My body has been falling apart lately.
I refuse to go Doctors for no rational reason, but I guess I grew up poor and with zero access to doctors, so I'm used to the idea that its reserved only for serious things. Plus, I get very little free time and I wanna use that time for leisure.
None of it is serious, but it's all a bit weird, and probably just weird signs of aging.
This time last year, we were going skiing in Japan and I certainly didn't feel any of these issues then.
Cracks & Pops
My whole body is cracking and grinding. if I am walking and I turn, my knees and ankles crack. If I look up, my neck grinds. Arms, too. None of it painful but the neck stuff always feels pretty scary. I'm pretty certain it's due to bad posture.
I improved my posture big time once after my back injury but I've definitely been very... laid back, lately. I was on a treadmill non-stop for 40 minutes at 10km/h a year or so ago. The other day, I jogged to drop off trash and back, a journey of about 30 seconds of jogging, and I was exhausted!
Twitching
My eye has been twitching for weeks or even months. On and off throughout the day. At one point, I was twitching all over the place. Inexplicable, but suspicions of caffeine or stress.
Bowels
I had several weeks of diarrhea (sorry for the TMI) which, though never serious, made me uncomfortable all day at work.
What to do?
I've already fixed some of it. I tried to pin down what I was consuming that could be the cause of such chronic diarrhea. After cutting out things like milk with suspicions of new lactose intolerance, and things like fibre, I started worrying I contracted IBS.
But then I thought about the Coke Zero's and Dr Pepper Zero's I had been drinking daily as an alternative to sugar. Some of the artificial sweeteners can indeed affect people's bowels so I cut it out and... within a day, problem resolved. And a week has passed and the problem has not returned. So I've no idea what's in that stuff but I guess my body can't handle it.
As for the eye twitching, it's still going on but not nearly as much as before. I think it's about sleep. On the weekends, where I get to sleep as long as I want, I don't get twitches. But a workday I'm getting 6 or less hours. It's not something I can realistically and consistently change for now but... at least I can minimize it.
Cracks and pops, well, for my neck I'm working on my posture again, walking around a lot with my shoulders back and my chest out. Actually feels pretty good. Standing up more at work, too. For the rest, arthritis? I don't think so. It doesn't hurt. Probably just my body wearing out cuz I've been lazy. But not that lazy.
I do cycle every single day in my work commute, and at work I use these kind of resistance bands to 'weight lift' with strong elastic, I find it more difficult than my 5kg weights at home. My main problem is I'm limited to what exercise I can even do, because of my herniated discs. If I do standard things like sit-ups, planks and so on, it can completely wreck my back again, even after all these years. I was out for days a few months ago after a single attempt at that stuff.
There's a few alternatives that put less strain on the lower back but... it really is limited. Running is out, crunches are out. Gym machines are mostly out. Ah well. I'll do what I can.
Thanks to my new love of tea, I've been drinking at least 1.5 litres of water a day too, a significant increase from before, which would vary from 0 litres to 0.5. Hopefully being more hydrated will have wondrous effects?
But I'm not crippled yet. Still going skiing for Christmas in Hokkaido, still on my feet and singing in all my classes, cycling daily, eating better each day. Just trying to slow down the degeneration!
Aging sucks.
I recently just saw a video where it says Coke Zero or any other sodas with artificial sugars are more harmful than they are 'helping'. Sorry can't link it since I forgot where I watched it to begin with haha. But yeah, it's the reason why we avoid all those zero sodas.
I also think this way, not going to the doctor unless it's very urgent but recently I realized that it's really worth it going to the doctors just to make sure everything's fine instead of worrying for years if you're okay or not. Hopefully it's not very expensive over there but don't wait until it's too late cos you can always earn back the money you spent on the appointment. Adds a peace of mind too for your mental health cos stress can also fuck up your physical body in different ways.
Oh I have insurance so it's not a cost thing really. I just never have a good experience with doctors. I went to one of the best hospitals here with my posh insurance to deal with my hearing (I had very strange, concerning, pulsating tinnitus outta nowhere), and they basically just dismissed it. I also had them test my hearing because I can definitely tell my left ear is slightly deaf (comparing via earphones etc), and their tacky-ass test had them conclude my hearing is perfect.
I had world class toe surgery, with like 5 surgeons and state-of-the-art anaesthetic. Forth surgery on the same issue. And yet here I am, still with this blasted ingrown nail, permanently there, mocking me. Oh, and that state of the art anaesthetic? Didn't work. They knifed my toe and I felt the whole slice -__- they had to backtrack to more O.G. methods.
They also dismissed my wife of her sudden, extreme eczema on her leg which, 2 years later is still there and scarring. When asked why it's only on her legs, they said 'oh that's just because it's not serious enough to spread elsewhere yet'
I suppose that's what you get when the entire country is trained in 'Traditional Chinese Medicine' instead of 'real medicine'.
Lost a lot of faith in it all.
What the hell that sounds horrible. No wonder ancient medicine is still popular lol. The worse thing about being sick is being gaslit. I hate that
Cheers to that! Thankfully I can now have health debates with ChatGPT instead lol
I have relatively the same back issues.
I'm 33 soon to be 34 on January 6th and I feel like I'm 50. My everything aches. But mostly that stems from the years of back breaking work as a roofer, farmer, horse taming and care, concrete worker, construction etc. I've done almost all of it. Now looking for an escape to retire and focus more on my health or what's left of it.
As for my lower back i don't think we differentiate much here, but as far as exercises goes, sit-ups, planks, those are for abdominal muscles and if your having lower back issues then those exercises will cause you more damage.
Lay on your back with your knees bent to the ceiling, as if your about to do a sit-up. Instead of doing a sit-up, with no weights other than your own body, reach towards the ceiling and lift slightly the top half, I've your head, shoulders and neck toward the ceiling NOT TOWARDS YOUR KNEES. do this until you collapse.
Another is to get into the doggy style position, receiving. Yup all fours. Knees on the floor and all. What your going to do is alternate position and hold a position. Keeping your posture straight, raise your right or left arm and raising your alternative side the leg in a straight position outstretched.
And switch back and forth holding for 10 seconds or 30 seconds if you can each side.
Hamstring stretches, squat stretching is essential too.
Get to it. Don't be pansie. No pain no gain.
Yeah I feel ya... that being said, there's no reason anyone can't go back. Look at Mike Tyson at 58. Mental.
That latter doggy one I did see and give a brief try to see how it works. I didn't get much out of it tbh, seems too low-level, no strain involved? But, since you doubled the suggestion maybe I will give it another go.
It's especially important pre-ski, too, so I got a month to improve!
That's the whole curse, eh? Work just saps away the years and you realise you've ground down 20% of your bone mass or whatever, and it's too late! I'm taking on a bit more of a preventative mindset now rather than reactive...
Have you considered having some tests done? There are various tests you can do yourself with the right equipment, and you don't have to be a doctor to have tests done on your blood and stuff. IIRC you are in a jurisdiction I have no familiarity with but things can be done abroad if necessary. Some reading can get you up to speed on what are some reasonable baselines, reasons for departure from them, and what you might want to do about it.
Guessing about the soda was good, but guessing can be improved on.
Thanks!
I've considered of course, but I've got a high degree of confidence that it's all just a result of me treating my body like i'm still in my early 20's.
It wasn't really a guess about the sodas, it was the power of deduction, which tbh is what doctors tend to do anyway so I saved myself a trip. My bowels feel great now!
Basically: Improve posture, sleep better.
Generally the way I think about it is, if it's getting worse (or is actually painful), then see a doc. If not, you're just doing something wrong and should deal with it.
Then again, with plans to go back to UK, I really need to get everything sorted beforehand while I got good care available. I don't wanna have to wait for 2 years to be treated for a stroke or something lol
I have recently had some imaging done, CT scans, MRI, ultrasound, and lots of blood work. After 60 everything starts breaking, and this is what I'm finding. Some of the things I've discovered haven't been producing symptoms, but some symptoms I've been suffering for years have been assigned a cause, which has enabled me to resolve them. Hopefully I can get in front of some of the other things that are arising before they afflict me, but I await detailed discussions with my local pusher, er... doctor. There may be utility in prescription medications for some things, and some may require surgical intervention (although I am very resistant to that), but when the doc tells me what they recommend I'll have things to research and base decisions on. It's probably advisable for you to get any imaging and tests done before you're up against the NHS bureaucracy for prescriptions and care, so that you can access things in a timely way before that limitation is imposed on you.
Damn that does sound pretty significant - definitely not looking forward to my 60's if I keep my current trajectory going!!
I had a health check for my job requirement some years back and became very aware of my heart being an issue, with heightened risk of future heart attacks. My estranged dad recently collapsed due to some hereditary valve issue, and my mum is battling erratic blood pressure and other heart issues. My left ventricle wall is thicker than it ought to be. So... yeah. Feeling very mortal lately!
It was marriage that really inspired me to fix my lifestyle. But I don't smoke, barely drink, no drugs and no other addictive habits so it should be a breeze...maybe