She was afraid that her children would worry, so she endured it until she sprained her waist recently, then went to the hospital.

Zhu Yuqi, chief physician of orthopedics at the Eye Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences:

Back and leg pain caused by taking care of children is common in outpatient clinics.

In families with children, the waist of adults is often the most vulnerable to injury. Many patients with back pain are caused by improper posture when carrying children. Especially for the elderly, most of them have problems with waist and legs, and their wrists and legs are not strong enough. They can only bend over and rely on the strength of turning their waists to hold their children. This is particularly prone to muscle and ligament sprains, intervertebral disc herniation and soft tissue damage.

The correct posture for holding a child is for the adult to squat on one knee first, hold the child, and then stand up straight. You can also go to a baby supplies store to buy a special operating table to avoid bending over.

In addition to physical fatigue, the psychological problems that the elderly encounter when taking care of children should also be paid attention to. Many cases of depression caused by taking care of children in the elderly are hidden.

The symptoms of this latent depression are not very obvious, and the bad mood cannot be seen, but instead there are persistent fatigue, unexplained weight loss, sleep rhythm disorders, poor appetite, headaches, decreased concentration and memory, pain in the waist and legs, etc. Therefore, many elderly people only emphasize that they feel tired, thin, poor sleep and other discomforts when they see a doctor, and deny that they have depression.

These patients have obvious somatization disorders, which mask the symptoms of their emotional and volitional activities. Therefore, many people go to various departments of major hospitals and undergo various examinations, but the results show that they are not sick.

Reviewer of this article: Chen Haixu, Deputy Director and Master Supervisor of the Second Medical Center of PLA General Hospital

Source: Health Times (ID: jksb2013)

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