As we get older, I keep hearing the phrase “Getting old is not for wimps”. You can be the most diligent person on earth with eating healthy, taking appropriate supplements, fitness activities, etc. but……you can’t stop the aging process.
One issue is arthritis. As time goes on, joints and cartilage slowly break down. The rate is determined by genetics, general health, and activity level. There is no cure for arthritis; just medications to relieve pain and swelling.
Before you do anything for this, you need to research and understand what may be beneficial. If you go to a healthcare provider, ask questions! Don’t just say OK to whatever they want to do. It is YOUR body!
Ever heard the phrase, “What a pain in the neck”? Well, some people really DO have a pain in the neck! The root cause can be many things, but as we age chronologically, so do our bodies. Here are common age-related issues:
Key Pathologies:
Cervical Spondylosis: General term for age-related degeneration of neck discs, often with bone spur formation, affecting over 85% of people over 60.
Degenerative Disc Disease: Discs lose hydration, shrink, and break down, reducing cushioning.
Spinal Stenosis: Narrowing of the spinal canal, putting pressure on the spinal cord or nerves.
Cervical Myelopathy: Spinal cord compression, leading to weakness, clumsiness in hands, and gait issues, often from disc/bone spurs.
Cervical Radiculopathy: Nerve root compression causing pain, tingling, or numbness down the arms.
Facet Joint Arthritis: Inflammation and degeneration in the small joints at the back of the spine.
Spondylolisthesis: One vertebra slips forward over another.
Common Symptoms:
- Neck pain, stiffness, muscle spasms.
- Numbness, tingling, weakness in arms, hands, or legs.
- Headaches, dizziness, balance issues, difficulty walking (ataxia).
- Clicking or grinding sounds in the neck.
Contributing Factors:
- Wear-and-tear on discs, cartilage, and joints.
- Bone spur (osteophyte) formation.
- Ligament thickening and disc herniation.
For the purposes here, I will discuss two areas that commonly have issues: the neck/shoulders and hips.
Neck/Shoulder Pain
I started having muscle spasms in my neck and occasional pain during sleep. After 6 months or so of this where nothing seemed to help, an orthopedic spine specialist assessed me. According to the MRI – diagnosis of a minor spondylolisthesis (that’s a mouthful!), which is a spinal condition where one vertebra slips forward over the one below it. It is just the normal aging process, which is consistent with arthritis of the cervical spine and mild bulging of three discs (normal for age). Here are my attempts to alleviate the pain:
- Bedtime use of 400 mg ibuprofen – somewhat effective but not effective during the day
- Physical therapy x11 visits: heat, manual therapy (deep muscle massage), light weights and resistance bands to strengthen back muscles and improve posture – not effective…..but the muscle spasm did go away and it changed to a painful trigger point (muscle contraction/”knot”) in my left trapezius muscle
- Home therapies:
- Heat and stretching/range of motion (ROM) exercises every morning – helps improve ROM but does not make the pain go away
- Self massage using tennis balls against the wall – alleviates pain for the moment
- TENS unit – alleviates pain for the moment
- Theraworx Foam – Relief for Muscle Cramps, Tightness, Soreness – nope (besides, foam is a mess and you have to briskly rub for a few minutes with each of the 2 applications)
- Therapy gun (Theragun Prime) – alleviates pain for the moment
- Dry needling (aka electroacupuncture) x 3 sessions – nope
I am all about treating the root cause. But for these area issues, the root cause is the arthritis. The only real treatment for this is very invasive with doing surgery on the cervical vertebrae. Athletes have had this done, such as Joe Montana and others. But it is not the first line of treatment for most.
So I had the ortho specialist do a trigger point injection of lidocaine (mask the pain) and methylprednisolone (reduces inflammation). This method outcome is different for each person, as is the frequency of repeat injections. For me, it didn’t help at all. Sigh. Because you can’t treat the root cause without surgery, this could be an ongoing issue to manage forever. So heads up, Baby Boomers.
Anyway, one day it just went away. Go figure. When I’ve sat too long in front of the computer, I’ll feel a little twinge of discomfort. But I just stretch and do range of motion exercises (I do these anyway every morning). Here are a bunch of options and sites that talk about this:
Myofascial Trigger Points
https://bmcoralhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12903-022-02452-3
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8178646
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12054-myofascial-pain-syndrome
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/17582-trigger-point-injection
Facet Joint Injections
https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/injections/facet-joint-injection-procedure
And now for the other fun one….
Hip Pain
This other issue also started around the same time as my neck issue. I would wake up at night with pain in the hip that I was lying on. So I change sides and go back to sleep. Repeated through the night. Miserable. I thought I might have bilateral trochanter bursitis so I started doing four exercises for that, which did help a little. But you need to do these 3 times a week; skipping a day in between for muscles to recover.
After assessment by another orthopedic specialist, an x-ray, and an ultrasound, he said my hips look excellent and said that I would never need a hip replacement. He also said to keep doing whatever I am doing as it is working – exercising, nutrition, bioidentical (natural) hormones, etc. Yay! So just the usual aging process. On review of images, I have some small calcifications (bone spurs) on both hips – greater trochanters. But NO bursitis! Since it is difficult to ascertain the cause, he labeled it as “Greater Trochanter Pain Syndrome”. So now what? Here are my attempts to alleviate the pain:
- Bedtime use of 400 mg ibuprofen – somewhat effective; pain sometimes does not occur, or when it does, at a lesser degree (but you can’t take this stuff forever as it can lead to liver/kidney damage)
- Bedtime use of 400 mg ibuprofen PM – very good results; sleeping most of the night without waking up because of pain (but you can’t take this stuff forever as it can lead to liver/kidney damage)
- I started going to a different physical therapy group (not all PTs are the same!). I really like my therapist (DPT – doctor of physical therapy). I told her about my level of activity/fitness and she assessed and we proceeded with stretching/exercises. Even though I’ve been working out with weights for 40+ years, I sit all day in front of the computer for work. Because of that, my gluteus/hip flexor/ham string/quadricep muscles are weak due to an imbalance (also caused by my lumbar scoliosis and one side carrying more of the load than the other). The goal is to strengthen these for improved structural alignment/support.
- Home therapies:
- Heat/ice every night – minimally effective
- Exercises and weights – seems to be slowly effective; some nights no pain at all; others, pain pops up
- Therapy gun (Theragun Prime) – Use on thighs (front/back/side) but NEVER use it directly on a bone or over the hip bursa – helpful
- I usually have the best night after doing the following earlier in the day: PT with exercises/stretching….then weights at fitness center….then yoga before dinner. Yoga is AWESOME for stretching out those tight muscles, AND building strength – both targeted and core.
I had several sessions with PT in 2024, ending in October. PT started me on several strengthening exercises for quads, glutes, IT band, etc. From all of those, I have continued twice a week by doing the following:
- Quad leg press – both legs and also single leg with increasing weight
- Seated Cybex leg curl
- “Seated” squat with holding onto TRX handles for balance
- The forward, side, and back leg slides with the slider disk on the floor
- Cable weights with my ankle FitGirl
Around January 2025 I noticed that I no longer had hip pain at night! Gone!!! I just keep doing those exercises along with upper body. But one other thing I added: In January, I joined Massage Envy. I started with 60 min. sessions 2-3 times a month. Then a couple of months ago I changed to 90 min. sessions twice a month. I didn’t see benefits right away, but I kept going and I am feeling much better by keeping those muscles more relaxed. I also do not have that left upper trapezius muscle pain/spasm. Isn’t that interesting!
If you ever have this same issue, please know that relief will not come overnight or even after 12 PT sessions. It will take a few months to build muscle. Never give up! That’s my tip.
In talking to a number of folks my age, they also complain of hip pain while sleeping. It is important to find out what is causing it before jumping into therapy. With the aging process, we become more susceptible to such issues; thus, ensuring proper nutrition and fitness is key.
https://www.healthline.com/health/greater-trochanteric-pain-syndrome#diagnosis
Pertrochanter calcifications:
Bursitis:
https://www.verywellhealth.com/physical-therapy-exercises-for-hip-bursitis-5199259
Inflammation of IT band, which can also cause hip and knee pain:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/it-band-stretches-and-treatments-to-relieve-knee-and-hip-pain/#Underlying%20Causes%20of%20It%20Band%20Syndromehttps://www.healthline.com/health/it-band#stretches
After this looong dissertation….phew….I believe I have come to a conclusion about the hip part or really any part…..and the answer is…….drum roll……..M-A-S-S-A-G-E. Yep. I’ve been doing cardio/weights for over 40 years. But what I haven’t been doing is regular massage to stretch and relax those tight muscles that have been building up. I have definitely noticed a difference with regular massage now. Too bad Medicare doesn’t cover that. If they did, the government wouldn’t have to shell out as much money to cover medical care costs.
Is there an EASY button to push and get instant quality of life? Yeah, I wish. But anything worthwhile takes time, energy, drive, and commitment. I thank the Lord for giving me those gifts because I couldn’t have done it on my own!