Muscle and joint pain, a possible easy solution

Image by bluman via Flickr

I know many CFS patients suffer muscle and joint pain, especially after they wake up in the morning. I used to suffer the same symptom many times in my life but each time the pain did NOT last very long, because I found the reason: my bed was too "thin".
As seasons change I change my bed set. Almost inevitably every time when I got body and joint pain I would find that my bed was not thick enough to resist something bad for my body: cold air in winter, humidity in spring or summer. And soon after putting extra pads on the top of my bed, the symptom went away.
In China, it was a common sense that during winter, people need to put extra pads (or blankets or quilts) on the top of bed. Here is the reason (I am not a doctor nor a scientist so forgive me for not explaining this like an expert, but I try my best to make sense based on my own experience): when our body gets weak, out immune system would be too shaky to resist coldness, humidity, virus, etc., especially when our body is in rest. So when we sleep, we must protect our body in a nice and warm environment. Putting blankets on top of our body is just one side protection, the bottom side (top of mattress) should be also protected. If not, you may still feel "fine" but your body would struggle on fighting with those cold air or humidity, and exhausted when you wake up in the morning.
Of course, there are many other causes for body pain but, if your bed is thin (just a mattress and sheet), please just do an simple experiment by putting extra blankets (or pads or whatever other thing you have), and see what happen in next morning.
For back pain, soft mattress usually is the cause, but I guess this is already a common sense in this country.

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Body and mind, who bosses whom?

When people get body pain without "diagnosable causes", it is commonly believed that the causes are mental. However, I like to challenge this "belief".
I have met so many people who are suffer depression, anxiety or other mental illness but still physically very strong. And on the other hand, I seldom met anyone who are always cheerful when they are in miserable physical conditions. Then people get sick, they just want to "stay in closet", because they do not want to people to see them so sick, because they know they do not have that "positive spirit" to be with others. As a long term CFS sufferer, my experience told me: when I am physically comfortable, I am always (not 100 % of course) in good spirits; but if I am in bad physical condition, I would just be haunted by all those negative thoughts and feelings.
I am not saying that mental strength does not have any power over physical condition, but I do personally believe, that physical health has STRONGER impact on our mental health.
I am not a medical doctor. my words are completely based my own experiences and my own study. So I sincerely welcome any suggestions and criticism.

Body pain and depression

Here is a story about "Body pain and depression" :
One day one of my friends who suffers depression told me that she woke up with body pain --- "a typical sign of depression". I didn't pay much attention until one morning I myself woke up with body pain. And later I realized that I had this synptome longtime ago and the reason for that was my bed, not depression! Here is why: during winter, the cold air would invade into your body if you don't put enough pads on top of your bed (not on top of you body). This is actually a common sense in China since Chinese people didn't have heater during winter. So, the second night I just put extra blanks on my bed and you know what? Body pain was gone! So I told my friend and she did the same thing and enjoyed the same positive outcome.
The reason I share this story is: a lot of times when people suffer from unknow diseases, they would be easily told that it was due to their mental issues, but I believe the truth is, in the cases like chronic fatigue syndrome, physical problems usually play a bigger role.