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Full-body pain
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Tens of millions of people worldwide suffer from recurring or chronic pain throughout the body that lasts for more than six months. The pain can be mild or excruciating, episodic or constant, merely inconvenient or completely incapacitating. With chronic pain throughout the body, pain signals remain active to the nervous system for weeks, months, or even years. This can cause both physical and emotional damage to a person.
Sources of pain throughout the body
The most common sources of pain are headaches, joint pain, pain from injuries, and back pain. Other types of intermittent or chronic pain throughout the body include tendonitis, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pain affecting specific parts of the body such as the shoulders, pelvis, and neck. Generalized muscle or nerve pain can also develop into a chronic condition.
Pain throughout the body may begin with an initial injury/injuries or an infection or cold. However, some people suffer from chronic pain without any previous injury or physical damage to the body.
Chronic pain throughout the body can become much more intense when emotional trauma occurs. Anxiety, stress, depression, anger, fatigue interact in complex ways with chronic pain throughout the body and can reduce the effect of painkillers. In addition, negative feelings can increase the levels of substances that increase the sensation of pain, causing a vicious cycle of pain in the person. The immune system, which has been holding the line until now, may give in: there is strong evidence that unbearable pain can suppress the immune system.
The mind-body relationship is both related to pain, and effective treatment requires addressing both the psychological and physical aspects.
What are the associated symptoms of chronic pain throughout the body?
- Moderate to severe pain in all parts of the body that does not subside
- Pain that can be described as shooting, pulling, and also burning
- Feeling of discomfort, pain, heaviness in the muscles
- Pain throughout the body is not a symptom of only one source of the problem. Other pain-related issues include conditions such as:
- Fatigue
- Insomnia
- Refusal to be active or, conversely, a person does not find time to rest
- Weakening of the immune system
- Changes in mood, including hopelessness, fear, depression, irritability, anxiety, stress
- Injuries
- Infectious diseases
- Diseases of internal organs
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is the most common musculoskeletal disorder, second only to osteoarthritis. However, it is a difficult condition to diagnose. Its characteristics include a wide range of pain throughout the body: muscle and joint pain, fatigue, weakness, and other symptoms. Fibromyalgia can lead to depression and social isolation, and even job loss.
What is fibromyalgia syndrome?
A syndrome is a collection of symptoms. When they exist together, they imply the presence of specific diseases or the likelihood of developing an existing disease. In fibromyalgia syndrome, the following symptoms usually occur together:
- anxiety or depression
- lowering the pain threshold
- paralyzing sensations in the limbs and a feeling of fatigue
- a wide range of pain - the whole body hurts
At-risk groups
More than 12 million people suffer from fibromyalgia in the United States alone. Most of them are women, ranging in age from 25 to 60. Women are 10 times more likely to have pain throughout their entire body than men.
What is the location and nature of pain throughout the body?
Pain in the whole body can be caused by pain in muscles, bones, joints. You may have symptoms of severe fatigue. Specific painful points on the body may be painful to the touch. You may see swelling on the body, deep-level disturbances or restless sleep, as well as mood swings and depression.
Your muscles may feel like they've been overworked and you've pulled them.
Some patients (especially those with fibromyalgia) also suffer from pain around the joints of the neck, shoulders, back, and hips. They find it difficult to even sleep, let alone exercise.
Pain throughout the body also includes:
- stomach ache
- anxiety and depression
- chronic headaches
- difficulty maintaining sleep or restless sleep
- dry mouth, nose, and eyes
- fatigue
- increased sensitivity to cold and/or heat
- inability to concentrate
- urinary incontinence
- irritable bowel syndrome
- numbness or tingling in the fingers and toes
Pain throughout the body can cause signs and feelings similar to osteoarthritis, bursitis, and tendonitis. Some experts include arthritis and related disorders in this group.
Diagnosis of pain throughout the body
There are no specific lab tests to diagnose body-wide pain, particularly the difficult-to-diagnose fibromyalgia. Your doctor will rely on a comprehensive physical exam and your medical history to make an accurate diagnosis.
In order to determine serious diseases that cause body pain, the doctor may do some specific blood tests. For example, a complete blood count. The doctor may also recommend checking the glucose level, low levels of which can cause problems similar to those caused by a poorly functioning thyroid gland.
An underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) can cause pain throughout the body. Thyroid dysfunction can cause fatigue, muscle pain, weakness, and depression.
Other lab tests may include rheumatoid factor (RF), red blood cell (erythrocyte) count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), prolactin hormone level, calcium level, and vitamin D level.
Your doctor can also determine whether your symptoms match the medical criteria for fibromyalgia syndrome. These criteria include a wide range of body-wide pain that lasts for at least three months.
Broad spectrum refers to pain that occurs on both the right and left sides of the body, both above and below the waist, and in the chest, neck, and middle or lower back. The criteria for pain also include the presence of painful points in different parts of the body.
Your doctor will assess the severity of your condition, which includes symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disturbances, and mood swings. This will help measure the impact of your pain on your physical and emotional functioning, as well as your overall health related to quality of life.
Is there a standard treatment for whole body pain?
No, there is no such standard. And there is no treatment that will solve all your problems at once. But a wide range of traditional and alternative treatments can be effective if the source of the disease is identified. Treatment programs may include a combination of medications, strengthening exercises for different body parts, and aerobic exercise.
How to treat fatigue when there is pain?
Along with deep muscle pain and tender points, fatigue is a key symptom of body-wide pain, particularly fibromyalgia, and it can feel like an insurmountable barrier. Not only do you feel drained and weak, but bed rest doesn’t seem to help much. Many people with body-wide pain and fatigue can sleep eight to 10 hours a night, and feel as if they haven’t slept at all.
Fatigue combined with pain throughout the body often coincides with a mood of worry, anxiety or depression. Some people, along with the feeling of fatigue, especially suffer from pain around the joints of the neck, shoulders, back and hip. This condition makes it even more difficult to fall asleep and aggravates the feeling of sleepiness and fatigue.
Experts believe that there are similarities between full-body pain and chronic fatigue syndrome. Both conditions are primarily characterized by persistent, debilitating fatigue. Often, people who experience full-body pain describe the feeling of fatigue as "brain fatigue." They tell doctors about a complete loss of energy and difficulty concentrating.
Certain medications can help relieve fatigue associated with pain. In addition, exercise is one of the most effective strategies to help relieve fatigue, minimize pain, improve sleep quality, and improve mood.
How can exercise relieve pain symptoms?
Numerous studies show that exercise is one of the most important ways to treat body-wide pain associated with fatigue or the pain that comes with fibromyalgia. Many people avoid exercise because they are afraid that it will only make their body-wide pain worse. However, when you are tired and lethargic, exercise can help relieve pain and muscle stiffness, and it can even help with the depression that often comes with the pain.
Regular exercise increases your body's production of endorphins, natural painkillers, which also lifts your mood. Start slowly and gradually increase the duration and intensity of your exercise, and soon you'll enjoy the benefits of working out to make your pain manageable.
Antidepressants in pain treatment
Your doctor may prescribe antidepressants, such as Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft. These drugs can help ease feelings of depression, sleep problems, and pain. Researchers have recently found that antiepileptic drugs show promise for treating pain, particularly in fibromyalgia, which can be difficult to treat.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including COX-2 inhibitors, have not been found to be effective in treating muscle pain. They generally do not work in the long term and can lead to health problems.
Antidepressants have been used for many years to help relieve symptoms of pain in different parts of the body and are often the first step in treatment. Antidepressants are not only used to help reduce the emotional effects of the condition, but they also relieve symptoms of fibromyalgia, including pain, fatigue, depression, and sleep problems. Both older and newer antidepressants are used to treat different types of pain.
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Steroids
Steroids (such as prednisone) are used to treat inflammation associated with rheumatic conditions. They can very rarely relieve pain symptoms. However, steroid injections directly into muscles (trigger points) can sometimes be used to relieve pain due to muscle spasms when other treatments have not been effective.
In addition to therapy, other treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy can help develop a sense of self-control as well as control over pain.
Alternative Treatments for Pain Throughout the Body
Alternative therapies, although not well-tested, may help manage pain symptoms depending on the underlying cause of the pain. For example, massage therapy breaks down the muscles and soft tissues of the body and helps relieve deep muscle pain. It also helps relieve pain at specific points, relieve muscle spasms, and release muscle tension. Similarly, massage, which works a wider range of muscles, allows them to be gently stretched, softened, lengthened, and activated to form connective tissue to help relieve the discomfort of pain.
Doctors recommend moderately intense aerobic exercise at least two or three times a week. It is also combined with methods such as hypnosis, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, manual therapy - manipulation to relieve pain.
Along with alternative treatments, it is important to find time each day to rest and relax. Relaxation techniques such as deep muscle relaxation or breathing exercises can help reduce stress, which can trigger pain symptoms throughout the body. Getting at least 8 hours of sleep is important to allow the body to regenerate during sleep.
Pain can be so debilitating that you may wonder about the effectiveness of alternative treatments. Some things to know about alternative treatments for people with chronic pain include:
- Acupuncture: Some studies have shown that acupuncture can change brain chemistry and increase pain tolerance.
- Chiropractic. Chiropractic can increase pain perception, reduce back pain, and increase the range of motion of the cervical and lumbar joints.
- Deep tissue massage. It can stimulate blood circulation and reduce chronic pain from muscle tension.
- Neuromuscular massage. Neuromuscular massage combines the basic principles of ancient Eastern therapies such as acupressure and shiatsu with specific effects on deep muscle tissue. It can help reduce chronic muscle or myofascial pain (pain in deep tissue).
- Biofeedback: Biofeedback helps people manage stress and relieve chronic pain, according to the National Institutes of Health.
- Meditation: Research shows that when you meditate, your brain produces waves of serenity and happiness that help ease the pain of anxiety.
When it comes to treating chronic pain throughout the body, both medications and alternative body remedies can be used to help reduce pain and improve sleep. There is no single approach that is best for treating pain throughout the body. A combination of lifestyle strategies, medication selection, and alternative therapies as recommended by a physician are used.
What is the outlook for people with full-body pain?
Like everyone else, people with pain throughout their body often have good days and bad days. With proper treatment and a proper diagnosis of the source of their pain, most people improve their health. People who continue to be active, socially and physically, despite their pain ultimately improve their quality of life.