Is it normal to ache as you get older? Yes, often aching joints and muscles are simply the effects of age. As you get older, the natural tendency is for muscles to get smaller and lose some of their strength. Bones also start to get weaker over time.
As we age, our muscles get tighter, our tendons and ligaments become less flexible, and our bodies take longer to heal from injury.
As you age, it's normal to suffer from aches and pains in your joints and muscles as you lose muscle mass and bone density. Normal aches and pains caused by aging include: Neck pain or stiffness. Lower back pain.
Is it normal to ache as you get older? Yes, often aching joints and muscles are simply the effects of age. As you get older, the natural tendency is for muscles to get smaller and lose some of their strength. Bones also start to get weaker over time.
According to the research, the average American starts feeling old at the age of 47. Similarly, the average respondent starts to really worry about age-related bodily changes around 50 years old.
If you don't have a fever or other symptoms, and you experience body aches often or for prolonged periods of time, make an appointment with your PCP. It could be a sign of a drug reaction or a more severe and chronic underlying medical condition, such as an autoimmune disease.
Body aches can result from tiredness or exercise and commonly occur with infections such as the flu. But, they can also be a symptom of an underlying condition, such as fibromylagia, arthritis, or lupus.
The percentage of adults who had chronic pain in the past 3 months increased with age and was higher among those aged 45–64 (25.8%) and 65 and over (30.8%) compared with those aged 18–29 (8.5%) and 30–44 (14.6%) (Figure 2).
Fatigue and arthritis
Fatigue can be linked to many types of arthritis and related conditions. It's commonly a symptom of autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, reactive arthritis and lupus. In autoimmune conditions the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own healthy tissues.
Morning body aches can be caused by a lack of good quality sleep, which deprives your body's tissues and cells of repair time. An effective way to improve sleep is with exercise, which tires the body and reduces stress, helping to improve both the quality of your sleep, and the amount of sleep that you get each night.
An ache is usually not extremely strong, so you can try to ignore it. Pain is usually stronger, more sudden, and more difficult to ignore. You would feel pain when you cut yourself or hit your head on something. If you exercise and you injure yourself – break a bone or tear a muscle – you would feel a sudden pain.
Aches and pains in our bones, joints, and muscles may be caused by everyday wear and tear, overuse, or aging. This pain can also be the result of injury or illness.
Body aches are a common symptom of viral infections, such as influenza and COVID-19. But other types of infections can also cause whole body aches, including Lyme disease (a bacterial infection transmitted through tick bites) and malaria (caused by a parasite).
Natural changes happen in the body as we age, such as skin damage from sun exposure, loss of muscle and physical strength, loss of some sight and hearing, as well as changes to our sleep patterns, energy levels and appetite.
Sitting for long periods of time can cause your blood flow to slow down which may lead to stiffness in your muscles. This is because your muscles need oxygen and nutrients to function properly.
As you sleep, the plantar fascia remains still rather than stretching and relaxing as it would if you were awake and moving. Because it doesn't get to stretch, it slowly constricts and becomes tighter. This can make walking in the morning quite painful until the ligament has a chance to loosen up from being active.
Sleep hygiene practices
not having a regular bedtime routine, which includes consistent sleep and wake times. taking long daytime naps. looking at phone or computer screens before going to bed. having a sleeping environment that is too hot, too bright, or too loud.
A vitamin D deficiency can affect both physical and mental health, but many people have low levels of vitamin D without realizing. The physical symptoms of a deficiency may include muscle pain in the joints, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pain, which often occurs in the knees, legs, and hips.