My Health and Fitness Blog

There are different types of bodily pain that we may experience in life, and there are different approaches to diagnosing and treating them. Acute pain is usually easier to define as it’s oftentimes preceded by some form of identifiable trigger - such as slipping on an icy surface and twisting an ankle, or having a failing appendix that is causing sharp pain on one side of the body. But chronic, soft tissue pain is a much more difficult type of problem to accurately pinpoint and define. With acute pain, the uncomfortable sensation usually results from the aftermath of either a specific injurious event you can point to, or it arises from the effects of a failing organ of the body. Since my childhood, I’ve fallen down, scraped my knee, bumped my head, and bruised my arms and hands numerous times. Each time the bloody scratches and bruises hurt, but the wounds were always quickly treated with antiseptics and patched up with Band Aids, resulting in full recovery. While oftentimes quite intense, the experiences of acute pain were usually only temporary.

On the other hand, chronic pain is substantially harder to diagnose and treat, and the cause - significantly less concrete to define. Oftentimes, the patient is left wondering what he or she can possibly do to make the pain go away. Case in point - ever since I was a teenager, I’ve had to live with a chronic soreness and stiff pain in my neck, shoulder, and upper back region that simply won’t go away. To this day I still don’t know what caused it - as the pain is always present, and has a tendency to periodically fluctuate in intensity. With this type of soft tissue, almost phantom-like pain not arising from any specific injury (based on what I know), the diagnosis and treatment process is often much more elusive and non-apparent. As evidenced by the fact that it’s been literally a lifelong pain in the neck for me, I’ve simply had to get used to living with the inconvenience to the best of my ability. Sometimes with these types of things, all we can really do is practice an active lifestyle that will minimize the chronic pain as much as possible, and try our best to adopt physical and mental habit changes to better manage it.

Describing The Chronic Pain and Un-Curable Soreness In My Shoulder and Neck Region, and How I’ve Dealt With It Over Time

As I gradually approach my early 30’s and reflect back in time about my problem, I think the pain started during my mid high school years. However, I didn’t fully recognize its presence until college when the stress of studying and bad sitting posture brought out by constant hunching over while preparing for exams finally exacerbated the pain into full realization. Since then, I’ve sought the attention of main stream physicians and alternative medical witch doctors of sorts for my neck and shoulder pain. Frankly I don’t think the numerous doctors and nurses I’ve spoken to over the years ever took my complaints of pain very seriously. After all, it’s not like I was screaming out in agony or clutching a specific body part that was badly damaged. In fact, describing the painful sensations and tingling soreness I felt was a challenge in of itself.

My chronic shoulder and neck pain could be best described as a tiresome, aching muscle sensation that greatly worsens and is felt to a greater degree whenever I tilt my neck around in wide circles or bend it to stretch it. When I roll my neck around in wide circles, the muscular motion sends out painful sensations from the rear base of my head hairline, down my neck, and into the surrounding shoulder area. The worst pain is felt when I tilt my head towards my shoulder blades. When I do that, I experience a sharp and painful numbing lightening burst - an almost electrical joint of numbness that shoots down my arm and into my elbow funny bone area, causing a tinging sensation that frequently results in temporary loss of use of the afflicted arm. The numbing feeling is much more pronounced on my left arm and left shoulder than my right arm and right shoulder. My suspicion and self diagnosis has always been that perhaps my neck muscle was somehow pinching a stray nerve when I twisted my neck in certain positions.

Other than seeking out the advice of professional doctors who offered little in the way of diagnoses or treatment solutions beyond advising me to exercise more and eat a healthier diet comprised of fruits and vegetables (no new information here), I’ve also tried out alternative medical treatment options as well. During college, since my school health insurance covered it, I sought out the services of a health center acupuncturist, a health practitioner trained in the Chinese art and skill of using super thin needles to stimulate special Qi (pronounced “Chi”) inspired pressure points to incite special healing points in the body. While the seemingly magical acupuncture needles that the health practitioner stuck in my ears (of all places) did seem to soothe and generate a strange warm sensation in my head and upper shoulder region, the pin pricking sessions never cured my pain. They merely warmed and soothed the pain away momentarily, like a nice massage. However, the chronic pain persisted, unfortunately.

Unable to cure myself of my chronic neck and shoulder pain, I’ve learned to live with it as best as possible. Currently, I believe my chronic shoulder and neck pain is heavily influenced and exacerbated by increased stress and lack of exercise. While my perpetual soreness sensation never really goes away and is always present from the moment I get out of bed to the moment I go to sleep, the pain is substantially worse when I am overly stressed or confined to non-mobile positions for long periods of time. Back when I was in college and later law school, I studied tremendously and spent a great number of hours hunched over a library study desk until the wee morning hours in a rather stationary pose. Because of pressing academic deadlines and constant stress over the need to study for exams, those times were especially difficult and harsh on my neck and shoulder pain. Back then, the pain would often grow so bad that I’d have to pop a few over-the-counter pain pills just to keep my mind focused and off my aching shoulders. What started out as consuming 1 or 2 extra strength Tylenol’s ultimately turned into 2 or 3 Tylenol’s along with another 2-3 Advil’s at the same time. The pain killers effectively lessened the pain for a few blissful hours, but the effects were always temporary.

Unable To Cure My Mysterious Chronic Neck and Shoulder Pain With Medicine, I’ve Turned To A More Holistic Solution That Involves Improving My Sleep, Diet, and Exercise Habits

Despite my best efforts to treat the problem, I was merely masking the symptoms with over the counter drugs. My chronic neck pain continued long after graduate school and didn’t subside until I started working a less stressful line of work. Since I started running my own home business from the comforts of my own house, my academic and on the job stresses have greatly diminished. I’m sleeping a lot more consistently again, now that I no longer have to get up extremely early in the morning to go to a so-called real job. I also feel like I’m eating healthier now that I can prepare my own meals and choose what I want to eat for lunch and dinner, instead of having to settle for fast food sandwiches at work. Working from home has also allowed me to exercise more, giving me time to run on the treadmill to get myself back in shape. While the pain still lingers on in the recesses of my neck and shoulder, the decline in stress levels and the healthier life I’m living now have resulted in a noticeable decline in neck pain.

Along the way, I’ve learned a couple things about this chronic lifelong pain of mine. Looking at the times in my life when my chronic neck and shoulder pain ache increased, and reviewing the times in my life when the pain subsided, I think it’s safe to say that my diet choices, exercise regiment, and sleeping schedule have a huge impact on the severity of my pain. Whenever I swim now or run several miles on the treadmill, I always feel much more relaxed afterwards. While still ever present, my neck and shoulder aches and pains seem to momentarily subside after some healthy physical activity. Perhaps it’s the endorphins, the natural boost in adrenaline, or just the placebo psychological effect of physical activity and attempts at healthier living practices, but they help nevertheless. Until I can finally find a cure for my chronic shoulder and neck pain once and for all, I will continue to adopt practices that will allow me to better control and manage my disability. At least for now, I think I can accomplish just that with some simple changes to my diet and fitness lifestyle. Such changes may benefit those of you with similiar chronic ailments as well. It definitely beats popping pills all the time.

Hello fellow blog reader! This is my very first post on my new health and fitness blog at Diet Blue Book. It’s my introductory foray into the delightful blogging realm of health living, nutritious diets, and daily fitness training. While I’m more experienced with discussing financial subjects as I do on my personal finance blog at Money Blue Book, and discussing debt management concerns on my credit card blog at Credit Blue Book, I’ve always wanted to have an online forum where I could faithfully track my personal diet and fitness development. Essentially, this blog was created so that I could hold myself accountable to the diet goals and fitness objectives I set forth for myself. While money is a terribly important facet of all of our lives, maintaining a strong and healthy body is perhaps even more paramount of importance. Without a healthy body and spiritually clean mind, one’s life journey would be incomplete and unable to reach its fullest potential. What good is discovering ways to make and save money, and finding ways to frugally enjoy the financial rewards that go with it if you don’t have a healthy physical and mental vessel to enjoy it?

Here’s To Making A Solid Commitment To Doing What It Takes To Make Healthier Choices For Better Living

By blogging about health and fitness, I want to strive to make a commitment to living healthy - an affirmative lifestyle choice of sorts. My goal and purpose is to pinpoint what I’m doing right and find better ways to enhance my life, body, and mind by modifying and even changing what I’m doing wrong. Since I’m a complete newbie when it comes to discussing health related topics, I hope my readers will forgive me if I sound clueless at times. While I consider myself a voracious reader, and pretty adept at researching subjects and coming up with reasonably intelligent answers to difficult questions, when it comes to health care and healthy living topics, I’m quite the beginner. I know the basics - avoid sugars, stay away from fatty foods, and adhere to the importance of daily exercise, I will be the first to admit that I don’t know much beyond the fundamentals. I run on the treadmill regularly at the gym, and try to perform light weight training on occasion, but sometimes I wonder if I’m doing things correctly. Regardless, I hope to become more educated as time goes on. Perhaps writing a blog on the subject will help encourage and motivate me to learn more about this very important subject matter. Won’t you come join me on my journey into the realm of healthy living, weight control, and fitness? I look forward to lots of questions and reader commentary in the months and years to come!