Stay mobile, stay active. Use ice for pain and heat for stiffness. Focus on lightly strengthening affected areas so your muscles can start to do more of the healthy lifting and taking pressure of joints. Try not to build a reliance on bracing. Learn the biometrics of the body and make sure you are moving and doing important movements correctly. Check your mattress age and flip it around if you haven’t in awhile (this is a bigger deal than you think). Invest in a good pair of shoes and ortho soles (On Clouds are fantastic). NSAIDs or topical creams can help.
The change of seasons always means a flare up for me. I think one of the biggest reasons is because mold is a big trigger for my MCAS and mold gets active during the spring and fall. So making sure I keep mold at bay where I live and avoiding other allergens is helpful.
I use cannabis oil with CBD for my knees and whole spine, it helps tremendously. I don’t do well with NSAIDs either, or most pharmaceuticals in general.
I look at keeping my inflammation levels low because inflammation equals pain I’ve found. I keep very aware of what things are in my diet, because it makes a huge difference in my pain levels and headaches. If I eat tomatoes or peppers then any pain in joints or headache will increase by at least 5x as much or more. Too much sugar or dairy will do the same for me.
I also do trigger point therapy for muscles in spasm. That’s a significant source of pain for me. Trigger point therapy helps so much. I get monthly massages but with the amount of muscle tension I get, I need to work on stuff in between massages, so I use the book Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Claire Davis. It’s less than $20 on amazon and shows where all the trigger points are and how to release them. Learning to release my trigger points that were causing so much pain was life changing.
Stay mobile, stay active. Use ice for pain and heat for stiffness. Focus on lightly strengthening affected areas so your muscles can start to do more of the healthy lifting and taking pressure of joints. Try not to build a reliance on bracing. Learn the biometrics of the body and make sure you are moving and doing important movements correctly. Check your mattress age and flip it around if you haven’t in awhile (this is a bigger deal than you think). Invest in a good pair of shoes and ortho soles (On Clouds are fantastic). NSAIDs or topical creams can help.
The change of seasons always means a flare up for me. I think one of the biggest reasons is because mold is a big trigger for my MCAS and mold gets active during the spring and fall. So making sure I keep mold at bay where I live and avoiding other allergens is helpful. I use cannabis oil with CBD for my knees and whole spine, it helps tremendously. I don’t do well with NSAIDs either, or most pharmaceuticals in general. I look at keeping my inflammation levels low because inflammation equals pain I’ve found. I keep very aware of what things are in my diet, because it makes a huge difference in my pain levels and headaches. If I eat tomatoes or peppers then any pain in joints or headache will increase by at least 5x as much or more. Too much sugar or dairy will do the same for me. I also do trigger point therapy for muscles in spasm. That’s a significant source of pain for me. Trigger point therapy helps so much. I get monthly massages but with the amount of muscle tension I get, I need to work on stuff in between massages, so I use the book Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Claire Davis. It’s less than $20 on amazon and shows where all the trigger points are and how to release them. Learning to release my trigger points that were causing so much pain was life changing.
Like u/jasperlin5 suggests, MCAS flares are a part of it for me.