When the joints hurt, a person feels discomfort and tries to get rid of the discomfort as soon as possible, taking medicines to eliminate them. However, pain can serve as a harbinger of a serious illness and signal its onset. It is recommended to consult a doctor in a timely manner in order to avoid consequences that can lead to delays and only symptomatic treatment.
causes and symptoms
All diseases of the musculoskeletal system are associated with pain symptoms of different types. 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 movement of the limbs is difficult. Medical attention is required for bumps, sprains, dislocations, fractures and other injuries. If all joints hurt, polyarthritis is suspected. If the patient feels one type of pain, then another, the cause can be a complex lesion of the musculoskeletal system, including ligaments and muscles, as well as disorders in the central nervous system. The cause of inflammation of the articular nodes is an infection that has entered the body (ARVI, influenza), hypothermia. The most commonly diagnosed pain patients are:
- arthritis, arthrosis and coxarthrosis;
- rheumatoid diseases;
- bursitis and tendinitis;
- osteomyelitis, osteoporosis;
- bone tuberculosis;
- damage to the vascular system and central nervous system;
- osteochondrosis;
- oncological diseases.
If the joints simply hurt 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 stress factor and nervous strain. If you decide to go to the hospital, you need to pay attention to the symptoms associated with pain, such as:
- tissue swelling;
- change in skin color;
- stiffness of movements;
- increase in temperature to subfebrile and above;
- aching sensations in the bones from sudden weather changes;
- creaking when moving.
types of pain
It often seems to the patient that the joints themselves hurt, although discomfort can be an echo of other ailments. And vice versa, joint pain can be misinterpreted as a symptom of other diseases. The onset of pain in the hip joint is often in the lower abdomen and can be perceived in women as a sign of impending menstruation. Heart colic on the left side of the chest can cause painful numbness in the arm from the shoulder to the elbow. After removal of a wisdom tooth, phantom pain can radiate to the neck region and the shoulder girdle. However, there is a category of joint pain only, divided into the following types:
- joint stiffness morning and evening;
- shooting pain, radiating or aching;
- wandering pains in the body;
- sensation as if the joint "aches";
- short-term pain.
what is dangerous
Acute pain in all major articular nodes is a sure sign of a severe inflammatory, infectious, and degenerative process that can lead to motor impairment and disability. If terrible, terrible pains in the joints radiate 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 an exacerbation of harmful processes and complications, up to and including oncology. Inflammation spreads from node to node, affecting all major joints. Only timely seeking medical help will help prevent dystrophic and inflammatory processes that destroy the joints and spine, and thus prevent a dangerous disease.
First aid
If joints hurt, and walking hurts, you need to immediately take measures to eliminate discomfort. Until the cause has been clarified, one should limit oneself to symptomatic therapy aimed at eliminating or weakening the syndrome. First of all, it is necessary to rest the diseased limb and, if possible, remove part of the load with a supporting bandage. With muscle spasms and spasms, muscle relaxants are taken, pain in the joints is eliminated by analgesics. Blocks help to quickly relieve pain in the knee and in the joints of the legs.
Examination and diagnostic procedures
Joint diseases, as well as other ailments that provoke pain, can be detected by a comprehensive examination, which consists of an external therapeutic examination, laboratory tests and hardware diagnostics. First, 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 pain when palpating, is there itching, what color is the skin. The following are instrumental methods:
- radiography;
- MRI;
- Ultrasonic;
- arthroscopy.
If an inflammatory or infectious process is suspected, clinical tests are necessary to identify the pathogen. Joint fluid samples are also taken if there is evidence of degenerative processes in the joint sac. Additional allergy testing and autoimmune testing is sometimes recommended to identify individual reactions and inherited susceptibility to disease.
What to do and how to treat
Pain in many joints throughout the body is a marker that indicates the presence of an injury (possibly chronic or latent) or a disease that has entered a progressive stage. First of all, you need to understand what hurts and situationally remove the symptom. If you feel the increase in pain, you should immediately contact the clinic where the patient goes for a study, and then get recommendations for treatment.
The basis of the therapy is always a medicinal cure, parallel to which physiotherapy is carried out. Other methods are acceptable as aids and cannot replace drug and device treatment.
Medicinal preparations
Diseased joints are most often treated with conservative drug therapy, including NSAIDs, painkillers, drugs, chondroprotectors, less often antibiotics and drugs to improve blood flow. Each case requires a separate selection of therapy. Patients are prescribed pills, injections and droppers.
Physiotherapeutic treatment
Joint pain is effectively neutralized by hardware methods. Electromagnetic and magnetic processes are the most popular. The standard course consists of 10 sessions. It is necessary to be treated in the clinic. In addition to hardware treatment, mud and balneology are attributed, radon baths, paraffin with ozokerite and healing mineral mud are especially good. Therapy requires sanatorium treatment once a year.
surgical methods
If a joint cannot be healed, it must be replaced 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. Prosthetics can be partial or complete, depending on the degree of wear of the bone heads and cartilage, the presence of osteophytes.
exercise and massage
Therapeutic exercises will help strengthen the muscular corset. Pilates and yoga make the body more flexible, the joints acquire increased mobility, which helps prevent the development of osteophytes and fluid retention, as well as the formation of salt and calcium deposits.
Strength, resistance, and flexibility exercises are performed alternately without sudden movements. The optimal course is selected by the coach. Mornings and evenings at home, it is recommended to perform a light complex of inclinations and twists to stretch the joints and muscles, especially with long periods of sitting.
If your feet become very ill after a long walk, a massage in combination with hot herbal baths will help relieve the symptoms. It is allowed to carry out massage and acupuncture at home without visiting the clinic, but on condition that the procedures are performed by an experienced doctor, otherwise unaesthetic marks may remain on the skin.
folk recipes
On the one hand, the effectiveness of non-traditional methods has not been clinically proven, on the other hand, many patients successfully relieve their pain with the help of self-made natural home remedies. If the joints hurt, they are smeared with a honey cream with the addition of paprika and bee venom. The swellings that occur with joint diseases are removed with alcohol rubs and compresses based on dandelion and horse chestnut flowers. Cold-pressed olive oil has a pain-relieving effect. In traditional medicine, it should be noted that many ingredients can cause allergies and skin damage. Treatment with folk methods is acceptable as symptomatic therapy, but not as the main therapy.
Precautions
In spring and winter, a lack of vitamins leads to weakened nutrition of the joints, making them susceptible to inflammatory processes. It is necessary to regularly take vitamin complexes. For the prevention of joints, you can drink dietary supplements that have a chondroprotective effect. Once a month it is recommended to visit a massage room to maintain muscle tone and pass a mini-session of 5 procedures. After an injury, it is mandatory to wear a bandage and use a stick. If the pain returned after treatment, it is better to consult a doctor without delay.