When the joints hurt, 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 be a harbinger of a serious illness, signaling its onset. It is recommended to consult a doctor in time to avoid consequences that may lead to delay and only symptomatic treatment.
Causes and Symptoms
All diseases of the musculoskeletal system are associated with painful 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 pain in the joints resembles back pain and the movement of the limbs is difficult. Medical attention is needed for bumps, sprains, dislocations, broken bones and other injuries. When all the joints hurt, polyarthritis is suspected. If the patient feels one type of pain, and then another, the cause may be a complex lesion of the motor apparatus, including ligaments and muscles, as well as disorders of the central nervous system. The cause of inflammation of the articular nodes is an infection that has entered the body (ARVI, flu), hypothermia. The most frequently diagnosed painful patients are:
- arthritis, arthrosis and coxarthrosis;
- rheumatoid diseases;
- bursitis and tendonitis;
- osteomyelitis, osteoporosis;
- bone tuberculosis;
- damage to the vascular system and central nervous system;
- osteochondrosis;
- oncological diseases.
If the joints just hurt you in the evening after a hard day's work, you can relieve the discomfort with the help of medicinal soothing ointments or folk remedies. Fatigue does not mean illness. It is also necessary to exclude the factor of stress and nervous tension. When you decide to go to the hospital, you should pay attention to symptoms associated with pain, such as:
- tissue swelling;
- change in skin color;
- stiffness of movements;
- raise the temperature to subfebrile and above;
- painful sensations in the bones before sharp changes in the weather;
- crunch when moving.
Types of pain
Often it seems to the patient that the joints themselves hurt, although the discomfort may be an echo of other ailments. And, conversely, joint back pain can be misinterpreted as symptoms of other diseases. The initial pain in the hip joint is often felt in the abdomen and in women can be perceived as a sign of impending menstruation. Cardiac colic on the left side of the chest can cause painful numbness in the arm from shoulder to elbow. Phantom pains can radiate to the cervical region and the shoulder girdle after the removal of a wisdom tooth. However, there is a category of exclusively joint pain, which is divided into the following types:
- joint stiffness in the morning and evening;
- sharp, radiating or aching pain;
- migrating pains in the body;
- feeling as if the joint is "painful";
- short term pain.
What is dangerous?
Acute pain in all large articular nodes is a sure sign of a serious inflammatory, infectious and degenerative process that can lead to limitation of motor function and disability. If terrible, terrible pain in the joints radiates to the leg or arm, this can mean the complete destruction of the node and the need for prosthetic surgery. Ignoring mild pain leads to aggravation of harmful processes and leads to complications, up to oncology. The inflammation moves from node to node, affecting all major joints. Only seeking timely medical help will help prevent dystrophic and inflammatory processes that destroy the joints and spine, and thus prevent a dangerous disease.
FIRST AID
When joints hurt and walking hurts, you should immediately take measures to eliminate discomfort. Until the cause is clarified, one should limit oneself to symptomatic treatment aimed at eliminating or alleviating the syndrome. First of all, it is necessary to rest the diseased limb and, if possible, remove part of the load with the help of a supporting bandage. With muscle spasms and convulsions, muscle relaxants are taken, joint pain is eliminated with painkillers. Blockages will help to quickly relieve pain in the knee and leg joints.
Methods of examination and diagnosis
Joint diseases, as well as other conditions that cause pain, can be determined by a comprehensive examination, consisting 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 joints and adjacent tissues: is there swelling, a rash on the body, is there any-there is pain on palpation, is there itching, what color is the skin. Here are the instrumental methods:
- x-ray;
- MRI;
- ultrasound;
- arthroscopy.
Clinical tests are necessary when an inflammatory or infectious process is suspected in order to establish its causative agent. Samples of synovial fluid are also taken if there is confirmation of degenerative processes in the joint bag. Sometimes it is recommended to do additional allergy tests and autoimmune tests to identify individual reactions and hereditary susceptibility to diseases.
What to do and how to treat?
Pain in many joints of the body is a marker that indicates the presence of an injury (perhaps chronic or hidden) or disease that has entered a progressive phase. First of all, you need to figure out what hurts and remove the symptom situationally. Feeling the increase in pain, you should immediately contact the clinic, where the patient will go for a study, and then receive treatment recommendations.
The basis of therapy is always drug treatment, at the same time physiotherapy is carried out. Other methods are acceptable as auxiliaries and cannot replace pharmaceutical and hardware treatment.
Medical preparations
Diseased joints are most often treated with conservative drug therapy, including NSAIDs, painkillers, pharmaceuticals, chondroprotectors, less often antibiotics and drugs to improve blood circulation. Each case requires a distinct selection of therapy. Patients are prescribed pills, injections and droppers.
Physiotherapy treatment
Joint pains are effectively neutralized by hardware methods. The most popular are electro- and magnetic procedures. The standard course consists of 10 sessions. It is necessary to be treated in the clinic. In addition to material treatment, mud and balneology are assigned, radon baths, paraffin with ozocerite and healing mineral mud are especially good. For therapy, once a year it is necessary to undergo sanatorium treatment.
Surgical methods
When a joint cannot be healed, it becomes necessary to replace it with a prosthesis. To eliminate severe pain in the joints of the legs, doctors must first remove the severely destroyed articular cartilage, and then insert an artificial one. Prostheses can be partial or complete, depending on the degree of wear of the bone and cartilaginous heads, the presence of osteophytes.
Exercise and massage
Therapeutic exercise will help strengthen the muscle corset. Pilates and yoga will make the body more flexible, the joints will receive increased mobility, which will help prevent the development of osteophytes and water retention, the formation of salt and calcium deposits.
Strength, resistance and flexibility exercises are done in turns, without sudden movements. The optimal course is chosen by the trainer. In the morning and evening at home, it is recommended to perform a light complex of inclinations and bends to stretch the joints and muscles, especially when sitting for a long time.
When the feet are seriously ill after a long walk, massage in combination with hot herbal baths will help relieve discomfort. It is allowed to perform massage and acupuncture at home, without going to the clinic, but provided that the procedures are carried out by an experienced doctor, otherwise unsightly marks may remain on the skin.
Folk recipes
On the one hand, the effectiveness of non-traditional methods has not been clinically proven, but on the other hand, many patients achieve pain relief with the help of natural home remedies that they make themselves. If the joints hurt, they are smeared with honey cream with the addition of hot pepper and bee venom. Puffiness that arises with joint diseases is eliminated with alcohol rubbing and compresses from dandelion and horse chestnut inflorescences. Cold-pressed olive oil has an analgesic effect. When practicing traditional medicine, it should be remembered that many ingredients can cause allergies and skin damage. Treatment with folk methods is acceptable as symptomatic therapy, but not as the main therapeutic treatment.
Preventive measures
In spring and winter, a lack of vitamins leads to weakened nutrition of the joints, making them vulnerable to inflammatory processes. It is necessary to regularly take vitamin complexes. For the prevention of joints, you can drink dietary supplements with a chondroprotective effect. Once a month, it is recommended to visit a massage parlor to maintain muscle tone, passing a mini-session of 5 procedures. After an injury, it is mandatory to wear a bandage, use a cane. If the pain has started to recur after treatment, it is best to see a doctor right away.