Polymyalgia rheumatica

It often begins overnight. You go to bed normally in the evening — and in the morning you can barely get up. Your shoulders burn. Your hips feel rusted solid. Every movement feels as though you have to fight it against an inner resistance. It takes minutes to lift your arms. It takes effort to get out of the armchair. And you sense: this is not simply a tense muscle — this is something larger.

From a medical perspective, polymyalgia rheumatica is an inflammatory condition that primarily affects people beyond fifty. It preferentially targets two regions of the body: the shoulder girdle and the pelvic girdle. Precisely the areas that are responsible for carrying in the human body. The shoulders that lift burdens. The hips that carry you through the world. Morning stiffness is the hallmark — lasting for hours, sometimes half the day.