Clinically reviewed by What is body pain
Body pain means aching felt in many places at once rather than in one joint or one muscle. In Urdu it is pooray jism mein dard, and it is one of the commonest complaints walked into any clinic in Pakistan.
It is worth saying plainly: a lot of body pain is not a physiotherapy problem. Whole-body aching is often the body reporting something general, a deficiency, an illness, poor sleep, rather than something mechanical in the muscles.
That does not mean nothing can be done. It means the first step is finding out which kind you have, because treating the wrong one wastes months.
Symptoms you might have
- Aching in many places at once rather than one clear spot
- Aching in the thighs, back and legs with difficulty rising from the floor, a common pattern with low vitamin D
- Feeling cold, weight gain, dry skin and slowed thinking with the aches, which points to the thyroid
- Breathlessness and tiredness on mild effort, which points to anaemia
- Pain that is clearly worse with certain positions or hours of work, which is the mechanical kind
- Fever with body ache, which is an illness for a doctor and not physiotherapy
Why it happens
- Vitamin D deficiency, which is very common in Pakistan
- An underactive thyroid
- Anaemia, particularly from iron deficiency
- Poor or broken sleep, which raises pain in everybody
- A viral or other infection, including dengue and typhoid in season, where fever comes with the ache
- Long hours of physical work with no recovery, or long hours held in one position
- Low activity and loss of general fitness, which makes ordinary days feel painful
- Fibromyalgia, and long-standing stress or low mood, both of which genuinely increase physical pain
When you should see a physiotherapist
Start with a doctor, not a physiotherapist, if your body pain is general and you have never had blood tests. Vitamin D, calcium, a full blood count, thyroid function and blood sugar answer a large share of these cases. No amount of physiotherapy replaces a test, and ordering and treating those is a doctor's job.
Go to a doctor the same day if you have fever with body pain, unexplained weight loss, night pain that wakes you and does not change with position, weakness that is getting worse, weakness on one side only, or dark brown urine after heavy work in heat.
Come to physiotherapy when the pain has a pattern: worse with particular positions, movements or hours of work and better with others. Also come after a doctor has treated the cause and the aching has stayed behind, which happens often.
Al-Shama Physiotherapy Clinic
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یہ فارم پُر کریں؛ واٹس ایپ پر آپ کی تفصیلات کے ساتھ پیغام تیار ہو جائے گا۔Yeh form bharein, WhatsApp aap ki tafseel ke saath khul jaye ga.
How it is treated
Physiotherapy helps a specific slice of body pain: pain driven by posture, workload, lost fitness and an over-sensitive pain system. It does not help a deficiency or an infection, and we will tell you that rather than book you in for ten sessions.
- Assessment first, to sort mechanical pain from general pain and to say honestly which you have
- Exercise therapy, graded walking and light strengthening, which improves general aching more than any machine does
- Manual therapy for the areas that are genuinely stiff and tender, usually the neck, shoulders and lower back
- Hijama (cupping therapy) for broad tightness across the back and shoulders
- Dry needling for specific tight bands, where the pain is localised enough to aim at
- TENS and electrotherapy for short-term relief while the exercise takes effect
- Pacing and sleep advice, since broken sleep raises pain and pain breaks sleep
Surgery has no part in generalised body pain. Supplements, including vitamin D and calcium, and any medicine, are a doctor's decision after testing.
Exercises, and what to avoid
What helps
- Walking, ten minutes twice a day to start, built up by a couple of minutes each week
- Light whole-body strengthening twice a week: sit to stand, wall push ups, band rows, heel raises
- A five minute morning routine through the full range of the neck, back, hips and shoulders
- Keeping the same amount on good days, which is what prevents the next bad week and the swing that follows it
What to avoid
- Bed rest. Lying still for days makes generalised aching distinctly worse
- One heavy burst of work or exercise after weeks of nothing
- Chasing a single stretch for a whole-body problem
- Buying supplements on a shop's advice instead of getting the blood test
What you can do at home
Heat suits general aching. Fifteen to twenty minutes with a hot pack, or a warm shower, especially in the morning.
Fix your sleep times before anything else. The same bedtime and the same waking time for two weeks changes how much pain you feel in a day, and it costs nothing.
Keep a simple note for two weeks of what you did, how you slept and how much you ached. The pattern usually becomes obvious on paper when it is invisible in your head.
Get the blood tests your doctor suggests before spending money on treatment. If low vitamin D is the answer, treatment is a prescription and not a massage.
How long it takes
If a deficiency is behind it, aching usually improves over six to twelve weeks of the treatment your doctor gives, and sometimes a little sooner.
Thyroid problems and anaemia improve over weeks to a few months once treated, with the aching often the last thing to settle.
Mechanical pain from posture and workload responds within four to eight weeks of movement breaks, strengthening and a changed work setup. If nothing has changed by then, the diagnosis is worth revisiting.
Fibromyalgia-type widespread pain is a longer road, three to six months of graded activity for a meaningful change, and it is managed rather than cured. Our fibromyalgia page covers it properly.
Urdu / Roman Urdu
Choose your reading script / اپنی پسند کا رسم الخط منتخب کریں
اردوUrdu script
پورے جسم میں درد کی اکثر وجہ فزیوتھراپی والی نہیں ہوتی۔ وٹامن ڈی کی کمی، تھائیرائڈ کا مسئلہ، خون کی کمی (خون کی کمی) اور نیند کی خرابی پاکستان میں سب سے عام وجوہات ہیں۔
ان کا ٹیسٹ اور دوا ڈاکٹر کا کام ہے۔ بغیر ٹیسٹ سپلیمنٹ کھانا ٹھیک نہیں۔ اگر بخار کے ساتھ جسم درد ہو، وزن کم ہو رہا ہو، یا رات کو درد سے نیند کھل جائے، تو ڈاکٹر کو دکھائیں۔
فزیوتھراپی وہاں فائدہ دیتی ہے جہاں درد کام، بیٹھنے، جھکنے یا پوسچر سے بڑھتا ہو، اور جہاں بیماری کا علاج ہونے کے بعد بھی درد اور اکڑن رہ گئی ہو۔
گھر پر: گرم سیک، روزانہ تھوڑی چہل قدمی، سونے اور اٹھنے کا وقت مقرر، اور بستر پر پڑنے سے بچنا۔
Roman Urdu
Pooray jism mein dard ki aksar wajah physiotherapy wali nahi hoti. Vitamin D ki kami, thyroid ka masla, khoon ki kami (anaemia) aur neend ki kharabi Pakistan mein sab se aam wajuhat hain.
In ka test aur dawa doctor ka kaam hai. Bina test supplement khana theek nahi. Agar bukhar ke sath jism dard ho, wazan kam ho raha ho, ya raat ko dard se neend khul jaye, to doctor ko dikhayen.
Physiotherapy wahan faida deti hai jahan dard kaam, baithne, jhukne ya posture se barhta ho, aur jahan bimari ka ilaj hone ke baad bhi dard aur akarhan reh gayi ho.
Ghar par: garam sek, rozana thori walk, sone aur uthne ka waqt mukarrar, aur bistar par parne se bachna.
Treatment at the clinic, and online
INFORMATION → INDIVIDUAL CARE
A plan built around you.
Talk with Dr. Zahra Fatima, DPT. Understand your next steps, with guidance for your own symptoms and daily routine.
Talk it through
Discuss your symptoms, what you find difficult and what you want to get back to.
Understand your next steps
Use the consultation to discuss which care and exercises fit your situation.
Take your plan with you
Your online consultation includes a written plan you can refer to afterwards.
Questions people ask
Why does my whole body ache all the time?
Can physiotherapy fix body pain?
Which tests should I ask my doctor for?
Is body pain always vitamin D deficiency?
Heat or ice for general body aches?
Related conditions
- Muscle spasm and cramp treatment
- Leg cramps treatment
- Night cramps treatment
- Muscle strain treatment
- Calf pain treatment