What to do if your joints hurt - treatment, full description of the cause of the pain

Over the past few decades, joint pain has been complained about not only by the elderly, but also by the category of people whose age has barely reached the age of 35. Why this happens, there is no accurate information, however, the problem is becoming more urgent every year and confuses an increasing number of people.

Introduction

If your joints hurt, then you should not attribute the problem to factors such as weather changes, magnetic storms, hypothermia, heavy physical work. This problem has completely different causes.

So, why do joints hurt, what can be the causes of joint pain, how to treat diseased joints - this article talks about all that.

Painful joints can be expressed in different ways: at first it can be only unpleasant sensations, then cracking (crunching), then numbness and numbness, and only then the pain begins to manifest itself in different ways: back pain, sucking, 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 its location.

• In infectious diseases (tonsillitis, bronchitis), the pain in the joint is pulling, it hurts, as a rule, not one joint suffers, but several at once.
• During intoxication of the body (for example, in the case of mushroom, alcohol poisoning), aching pains affect several joints at once.
• When chronic diseases worsen (cholecystitis, tonsillitis), pain in the joints is of a flowing nature, that is, they can appear in one place and move to another.
• In case of inflammation, the pains in the joints are acute, bursting and piercing. As a rule, one joint hurts, in rare cases - several.

Therefore, the causes of pain in the joints can be different: infectious, inflammatory, intoxication and chronic. At the same time, if the cause is not traumatic, rheumatological, or orthopedic in nature, then pain in the joints is far from the only symptom that will bother you. Other signs of poor human health will be mixed with them:

• Increase in body temperature;
• Fever;
• runny nose;
• tearing;
• 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 those signs that may appear.

Pain with musculoskeletal problems

When various diseases of the musculoskeletal system become the reason for joint pain, it is time to understand which joint is unhealthy and what to do about it.

Pain in the joints due to traumatic (and related) causes is completely different from the others. As a rule, the symptoms in such cases can be as follows:

• Swelling and redness of the affected area.
• The sore point is painful to the touch, hot.
• Pain in any particular joint.

• Fever.
• Stiffness and numbness in movements.
• Sharp piercing pain when moving, and sometimes at rest.
• Joint deformity.

So, orthopedic causes of joint pain can be the following diseases:

• Rheumatism of joints;
• Arthritis (polyarthritis);
• Arthrosis (polyarthrosis);
• Rheumatic polyarthritis;
• gout;
• meniscus tear;
• Rupture 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-rheumatological (traumatic) disease caused by infections. In such cases, it is pointless to treat the joints without removing 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.

The second, most common reason why joints hurt are pathological processes that take place inside them, i. e. injuries.

1. 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 a high temperature and a temperature during the worsening period, which practically does not happen with other joint diseases.

2. arthrosis (polyarthrosis)- pathological processes that lead to partial or complete (in advanced forms of the disease) cartilage destruction. Pain in the joints is accompanied by impaired motor activity of the joint. The symptoms of arthrosis and arthritis are similar, but there is one difference: a sore spot with arthrosis hurts when trying to move, which cannot be said for arthritis (with it, the joint hurts even at rest).
3. Arthritis- degenerative processes that occur in the joint, associated with inflammation of the joint tissue and its deformation.
4. Gout- violation of calcium and salt metabolism in the body, due to which growths appear on the joint that become inflamed and painful. Characteristic features - pain at night.
5. meniscus tear- Injury to the knee (or scapula), associated with a violation of the integrity of the meniscus. In such cases, the pain occurs in the knee and returns to it, when you move, you can hear a creaking in the joints.
6. Functional joint pain occurs whendisorders of the nervous system, there is no point in doing anything with the articulation, because the problem must be sought elsewhere. When it is eliminated, the discomfort will pass.

This is, of course, an incomplete list of why joints hurt, however, these reasons are the most common. What to do in such situations should only be decided by a doctor after a detailed examination and diagnosis.

Treatment

Treating joint pain is a rather secondary task, the first goal is usually to eliminate inflammation and the cause of its occurrence.

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, making the situation worse.All a person suffering from pain needs to do is visit a doctor.If it happens that the feeling of stiffness and pain in the joints appeared at night and does not allow you to fall asleep, then you can drink an anesthetic and, if necessary, rub warming ointment.

The doctor begins the treatment of joint pain only after a detailed examination, obtaining the results of the examination and establishing a diagnosis.

Most orthopedic diseases are treated with traditional methods, and surgical methods are used only as a last resort, when long-term drug treatment has proved ineffective.

Medical treatment (conservative method)

Conservative methods are the most popular in this case.

No treatment for such diseases was complete without an appointment:

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are used in different dosage forms: ointments, injections, tablets, plasters, suppositories. At the same time, it is not unusual for a 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 terms of treatment are determined taking into account the individual characteristics of the person: age, physical. When prescribing, the presence of other diseases, contraindications and possible side effects should be taken into account.
• Painkillersit is used in different dosage forms. With a very pronounced pain syndrome, strong injections are prescribed, if it hurts a little, then it is quite possible to get by with tablets, warming ointments, plasters.

If NSAIDs did not help, then resort to:

1. Corticosteroidswhich have both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of treatment with these drugs are that the effect is achieved much faster than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and the lack of hormones, which 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. Therefore, doctors are in no hurry to prescribe corticosteroids.
2. Chondroprotectors, which are injected into the affected area to optimize the level of synovial fluid, normalize friction, pressure and movement of the joint.

After the end of drug treatment, you can continue it with folk remedies.

Fix treatment well:

• Masotherapy;
• Gymnastics, swimming;
• Physiotherapy.

An important role is played by the prevention of disease recurrence, for which a course of prophylactic treatment in the form of taking vitamins is carried out twice a year.and NSAIDs.

Operational methods

If the conservative treatment proved ineffective, and the joint still hurts, then an operation is prescribed, which will be performed, depending on the degree of tissue damage and the diagnosis. If it is arthrosis in the third stage, then it is worth making prosthetics, that is, replacing the articulation with an artificial one. If we are talking about the rupture of the meniscus, then with the help of special punctures it is sewn up. In any case, the doctors will do anything to avoid surgery, and the pain has stopped no matter what.

Conclusion

So, the joint can hurt for various reasons, it can be infectious or neurological problems. 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:

1. conservative method.
2. Operative method of treatment.

There are very rare cases when surgical methods start treatment immediately, without resorting to conservative methods. However, such cases also occur, 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 may lose consciousness from the intensity of the pain.