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Why do my muscles feel like they're bruised to a light press?

My muscles almost always feel bruised. All muscles, all my life.  If pressed lightly, it hurts. If pressed moderately, pain.  I have had headaches all of my life.  My headaches have increased, 1-2/week and can last 1-3 days+/-. When I am having headaches, my scalp, neck, collarbone, shoulder muscles knot. My shoulders feel like they're trying to reach my ears and my whole body feels like it is scrunching up. If I press certain muscles while I'm having headaches, it makes me ill and a few areas, such as eyebrow ridge and collarbone, almost make me pass out.  When I'm like this I can hear my muscles pulling when I stretch.  My joints hurt most all the time, headache or not. After my headaches, it can take 24 hrs +/- to recover.  I am female, 60 and considered to be a very calm person.  I am as active as I can possibly be (even watching T.V., I'm doing something) and currently I am working on remodeling my home.   I have been to all kinds of specialists, spent 10's of thousand on chiropractors (they hurt).  Electrical stimulation is excruciating. I won't take any medications that "down" me, I've tried dozens. I can't get a massage because it hurts. I've recently been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but that seems to fall short? The only thing that seem to help a little is my jacuzzi (97.5 degrees and no jets, they hurt) but I can't spend all day in the water!    My body just doesn't relax. I have never been flexible. I joke that I have linebacker muscles. To this day, my muscles naturally have good definition, as though I work out. I don't.  But when I did, little effort for big results.  I have given up going to see doctors and specialists.  And truth be told, I am weighing my quality of life.  I have lived with this as long as I can remember, but the increased frequency and duration is taking a serious toll. I'm tired, it's harder to stay active, to push past the pain, to stay positive, to keep up with daily chores...I'm down so much, I just can't seem to catch up.
What is going on? Is there something everyone has missed?

Side notes:  The worse I feel, the more I want to "crack" my joints...knuckles, toes, ankles, wrists (just flexing causes cracking noises), neck (neck will catch so I rarely do this).  On the last 5+ yrs, when my headaches are very bad, I sometimes have very bad bouts of belching.  I had great posture, but less so now, I'm currently trying a posture corrector off & on to see if it helps. And I've been told I have a "military" neck/spine positioning?
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Avatar universal
This sounds like it could be several things working together and working against you.

First off I would need to ask what your diet is like.

Also, have you had any bloodwork checking for vitamin deficiencies?
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Diet is not bad, not super.  Too much refined sugar, definitely.  Breakfast: 1 egg & toast or 1 piece french toast or pancake & 2 pcs bacon. Sometimes cereal.  Lunch: fruit & maybe a bite of cheese & occasionally a handful of chips. Dinner: meat (Beef, pork, chicken), potatoes or rice, vegetables or salad maybe a small piece of bread.  Portions are small for dinner. No fried foods,  May have more fruit at nite or a scoop of vanilla ice cream or kettle corn pop corn. Pie if I buy it but I try not to.  I cook from scratch.
Years ago I saw a neurologist and had to keep a log of my food intake. only a few suggestions were made. I was diagnosed with having cluster headaches.  it answers some things but not all.  Have had bloodwork and extensive blood work.  Only thing really of any note is I have a fairly high level of iron.  I don't take any supplements or vitamins, I tried but never noticed a difference.  I tried drinking water only for a couple years & didn't notice any difference. I drink diet soda, water and tea.
  I have been told for the last 40 years I am borderline diabetic, but I've come to believe that's just how my body is. It probably doesn't mean anything , but, my temperature is generally 97.5, my blood pressure has always been low (low enough to get comments about whether I'm alive or not and low enough that every time I've given blood, they've thrown it out). It has only recently moved closer to average, I believe due to my taking on an extra 20#. Remember I'm 60.  My eating habits and routines have fluxuiated and changed while my headaches and muscle aches I have had since I was a child.  They were less frequent and shorter duration...as opposed to: I just got through a 6 day bout.
Sorry for rambling and thank you for responding!  
No worries. Thank you for your response.

alright, so this is what I'm gathering here
1) If you are taking in proper nutrients from your food, there is no need to supplement the excess will be passed through urine.

2) If what I am seeing is correct, you have quite high refined sugar and starches intake. Be mindful of the types of fruits you're taking in and be sure to omit for fruits that will spike your blood sugar unless it runs low. High sugar may very well be what is causing the constant muscle ache, and I would not be surprised if this is contributing to cluster headaches as a result of tightness in the muscles at the back of the neck.

In addition to tissue inflammation, refined sugars can cause lactic acid buildup on the muscles (even if you are not performing extended physically rigorous activity). As you have mentioned that your muscles tend to remain tense, I would not be the least bit surprised if they were excessively generating lactic acid as a result.

Therefore, try switching your diet to substitute sugar for more protein-rich and fiber-rich options. Doing so will also help better regulate glucose levels and will help control You may want to supplement your diet with extra potassium as well, as that can help relax muscles. most experts say that a good range for you to fall in will be between 0.45 to 0.8 grams per 1 Kilogram body weight of complete proteins. Chicken, fish, and beef are phenominal sources.

If you can, Try this for about a week. Feel free to message me any time if you need some recipe ideas :-)
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