In the last few decades, not only elderly people complain of joint pain, but also this category of people whose age has barely reached 35 years. Why this happens, there is no exact information, but the problem is becoming more relevant every year and puzzles more and more people.
Introduction
If the joints hurt, then you should not attribute the problem to factors such as weather changes, magnetic storms, hypothermia, heavy physical labor. This problem has completely different causes.
So, why do joints hurt, what are the causes of joint pain, how to treat painful joints - this article is about it all.
Pain in the joints can be expressed in different ways: at first it can be just an unpleasant feeling, then a crackling (crunching), then numbness and tingling, and only then the pain begins to manifest itself in different ways: back pain, sipping, burning. Joint pain is not a harmless phenomenon and its causes can be very different.
Causes of pain
Why there may be pain in the joint is judged by the nature of the pain and the place of its localization.
- In infectious diseases (tonsillitis, bronchitis), the pain in the joint is pulling, painful, as a rule, not one joint suffers, but several at once.
- During intoxication of the body (for example, with mushroom poisoning, alcohol), painful pains affect several joints at once.
- With exacerbation of chronic diseases (cholecystitis, tonsillitis), joint pains are continuous, i. e. they can appear in one place and move to another.
- With inflammation, the pain in the joints is sharp, shooting and stabbing. As a rule, one joint hurts, in rare cases - several.
Thus, the causes of joint pain can be different: infectious, inflammatory, intoxication and chronic. At the same time, if the cause is not of a traumatological, rheumatological, orthopedic nature, then pain in the joints is far from the only symptom that will bother you. Other signs of a person's ill health will be mixed with them:
- Increase in body temperature;
- Fever;
- Runny nose;
- rupture;
- Loss of appetite;
- Rattling in the chest;
- Nausea and vomiting;
- diarrhea;
- White coating on tonsils and tongue;
- loss of voice;
This is not a complete list of all the signs that may appear.
Pain in musculoskeletal problems
When various diseases of the musculoskeletal system become the cause of joint pain, it's time to find out which joint is unhealthy and what to do about it.
Joint pain due to traumatic (and related) causes is completely different from others. As a rule, the symptoms in such cases can be the following:
- Swelling and redness of the affected area.
- The sore spot is painful to the touch, hot.
- Pain in any particular joint.
- Fever.
- Numbness and stiffness of movements.
- Sharp stabbing pain when moving, and sometimes at rest.
- Joint deformity.
So, orthopedic causes of joint pain can be the following diseases:
- Rheumatism of the joints;
- Arthritis (polyarthritis);
- Arthrosis (polyarthrosis);
- Polyarthritis rheumatica;
- gout;
- meniscus tear;
- Tearing of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus;
- Functional joint pain;
Brief information about diseases
Joint pain occurs for various reasons, sometimes it can be a symptom of a non-rheumatic (traumatic) disease when it is caused by infections. In such cases, it is pointless to treat the joints without eliminating the source of infection. The pain will stop, but then all the symptoms will return again. As a rule, pain in the joints disappears when the infectious process is suppressed.
Another, the most common reason why the joints hurt are the pathological processes taking place inside them or the injuries suffered.
- Rheumatic arthritis (polyarthritis)- a disease whose catalyst is severe infectious diseases: tonsillitis, rubella, influenza, brucellosis. Large joints are usually affected, while the lesion is symmetrical: two elbow or knee joints at once. Joint pain is accompanied by high temperature and fever in the period of exacerbation, which practically does not happen with other joint diseases.
- Osteoarthritis (polyarthrosis)- pathological processes leading to partial or complete (with advanced forms of the disease) cartilage destruction. Joint pain is accompanied by impaired motor activity of the joint. The symptoms of arthrosis and arthritis are similar, but there is one difference: an inflamed area with arthrosis hurts when trying to move, which cannot be said about arthritis (with it, the joint hurts even at rest).
- Arthritis- degenerative processes taking place in the joint, associated with inflammation of the joint tissue and its deformation.
- gout- violation of the metabolism of calcium and salt in the body, due to which growths of the joint appear, which become inflamed and painful. Characteristic features - pain at night.
- meniscus tear- Injury to the knee (or scapula) associated with a violation of the integrity of the meniscus. The pain in such cases arises in the knee and returns to it when you move, you can hear a crunch in the joints.
- Functional joint pain occurs whendisorders of the nervous system, there is no point in doing anything with the articulation, as the problem must be sought elsewhere. When it is eliminated, the discomfort will pass.
This is, of course, an incomplete list of why the joints hurt, but these reasons are the most common. What to do in such situations should only be decided by the doctor after a thorough examination and diagnosis.
Treatment
Treating joint pain is more of a secondary task, with the first goal usually being to eliminate inflammation and its causes.
It is important for the patient to understand that self-medication will not help him in any way and will only delay the treatment process, worsening the situation.All a person in pain has to do is see a doctor.If it so happens that the feeling of stiffness and pain in the joints occurred at night and does not allow you to sleep, then you can drink an anesthetic and rub with a warming ointment if necessary.
The doctor begins treatment of joint pain only after a thorough examination, receiving the results of the examination and making a diagnosis.
Most orthopedic diseases are treated by traditional methods, and the use of surgical methods is carried out only as a last resort, when a long course of drug treatment has turned out to be powerless.
Medical treatment (conservative method)
The most popular in this case are conservative methods.
No treatment of such diseases was complete without appointment:
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are used in various medicinal forms: ointments, injections, tablets, patches, suppositories. At the same time, it is not unusual for the doctor to decide to prescribe NSAIDs in several forms at once: injections and ointments, tablets and suppositories with ointments. The course of admission is very long, the conditions of treatment are determined taking into account the individual characteristics of a person: age, physical. When prescribing, the presence of other diseases, contraindications and possible side effects should be taken into account.
- Pain relieversused in various dosage forms. In case of a pronounced pain syndrome, powerful injections are prescribed, if it hurts a little, then it is quite possible to go with pills, warming ointments, plasters.
If NSAIDs do not help, resort to:
- Corticosteroidswhich have both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of treatment with these drugs are that the effect can be achieved much faster than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the absence of hormones that do not have a very favorable effect on the body as a whole and lead to unpleasant consequences in the form of hormonal imbalance, weight gain. That is why doctors are not in a hurry to prescribe corticosteroids.
- Chondroprotectors, which are injected into the affected area in order to optimize the level of synovial fluid, normalize friction, pressure and movement of the joint.
After the end of the course of treatment with drugs, you can continue it with folk remedies.
Get the treatment right:
- Massage therapy;
- Gymnastics, swimming;
- Physiotherapy.
An important role is played by the prevention of the recurrence of the disease, for this twice a year a course of preventive treatment in the form of vitamin intake is carried out.and NSAIDs.
Operative methods
If the conservative treatment proved powerless and the joint still hurts, then an operation is prescribed, which will be carried out depending on the degree of tissue damage and the diagnosis. If this is arthrosis in the third stage, then it is worth doing prosthetics, that is, replacing the articulation with an artificial one. If we are talking about tearing of the meniscus, then with the help of special punctures it is stitched. In any case, the doctors will do everything possible to avoid surgery and the pain has stopped no matter what.
Conclusion
Thus, the joint can hurt for various reasons, it can be infectious problems and neurological. Joint pain is the main cause of pain. Don't ignore the pain by trying to heal yourself or drown the pain with painkillers.
There are two main methods of tissue treatment:
- conservative method.
- Operative method of treatment.
There are quite rare cases when surgical methods begin immediate treatment without resorting to conservative methods. But there are also such cases, for example, if a person is immobilized and the processes of degeneration are at a stage where it is useless to treat them with drugs. In such cases, it hurts so much that a person can lose consciousness from the intensity of the pain.