When the joints ache, a person experiences discomfort and seeks to get rid of the discomfort as soon as possible by taking medication to eliminate them. However, pain can serve as a precursor to a serious illness, signaling its onset. It is recommended to consult a doctor in time to avoid the consequences that can lead to delay and only symptomatic treatment.
Causes and symptoms
All diseases of the musculoskeletal system are associated with pain symptoms of a different nature. Pain is a sign that a destructive pathological process is taking place in the body. Only a clinical examination can accurately diagnose the cause. It is necessary to go to the hospital if the joint pain is similar to the back pain and the movement of the limbs is difficult. Medical attention is needed for lumps, sprains, dislocations, fractures and other injuries. When all joints ache, there is a suspicion of polyarthritis. If the patient experiences one type of pain, then another, the cause may be a complex lesion of the motor apparatus, including ligaments and muscles, as well as disorders in the central nervous system. The cause of inflammation of the articular joints is an infection that has entered the body (ARVI, flu), hypothermia. Patients with the most diagnosed pain are:
- arthritis, osteoarthritis and coxarthrosis;
- rheumatoid diseases;
- bursitis and tendon;
- osteomyelitis, osteoporosis;
- tuberculosis of the bones;
- damage to the vascular system and central nervous system;
- osteochondrosis;
- oncological diseases.
If the joints are simply injured in the evening after a hard day's work, you can alleviate the discomfort with the help of medicated soothing ointments or folk remedies. Fatigue does not mean illness. It is also necessary to exclude the factor of stress and nervous strain. When deciding to go to the hospital, you should pay attention to pain-related symptoms, such as p. sh.
- tissue swelling;
- skin discoloration;
- stiffness of movements;
- temperature rise to subfebrile and above;
- sensation of pain in the bones before sudden changes in weather;
- crackling when moving.
Types of pain
It often seems to the patient that the joints themselves are injured, although the concern may be echoed by other diseases. And, conversely, back pain can be misinterpreted as symptoms of other diseases. The initial pain in the thigh joint is often given in the abdomen, and in women can be perceived as a sign of approaching menstruation. Cardiac abdominal pain on the left side of the chest can cause painful numbness in the arm from the shoulder to the elbow. Ghost pain can radiate to the cervical region and the shoulder girdle after wisdom tooth removal. However, there is a category of joint pain exclusively, which is divided into the following types:
- stiffness of the joints in the morning and in the evening;
- sharp, radiating pain or aches;
- migratory pain in the body;
- feeling like the joint is "hurting";
- short-term pain.
What is dangerous?
Acute pain in all major joint joints is a sure sign of a serious inflammatory, infectious and degenerative process that can lead to limitation of motor function and disability. If the excruciating, horrible pain in the joint radiates to the leg or arm, this may mean complete destruction of the joint and the need for prosthetic surgery. Ignoring mild pain leads to worsening of harmful processes and leads to complications up to oncology. Inflammation moves from one node to another, affecting all major nodes. Only timely seeking medical help will help prevent dystrophic and inflammatory processes that destroy the joints and spine, and therefore prevent a dangerous disease.
First aid
When your joints hurt and it hurts to walk, you need to take immediate action to eliminate the discomfort. Until the cause is clarified, it should be limited to symptomatic therapy aimed at eliminating or alleviating the syndrome. First of all, it is necessary to provide rest for the diseased limb and, if possible, remove part of the load using a support bandage. With muscle spasms and convulsions, muscle relaxants are taken, joint pains are eliminated by analgesics. Blockages will help to quickly relieve pain in the knee and ankle joints.
Examination and diagnostic methods
Joint diseases, as well as other diseases that provoke pain, can be determined by a comprehensive examination, which consists of an external therapeutic examination, laboratory tests, and hardware diagnostics. First of all, the doctor examines the diseased area for the presence of manifestations of the inflammatory and infectious process in the adjacent joints and tissues: is there swelling, redness in the body, is there pain on palpation, is there itching, what color is the skin. The following are the instrumental methods:
- radiography;
- MRI;
- ultrasound;
- arthroscopy.
Clinical tests are needed when an inflammatory or infectious process is suspected to determine its causative agent. Synovial fluid samples are also taken in cases of confirmation of degenerative processes in the key sac. Sometimes it is recommended that additional allergy and autoimmune tests be performed to identify individual reactions and hereditary susceptibility to disease.
What to do and how to treat it?
Pain in many joints throughout the body is a marker indicating the presence of an injury (perhaps chronic or latent) or a disease that has entered a progressive stage. First of all, you need to understand what hurts and remove the symptom in the situation. Feeling the increase in pain, you should immediately contact the clinic, where the patient will go for a study, then receive recommendations for treatment.
The basis of therapy is always a course of treatment, at the same time as physiotherapy is performed. Other methods are acceptable as adjuvants and can not replace pharmaceutical and hardware treatment.
Medical preparations
Sick joints are most often treated with conservative drug therapies, including NSAIDs, painkillers, pharmaceuticals, chondroprotectants, less frequently antibiotics, and medications to improve blood circulation. Each case requires a special selection of therapy. Patients are prescribed pills, injections and drops.
Physiotherapy treatment
Joint pain is effectively neutralized with hardware methods. The most popular are electro- and magnetic procedures. The standard course consists of 10 sessions. It needs to be treated in the clinic. In addition to hardware treatment, attributed to mud and balneology, radon baths, ozocerite paraffin and healing mineral clay are especially good. For therapy, once a year it is necessary to undergo treatment in the sanatorium.
Surgical methods
When a joint cannot be cured, it becomes necessary to replace it with a prosthesis. To eliminate severe pain in the ankle joints, doctors must first remove the severely damaged articular cartilage and then insert an artificial one. The prosthesis can be partial or complete, depending on the degree of wear of the bone heads and cartilage, the presence of osteophytes.
Exercises and massage
Therapeutic exercise will help strengthen the muscular corset. Pilates and yoga will make the body more flexible, the joints will get increased mobility, which will help prevent the development of osteophytes and fluid retention, the formation of salt and calcium deposits.
Exercises for strength, endurance and flexibility are performed alternately, without sudden movements. The optimal course is chosen by the coach. In the morning and evening at home, it is recommended to perform a light complex of tilts and twists to stretch the joints and muscles, especially when you are sitting for a long time.
When feet get sore after a long walk, massage in combination with hot herbal baths will help alleviate the discomfort. Massage and acupuncture are allowed at home, without visiting the clinic, but provided the procedures are performed by an experienced doctor, otherwise non-aesthetic scars may remain on the skin.
Popular recipes
On the one hand, the effectiveness of non-traditional methods has not been clinically proven, but on the other hand, many patients successfully relieve pain with the help of home-made natural home remedies. If the joints hurt, smear them with a honey cream with the addition of chili peppers and bee venom. The swelling that appears with joint disease is removed by rubbing with alcohol and compresses on the basis of dandelion and horse chestnut. Cold pressed olive oil has an analgesic effect. When practicing traditional medicine, keep in mind that many ingredients can cause allergies and skin damage. Treatment with folk methods is acceptable as symptomatic therapy, but not as the main therapeutic course.
Preventive measures
In spring and winter, the lack of vitamins leads to weakened nutrition of the joints, making them vulnerable to inflammatory processes. It is necessary to take vitamin complexes regularly. To prevent joints, you can take dietary supplements with a chondroprotective effect. Once a month it is recommended to visit a massage room to maintain muscle tone, going through a mini-session of 5 procedures. After an injury, it is mandatory to wear a bandage, use a cane. If the pain began to recur after the course of treatment, then it is better to consult a doctor without delay.