What should you do when the joints in your arms and legs hurt?

The worst pain is believed to be toothache. Although the same can be said for earaches and headaches. Joint pain is no exception. It makes a person miserable, depriving him of sleep and appetite.Whether the pain is sharp, dull, stabbing, aching, nighttime or daytime – all of these are symptoms of joint disease.

Prevalence of joint pain

There is no clear pattern between the severity of joint pain and its prevalence. The knee may be more painful than the shoulder, elbow, and hand at the same time. Extensive osteochondrosis or ankylosing spondylitis can cause pain in the spine. But more commonly, people suffer from pain in their extremities.

Arms and legs undergo significant stress throughout life—weight, movement, injuries. Joint pain, soreness and deformation are inevitable with age-related changes in the musculoskeletal system.

pain mechanism

Why joints hurt is a question that even doctors find difficult to answer clearly.The mechanisms that produce pain when the musculoskeletal system is damaged are complex. Most often, these symptoms are caused by the following processes:

1. Joint inflammation or polyarthritis.Inflammation itself triggers the production of pain-causing substances. Additionally, they increase the sensitivity of pain receptors to repeated exposure. This is why the usual load on an inflamed joint results in a severe pain response.
2. Swelling of joints.It increases in size and looks like a joint tumor. Edematous tissue mechanically exerts pressure on joint structures, causing discomfort and exacerbating the severity of the process.
3. Changes in malnutrition.This can be called wear and tear of bones and cartilage. With age and continued stress, joint function deteriorates. The production of synovial fluid is disturbed and sliding of the joint surfaces becomes difficult. They stimulate the growth of subchondral bone through constant stimulation through friction. This type of marginal bone growth is called osteophytes and can cause real pain. They look like raised bumps on the joints. Osteophytes are often injured, which causes inflammation, completing the pathological cycle.
4. Trauma and post-traumatic complications.Serious injuries: Bruises, dislocations, broken bones will not go away and leave no trace. Even if the injury heals, joint pain and stiffness may remain with you for the rest of your life. Doctors often encounter complaints of pain in damaged joints. The situation usually gets worse when the weather changes or at night.
5. Exchange barriers.Calcific deposits in tendons and ligaments due to metabolic disorders. Their violation can lead to severe pain syndrome.

These pathological processes in the joints develop in diseases of the musculoskeletal system.

Musculoskeletal system diseases

The number of joint diseases is huge. There are some rare forms - isolated throughout the world - and some that are found in most people. The prevalence of these conditions explains why everyone experiences joint pain at least occasionally.It is important to know the main diseases of the musculoskeletal system so as not to ignore dangerous symptoms and instead promptly start treatment and cure of the disease.

Osteoarthritis

Doctors often hear from older patients about joint pain in their arms, legs, lower back and neck. In addition to pain, they complain of deformed joints, difficulty walking and being unable to do homework.These symptoms are characteristic of osteoarthritis of the joints. If the bones and cartilage become deformed, it is called deformative osteoarthritis. Severe deforming osteoarthritis can leave a person completely disabled.

Osteoarthritis affects any joint, regardless of size. The only thing that matters is that they take enough pressure.

Osteoarthritis can appear years earlier if the joints are overloaded, especially if predisposing factors are present. These include:

• constant load. It may be redundant or monotonous. Static loading plays an important role in the development of joint changes.
• Hypothermia or overheating.
• Injuries – Bruises, fractures, subluxations and dislocations.
• excess weight. Obesity is one of the most important risk factors for developing osteoarthritis.
• Malnutrition.
• lack of exercise.
• Infection and subsequent joint inflammation is polyarthritis.

shoulder girdle degenerative disease

The shoulder joint is the joint with the largest range of motion and the largest range of motion in the human body. It is subject to dynamic loads, so degenerative changes in the strap structure are rare.They usually develop in old age. Marginal bone growth and articular cartilage atrophy occur. If degenerative changes in the shoulder joint are obvious, the cause should be found. This usually occurs due to a fracture or osteochondromatosis.Shoulder joint pain persists; stiffness is often related to degenerative changes in adjacent structures:

1. Deposition of calcification in the supraspinatus tendon and the resulting painful abducens arc syndrome. In this pathological condition, joint pain occurs when trying to move the shoulder along a certain arc. If you change the angle of inclination, the pain disappears.
2. Frozen shoulder syndrome. This condition is characterized by severe stiffness in the shoulder girdle. Occurs due to prolonged immobilization of the shoulder - provide rest to the arm suffering from thoracic radiculitis when using a bandage.

No significant deformation of the shoulder strap elements was observed. Symptoms and complaints related to injury to adjacent structures, rather than deforming osteoarthritis of the shoulder, are usually the first to appear.

elbow osteoarthritis

The likelihood of degenerative changes in the elbow joint is low. It increases in older age and in people who work in certain occupations. Monotonous physical activity can have a negative impact on joint processes, especially when exposed to vibration.

Osteoarthritis deformans of the elbow is common in tennis players, masons and miners, blacksmiths and foundry workers.

Typically joint pain is a dull ache that gets worse with movement. No significant deformation of the joint was observed. Sometimes, under the influence of predisposing factors, joint inflammation can be combined with osteoarthritis, and the elbow will be painful and swollen, even at rest.

Osteoarthritis of hand and finger joints

In recent years, a diagnosis of hand osteoarthritis has become the answer to the question of why finger joints hurt at a young age. The disease is rapidly affecting younger people. At the age of 30-35 years, he complained of pain in his finger joints and evidence of first-grade deformative osteoarthritis was seen on X-ray. There are various reasons for this:

1. The number of professions that put pressure on hands and finger joints is increasing - programmers, typists and simple computer users. And most young people are involved.
2. Work in low temperature conditions. They are winter tram and trolley bus drivers, builders and villagers.
3. The knuckles lack normal dynamic loading. Few people make the effort to do gymnastics, especially therapeutic exercises.
4. Accompanying disease - joint inflammation.

Over time, the joints of the fingers and hands become deformed, and as polyarthritis develops, inflammatory tumors develop in the phalangeal area. Their movements become painful and difficult. Joint pain is intermittent at first but then becomes constant, dull or aching.

degenerative foot disease

Leg joints are more susceptible to degeneration because their primary load is static. Weight and static loading are the main causes of leg deformity osteoarthritis. In this field it appears in the form of:

• Hip Injuries – Hip Arthrosis.
• Injury to the knee and development of knee arthrosis.
• Dystrophic diseases of the feet.

Hip arthrosis

Hip arthrosis is a common and dangerous condition. Initially, people notice symptoms such as joint pain, crunching, clicking sounds when walking. All this is temporary and does not affect quality of life much. As the disease progresses, stiffness increases and difficulty occurs when trying to abduct or adduct the leg.

Joint pain can be excruciating, debilitating, and bother you at any time of the day. In the morning, my movement is limited and I have to work on my hip joints to get them apart.

knee joint disease

Over a lifetime, the knees bear loads that far exceed a person's body weight. This inevitably leads to the development of their degenerative processes. If a person has at least grade one or two obesity, the knee will deform faster. In third and fourth grades, deformity osteoarthritis is more likely to occur at a younger age.Knee osteoarthritis has its own characteristics. Why do joint pains often occur in this area? In addition to bone spur proliferation and cartilage degeneration, calcium crystals will also be deposited in the joint cavity. A kind of calcification point is formed. This disease is called calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposits.

At first they are found only in the thickness of cartilage, then on its surface, in joint cavities, tendons and even muscles.

The deposition of calcium crystals can worsen the course of deforming osteoarthritis. The disease manifests as soreness, and pinching the calcification points can turn into acute pain. The mobility of the legs is significantly limited. In the knee area, the joint surface is deformed, bone hyperplasia can be seen, and dense nodules can be palpated.

dystrophic changes in foot joints

The joints of the feet are less susceptible to deformative osteoarthritis. One exception is the metacarpophalangeal joint of the first toe. Almost everyone develops this deformity after the age of 55 to 60 years. In women, it can cause deformity at an earlier age. The reason for this is the misuse of narrow, uncomfortable high heels.In addition to the inconvenience and unsightliness of deformed fingers, people can also experience severe pain in their joints. As osteophytes grow, protruding bones form around the toes, making even the widest shoes difficult to wear. Continued damage to the osteophytes can lead to inflammation of the toe joints - the formation of polyarthritis. If you add an infection to the mix, the situation can get complicated.

Inflammatory diseases of the musculoskeletal system

Joint inflammation that affects multiple groups of joints at the same time is called polyarthritis. If only one joint is inflamed, this form is called monoarthritis. Symptoms depend on the type of inflammation or infection causing it:

1. joint pain.It's usually acute - a burn or a shot. If the cause of arthritis is an infection, the inflammation becomes purulent. In this case, the pain will be throbbing and very intense. In chronic and subacute forms, joint pain resembles variants of arthropathy.
2. Change shape.In the acute course, inflammatory tumors form in the joint area, the color of the skin changes, and the temperature increases. If a bacterial infection occurs, the usual symptoms of poisoning occur - high fever, chills, a sharp deterioration in health. For people with polyarthritis, the disease can be especially difficult to live with.
3. Impaired function.Movement of the inflamed joint is significantly limited due to pain and fluid accumulation in the joint cavity. This swelling acts like an inflammatory tumor and mechanically prevents movement.

causes of arthritis

There are many causes of arthritis. These diseases are usually divided into several categories:

• Contagious.This condition occurs when a joint is directly affected by an infection, such as Lyme disease. Infections can be viral or bacterial, penetrating from the outside or affected adjacent organs, bones. Arthritis caused by bacterial infections is particularly serious.
• reactive.In this case, the inflammatory process is a response to a past or current infection. These include damage to the musculoskeletal system following influenza, colds, and genitourinary infections. An important sign is a link to infection.
• self-immune.Sometimes, a person's immune system begins to destroy its own cells. Manifestations of this disease vary, but joint syndrome is usually the most obvious manifestation. The most common autoimmune pathology is rheumatoid polyarthritis. It is characterized by severe joint deformation accompanied by persistent pain.

There is no cure for autoimmune polyarthritis, but treatment must be discontinued to control the disease in its early stages.

Treatment of joint diseases

What should you do if you are diagnosed with a joint disease? Do I need to take medication or antibiotics? Or can I just use folk remedies? Only a doctor can answer all questions correctly and give appropriate treatment options.

ethnoscience

Folk remedies have long been prescribed by healers and modern doctors. They are great at relieving inflammation and eliminating pain, reducing swelling in the affected area.Among folk remedies, cabbage leaves are considered the undisputed leader. Apply it as a cold compress or with honey to sore joints to soothe signs of inflammation and provide relief. Plantain leaves, chopped mushrooms and vodka liqueur are also used.

Folk remedies are diverse, but you need to remember that they can only treat minor illnesses and must be carried out under the supervision of a doctor.

drug

Drugs used to treat joint diseases target various parts of the pathological process. Main drug categories:

1. Analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs.Usually these are drugs from the same group. Since the main symptom of joint disease is pain, pain relief is a doctor's top priority. Good results can be achieved using topical treatments.
2. Steroid hormones and cytostatics.It is strictly forbidden to take these medications without a doctor's prescription. They are used in all serious autoimmune processes and are designed to relieve specific inflammation in the body. Without hormonal drugs, it is impossible to get rid of the pain and inflammatory tumors of rheumatoid polyarthritis. They also inhibit joint deformation.
3. antibiotic.These medications are needed if the cause of your arthritis is a bacterial infection. The broad-spectrum antibiotics used penetrate well into bone tissue. Sometimes, doctors may use several groups of antibiotics to treat the infection if the pathogen persists. This is also reasonable if the disease is caused by mixed infections. It is important to remember that antibiotics are powerful drugs with individual side effects, and it is necessary to strictly follow the doctor's instructions during treatment.
4. Preparation to protect and restore cartilage.Treatment of chronic polyarthritis and deforming osteoarthritis is impossible without chondroprotectants. For this purpose, single drugs (chondroitin or glucosamine) and combination drugs can be used. There is an extensive evidence base for the use of chondroprotectants based on many clinical trials.
5. Intra-articular injection.This is the best way to deliver drugs directly to the site of disease. Typically, hormonal anti-inflammatory drugs are injected into the joint space. In recent years, hyaluronic acid has also been used for intra-articular injection.

physiotherapy

Treating joint disease with medication alone is not worth it. The combined use of physical therapy techniques (magnetic therapy, electrophoresis) and physical therapy can significantly increase the chances of recovery.

Orthopedic devices are also used to limit movement of the affected joints. These include orthotics and splints. The purpose of these devices is to reduce the load on diseased joints.

Surgical treatment

The radical cure for advanced osteoarthritis is endoprosthesis. Only this method can replace the damaged joint with a synthetic joint and restore its full range of motion.Endoprosthetic replacement is a treatment option when conservative treatments fail.