My feet, legs, and joints are stiff in the morning why?

I have been all over the internet looking for answers to similar pain. I started with achy and feeling acidy around tender tissue. A doctor found my blood counts so low, she feared I would not wake up some morning. OK, transfusion later... I worked on building my blood up. Naturopath says iron is also very, very low and gave iron shots and vitamin B12. My iron lowered, unlike her other patients. Still very acidy (but this; no medical person responds to, except to say, "Oh, not even on the chart.") The stiffness is only upon rising from siting, or in the morning, the first 15 or so steps are horrible. After that, I'm fine as long as I keep moving. Cut back on sugar, use turbinado, take mag, potasium, calcium, vita C, liquid vitamins, powdered greens, yogurt. I don't and probably won't take medicines, or use processed foods. I used to have cracks at the corner of my mouth (10 years of it) that went away when I started putting a tiny pinch of soda in my one cup of coffee. Very sensitive bladder, even water goes right through me. I'm active, I rarely get sick, I'm out of ideas. There is something to the acidic condition. My naturopath says I produce very little of my own hydrochloric acid. It's been a big shrug from any help I ask for. I'm drinking more water, but that just go out almost as fast as I drink it! (lol)

I think I saw somethign like this on a "mystery diagnosis" show on TV, all i can say is keep getting it checked out, eventually you'll find a doc who can actually do the uncommon diagnosis and get you the treatment to make you feel better, its not normal to always be in pain, keep looking and good luck

Note on the episode I saw the person was losing flexibily as well, spinal column was getting stiffer and person could bend down after a while. All i can say if you lose hope and your doc cant help, maybe find that type of tv series online and get the episodes and maybe you'll have some info on where to go next.

Let me see if I can address those questions.

Diet soda-Idon't drink too much. I actually tend to go with the coffee and milk. However the milk is usually accompanied by cereal or cookies and after snacking on either, I get symptoms. I thought it was the milk, but after some experimentation, I find that its the grain. Im wondering if its wheat. Either way, junk food makes me totally sore all over.

There is a blog out there where a group of people are swearing that artificial sweetners ruin your joints and that they got better when they quit. I read that blog and quit diet pop cold turkey. Havn't noticed it making any difference. Google splenda poison. Sorry, I didn't save the address.

As far as low grade allergies go, I was having some eye swelling and I couldn't pinpoint why it was happening. So I went to an allergist and got allergy testing. On your results there are 4 boxes for each food. Depending on how many checkmarks in each row, that's how allergic you are to that food. I had a few foods with 3 and 4 checks and cats I know im really allergic to was 4 checks. But there were a huge number of foods with only 1 and 2 checks. So I call that low grade. They said any one of those foods checked, no matter how many checkmarks they have, could be a culprit and some may not bother you at all. Well I had about 30 foods with checkmarks, lol. Pretty hard to eliminate them all or do a food challenge without starving to death.

I think wheat and corn are biggies for me, judging on how I was feeling after eating cereals. The only cereals that don't bother me are rice cereals. I also get sick from soy sauce, which is a wheat product,l think.

If you really want to know, get tested. Its painless. You'll be lucky if its only a couple things and easy to eliminate. I had so many, i don't know where to start. But I know the way my symptoms wax and wane, its got to be food related.

Funny thing too, I had my sed rate tested when I was taking truckloads of NSAIDS and it was 40. Then my doc said to stop them because she was freaking out about my blood pressure being a little high, so I did. I also behaved myself in the eating department. OFF NSAIDS and on a better diet, my sed rate dropped to 30. Go figure.

For those who go to a naturopath or kinesiologist, have them check for candidiasis (not the vaginal variety - in the digestive system)

It can lead to significant inflammation.

I can't speak to whether anyone in this discussion has it but it is more common than people think and most doctors don't believe it is a real medical issue.

Hi, to our latest Anon on this thread. And welcome to Empowher! I'm so glad you found this thread of like-minded (perhaps like-aching) people; maybe we can help you find some answers as well.

I'm so sorry that you're having these issues too. How long has it been since you noticed the stiffness? What did your doctor say about your inflammatory markers being elevated? Did she or he put you on an anti-inflammatory medicine or make any other recommendations?

I am 51 like you, Anon, and am interested for both of us. I often have stiffness and some swelling in my fingers and ankles. I think I have attributed it (perhaps wrongly) to fluid retention and haven't paid a lot of attention to it. But these questions and readers are making me wonder otherwise.

Anon, is there information I can find for you about inflammation in general or about any other questions you have in specific?