What to do when your arm and leg joints hurt?

It is believed that the worst pain is toothache. Although the same can be said about earaches and headaches. Joint pain is no exception. It can make a person suffer, take away sleep and appetite.

The pain is sharp or dull, stabbing, aching, at night or throughout the day - all these are symptoms of arthritis.

Prevalence of joint pain

There is no clear pattern between joint pain severity and prevalence. Knee joints may be more painful than shoulders, elbows and hands at the same time. Sensation in the spine can be painful with widespread osteochondrosis or ankylosing spondylitis. But more often people are bothered by pain in the legs.

Both arms and legs experience significant stress throughout life - body weight, actions, injuries. Pain, pain in the joints, and their deformation are inevitable that accompany age-related changes in the musculoskeletal system.

Mechanism of pain

Why do joints hurt is a question that even doctors find it difficult to answer definitively.

The mechanism of pain when the musculoskeletal system is damaged is quite complex. Often, these symptoms are caused by the following processes:

1. Inflammation of the joints, or polyarthritis.The inflammation itself triggers the production of substances that can cause pain. In addition, they increase the sensitivity of pain receptors to repeated exposure. That is why the usual load on the inflamed joint leads to a sharp pain reaction.
2. Joint swelling.The increased volume looks like a joint tumor. Edema tissue mechanically puts pressure on the joint structure, causing discomfort and worsening the severity of the process.
3. Dystrophic changes.This can be called the wear and tear of bones and cartilage. With age and constant stress, joint function deteriorates. The production of synovial fluid is disturbed, and sliding of the articular surface becomes difficult. Their constant irritation by friction stimulates the growth of subchondral bone. Such marginal bone growths are called osteophytes and can cause real suffering to a person. They look like protruding bumps on the joints. Osteophytes are often injured, and this causes their inflammation, completing the pathological circle.
4. Traumatic and post-traumatic complications.Serious injuries: bruises, dislocations, broken bones do not disappear without leaving a trace. Even if the damage heals, joint pain and stiffness may remain for the rest of your life. Doctors often face complaints of pain in damaged joints. They usually get worse when the weather changes or at night.
5. Interruption of exchange.Calcification is deposited in tendons and ligaments as a result of metabolic disorders. Their violation leads to a sharp pain syndrome.

Pathological processes in these joints develop in diseases of the musculoskeletal system.

Diseases of the musculoskeletal system

The number of joint diseases is large. There are rare forms - isolated around the world, and there are also those that are found in most people. The prevalence of this disease explains the fact that everyone experiences joint pain at least once in a while.

It is important to know the main diseases of the musculoskeletal system, so as not to ignore dangerous symptoms, but to start treating and curing the disease in time.

Osteoarthritis

Doctors often hear from elderly patients that they have pain in the joints of the arms and legs, the lower back, and the neck. In addition to pain, they complain of joint deformities, difficulty walking, and inability to do housework.

These symptoms are characteristic of osteoarthritis of the joints. In the case of bone and cartilage deformation, it is called deforming osteoarthritis. Deforming osteoarthritis in a severe form can make a person completely disabled.

Osteoarthritis affects any joint - large and small. The important thing is that they experience enough pressure.

If you stress the joints, osteoarthritis will develop several years earlier, especially if there are predisposing factors. This includes:

• Continuous load. It can be redundant or boring. Static load plays an important role in the development of arthrosis changes.
• Hypothermia or overheating.
• Injuries - bruises and fractures, subluxations and dislocations.
• Overweight. Obesity is one of the most important risk factors for the development of degenerative osteoarthritis.
• Poor nutrition.
• Lack of movement.
• Subsequent infection and inflammation of the joints is polyarthritis.

Degenerative disease of the shoulder girdle

The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body, with maximum range of motion. It bears dynamic loads, so degenerative changes in the structure of the shoulder girdle rarely occur.

They usually develop in old age. Marginal bone growth appears and articular cartilage atrophies. If degenerative changes in the shoulder joint are pronounced, then the cause should be sought. This usually occurs due to a fracture or osteochondromatosis.

Pain in the shoulder joint is painful and persistent; Stiffness is often associated with degenerative changes in adjacent structures:

1. Calcification deposition in the supraspinatus tendon and painful abduction arc syndrome. With this pathology, pain in the joint 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 of the shoulder girdle. Occurs as a result of prolonged immobilization of the shoulder - when wearing a bandage, provides rest for the arm with thoracic radiculitis.

No obvious deformation of the elements of the shoulder girdle was observed. Symptoms and complaints related to damage to adjacent structures, rather than shoulder osteoarthritis deformity, usually come first.

Osteoarthritis of the elbow joint

The likelihood of experiencing degenerative changes in the elbow joint is low. It increases in old age and in people involved in certain professions. Boring physical activity has a negative effect on joint processes, especially when exposed to vibration.

Deformative osteoarthritis of the elbow is often found in tennis players, masons and miners, blacksmiths, and foundry workers.

Joint pain is usually dull, achy, and worsens with exercise. No significant deformation of the joint was observed. Sometimes, under the influence of provoking factors, joint inflammation also accompanies osteoarthritis, painful swelling occurs in the elbow area, and the pain bothers you even at rest.

Deformation of osteoarthritis in hands and finger joints

In recent years, the diagnosis of hand osteoarthritis has become the answer to the question of why finger joints hurt at a young age. This disease is getting younger quickly. Already at the age of 30-35 years, with complaints of pain in the finger joints, signs of the first stage of deforming osteoarthritis can be seen on x-rays. The reasons for this are various:

1. The number of professions that put pressure on the joints of the hands and fingers is increasing - programmers, typists, and active computer users. And mostly young people are involved in this.
2. Work in hypothermia. These are tram and trolleybus drivers in winter, builders and villagers.
3. Lack of normal dynamic load on finger joints. Few people try to do gymnastics, especially therapeutic exercises.
4. Concomitant disease - joint inflammation.

Finger and hand joints become deformed over time, and inflammatory tumors can be detected in the phalangeal area with the development of polyarthritis. Movement in it becomes 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 the main load is static. Weight and static loads are the main cause of the development of deforming osteoarthritis of the foot. In this area it occurs in the following forms:

• Damage to the hip joint - coxarthrosis.
• Damage to the knee with the formation of gonarthrosis.
• Dystrophic disease of the legs.

Coxarthrosis

Coxarthrosis is a common and dangerous disease. At first, a person pays attention to symptoms such as pain in the joints, creaking, clicking when walking. All these are temporary and do not affect the quality of life much. As the disease progresses, stiffness worsens, and difficulty appears when trying to abduct or adduct the leg.

Joint pain can be painful, debilitating, and bothersome at any time of the day. In the morning my movement is stuck, I have to do exercises for the hip joints to move apart.

Gonarthrosis

Throughout life, the knee experiences a load that far exceeds a person's body weight. This inevitably leads to the development of degenerative processes in it. If a person has obesity of at least the first or second degree, knee deformation will occur faster. In grades three and four, deforming osteoarthritis is more likely to develop at a young age.

Osteoarthritis of the knee joint has its own characteristics. Why does joint pain often occur in this area? In addition to bone proliferation and cartilage degeneration, calcium crystals are deposited in the joint cavity. A kind of calcification depot is formed. This disease is called deposition of calcium pyrophosphate crystals.

At first they can be found only in the thickness of the cartilage, then on its surface, in the articular cavity, tendons and even muscles.

Deposition of calcium crystals worsens the course of degenerative osteoarthritis. The disease manifests itself as a painful pain, which can turn into acute pain when the calcification is pinched. Leg mobility is very limited. In the knee area, a deformed articular surface, bone growth is visible, and dense nodules can be palpated.

Dystrophic changes in the joints of the legs

Leg joints are less prone to osteoarthritis deformation. The exception is the metacarpophalangeal joint of the first toe. The defect occurs in almost everyone after 55-60 years. In women, it becomes defective at an earlier age. The reason for this is the abuse of shoes that are narrow and uncomfortable with heels.

In addition to the discomfort and unaesthetic appearance of the deformed fingers, a person experiences severe pain in the joints. As osteophytes grow, protruding bones form around the toes, making it difficult to wear even the widest shoes. Continuous injury to osteophytes causes inflammation of the toe joints - polyarthritis develops. This situation can be complicated by the addition of infection.

Inflammatory diseases of the musculoskeletal system

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

1. Joint pain.It is often acute - burning or shooting. If the cause of arthritis is an infection, the inflammation becomes purulent. In this case, the pain will be throbbing and very strong. In chronic and subacute forms, joint pain will resemble a variant with arthrosis.
2. Change shape.In the acute process, inflammatory tumors form in the articulation area, the skin color changes, and the temperature rises. If a bacterial infection occurs, general symptoms of intoxication appear - high fever, chills, and health deteriorates sharply. This disease is very difficult to tolerate in the case of polyarthritis.
3. Impaired function.Movement in an inflamed joint is very limited due to pain and accumulation of fluid in the joint cavity. This swelling, like an inflammatory tumor, mechanically prevents movement.

Causes of arthritis

The causes of arthritis are varied. These diseases are usually divided into main groups:

• Contagious.They develop when the joints are directly affected by an infection, such as Lyme disease. The infection can be viral or bacterial, penetrating from the outside or from neighboring affected organs, bones. Arthritis caused by bacterial infections is very severe.
• Reactive.In this case, the inflammatory process develops in response to an infection in the past or present. This includes damage to the musculoskeletal system after influenza, colds, and urogenital infections. An important sign is contact with infection.
• Autoimmune.Sometimes a person's immune system begins to destroy its own cells. Manifestations of such diseases are varied, but articular syndrome is usually the most clearly expressed. The most common autoimmune pathology is rheumatoid polyarthritis. It is characterized by severe deformation of the joint with constant pain.

Autoimmune polyarthritis cannot be cured, but it must be stopped to keep the disease at an early stage.

Treatment of joint disease

What to do if you are diagnosed with arthritis? Do I need to take medicines, antibiotics, or can I limit myself to folk remedies? Only a doctor can answer all questions correctly, and he will prescribe the appropriate treatment.

ethnoscience

Folk remedies have been prescribed for a long time - both by healers and modern doctors. They are quite capable of relieving inflammation and eliminating pain, reducing swelling in the affected area.

Among folk remedies, cabbage leaves are considered the undisputed leader. Apply cold or in a compress with honey to the painful joints can relieve the manifestations of inflammation and reduce the condition. Banana leaves, chopped mushrooms, and vodka liqueur are also used.

Folk medicine preparations are diverse, but you need to remember that they can only treat mild forms of the disease and always under the supervision of a doctor.

Medicines

Medicines used in the treatment of joint diseases are aimed at all parts of the pathological process. The main groups of drugs:

1. Analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs.Usually these are drugs from the same group. Since the main symptom of arthritis is pain, relieving it is the doctor's first priority. A good effect is achieved when using local drugs.
2. Steroid and cytostatic hormones.It is strictly forbidden to take these medicines without a doctor's prescription. It is used for all serious autoimmune processes and is designed to relieve certain inflammations in the body. Without hormonal drugs, it is impossible to get rid of pain and inflammatory tumors in rheumatoid polyarthritis. They also prevent joint deformation.
3. Antibiotics.They are prescribed if the cause of arthritis is a bacterial infection. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are used that penetrate well into bone tissue. Sometimes, if the pathogen persists, the doctor may treat the infection using several groups of antibiotics. This is also desirable if the disease is caused by a mixed infection. Keep in mind that antibiotics are strong drugs with individual side effects, and strictly follow the doctor's instructions during the treatment process.
4. A preparation that protects and restores cartilage.It is impossible to treat chronic polyarthritis and degenerative osteoarthritis without chondroprotectors. For this purpose, both single drugs - chondroitin or glucosamine - and combinations are used. There is an extensive evidence base on the use of chondroprotectors based on many clinical trials.
5. Intra-articular injection.This is the best way to deliver medicine directly to the site of the disease. Usually, hormonal anti-inflammatory drugs are injected into the joint cavity. In recent years, hyaluronic acid has also been used for intra-articular injections.

Physiotherapy

It is not worth treating joint diseases only with medicines. The combined use of physiotherapeutic techniques (magnetotherapy, electrophoresis) and physical therapy significantly increases the chances of recovery.

Orthopedic devices are also used to limit movement in the affected joint. This includes orthoses and splints. The purpose of this device is to reduce the load on the diseased joint.

Surgical treatment

The radical cure for advanced osteoarthritis is endoprosthetics. Only this method is able to replace the destroyed joint with a synthetic joint, restoring its full range of motion.

Endoprosthesis replacement is a treatment option in situations where conservative therapy is ineffective.