“Oh, my aching body”

You crawl out of bed in the morning, and there it is: pain. For some of us, it's a hot needling in the knee. For others, it's a creaky, aching back, complete with knotted neck muscles; or it's the tender hip joint that feels like you got sand in it overnight somehow.

Do some of these need medical attention? Perhaps, but some of them are everyday, run-of-the-mill aches and pains that we can treat at home, but how do you tell the difference?

It may offer some relief to know that even for medical professionals it's not always immediately apparent which injury needs treatment and which needs a couple of ibuprofen tablets, some light compression and an ice pack.

Serious or minor injury?

"Pain itself is a good indication of the difference between injury that needs attention and injury that will resolve itself with some self-care", says Andrew Cannon, a sports trainer and physiotherapist. "Injury that significantly impairs your mobility or that doesn't go away after 48 hours needs medical attention."

Most simple aches and pains are the result of over exertion. Achiness in medical terms is known as “delayed onset of muscle soreness”, and that usually passes quickly.

Overuse injuries and repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, are more serious and will need to be seen by a doctor.

Here are some simple remedies for treating those pains that don't need a doctor.

For a twisting injury to knee, hip, or other major joint, think RICE.

"That's short for Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate", says Cannon. "Right away after an injury, this is the first step to take." Rest and ice are easy enough, and so is elevation, but what about compression? He says that it's important to apply light compression.

"You want to have no more compression than that which you would get by simply resting your hand on the ice pack", he says, adding that some bandages can cause significant extra injury by affecting the superficial nerves in the area of injury.

Get some pain relief

Ask the experts which pain killer to use on muscle aches and minor strain injury and you'll get different answers. One train of thought says you shouldn't take ibuprofen or aspirin after an injury. Both are blood thinners, which, in theory, may worsen bruising.

"But when you talk to orthopaedic specialists, they often say the extra bruising risk is minimal and is offset by the anti-inflammatory effects of ibuprofen", says Professor Mike Powers, an injury prevention specialist. "There's no one answer here."

The common choice is paracetamol for pain, though it won't do much for swelling. However an ice pack can do the majority of the anti-inflammatory work.

Stretch and flex pain away

Maybe yoga and Pilates -- both strength and flexibility exercise programmes -- seem too "out there" to be of any use in dealing with aches and pains, but increasingly exercise physiologists are recommending them.

"Yoga and Pilates add tone and strength to muscles in a way that is totally nonimpact, and its use as part of an injury-prevention plan is nearly commonplace now", says Powers. "These stretching exercises increase your flexibility and help you work muscles that other strength-building programmes like weight training won't affect. The more you work at increasing flexibility, the less likely you are to have injury.