From over-training, to general stress & anxiety, muscle pain & joint pain are increasingly common complaints. Pain can be a direct cause of depression and anxiety, but equally mental health issues including stress, can be the cause of the pain. Whatever the source, physical pain and mental health seem to have a direct association.
Whether you want to improve your recovery from MMA sessions or just be free of pain, hopefully this blog post will help.
We look at the causes of muscle tension and how you can tackle each one.
For informational purposes only
Inflammation
Often a symptom of an underlying issue or just a poor diet, inflammation can cause havoc in your body and a lot of pain.
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- Eat plenty of fish oil, high in EPA
- Eat a teaspoon of turmeric with black pepper each day
- Avoid vegetable oils – especially when frying
- Tart cherries and cherry juice is a strong ant-inflammatory
- Avoid sugar like the plague
- Avoid dairy*
*The impact of dairy on health is a controversial one, but for me giving up dairy literally changed my life in terms of joint pain, and IBS.
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Cortisol
Stress causes cortisol levels to rise in the body which can cause muscle tension, pain and tiredness.
To reduce levels of pain & cortisol
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- Consume an adaptogen*
- Meditate 10 mins per day
- Supplement with Phosphatidylserine**
*Adoptogens include ginseng, rhodiola rosea, ashwagandha and cordycep mushroom. They help to maintain the body’s optimum state in terms of stress and the balance of certain hormones
Image Source – https://draxe.com/7-adaptogen-herbs-to-lower-cortisol/
**Phosphatidylserine reduces cortisol and improves focus.
Muscle Tension
Another cause of pain can be muscle tension. This can be caused by medication, sitting down all day at a desk job or by just being stressed out in general.Magnesium supplementation is the most direct way to treat muscle-tension.
- Try Magnesium glycinate in the evenings
- Supplement with cbd oil
- Consider using kratom or kava kava if legal in your state/country
- Yoga
- Foam Roller
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Acidity
A more controversial idea, is that acidity can cause muscle pain, as well as health problems.
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- Consume 5g of baking soda, twice a day, ‘away from’ meals
- Consume alkalising foods like green leafy vegetables
- Avoid ‘acid producing’ foods such as dairy
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nom noms alkaline goodness
Gut Health
Gut health is everything!
If you have gut problems, leaky gut or gut inflammation – you are likely to get ‘whole body’ systemic inflammation.
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- Consume a probiotic such as VSL3
- Eat gelatine to protect the stomach’s mucosal lining
- Consider the FODMAP diet for IBS
- Consider CBD / Cannabis for gut inflammation
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See our gut health blog post for more information.
Allergies
I still get really bad joint pain – whenever anything triggers my allergies. Not a huge amount you can do about this – except for taking an anti-histamine.
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- Try nettle tablets or nettle tea
- Try rosemary tablets or rosemary tea
I would recommend avoiding the use of drugs like ibuprofen, as they can damage the stomach lining and the kidneys.
One final thing to mention for pain is sauna use. There is a growing amount of research on the health benefits, and pain fighting abilities from saunas. More info here.
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