What to do if the joints hurt - treatment, a complete description of the causes of pain

Over the past decades, not only the elderly have complained of joint pain, but also the category of people whose age has barely reached 35 years. Why this happens, there is no exact information, but the problem is becoming more and more pressing every year and is puzzling an increasing number of people.

Introduction

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

So why do joints hurt, what can cause joint pain, how to treat sick joints - this article is about all this.

Painful joints can express themselves in different ways: at first it can be just unpleasant sensations, then crackling (crunching), after numbness and numbness, and only then the pain begins to manifest itself in different ways: back pain, nipping, 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 based on the nature of the pain and the place of its localization.

• With infectious diseases (tonsillitis, bronchitis) pulls pain in the joint, hurts, usually not one joint suffers, but several at once.
• During poisoning of the body (for example, in the case of poisoning with mushrooms, alcohol), aching pain affects several joints at once.
• With exacerbation of chronic diseases (cholecystitis, tonsillitis), joint pain is of a fluid nature, that is, it can appear in one place and move to another.
• In case of inflammation, the pain in the joints is acute, it shoots and pierces. As a rule, one joint hurts, in rare cases - several.

Thus, the causes of joint pain can be different: infectious, inflammatory, poisoning and chronic. At the same time, if the cause is not traumatological, rheumatological, orthopedic in nature, then joint pain is far from the only symptom that will bother. Other signs of people's ill health will be mixed with them:

• Increase in body temperature;
• Fever;
• Runny nose;
• tear;
• Loss of appetite;
• Rattle 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 occur.

Pain with musculoskeletal problems

When various diseases of the musculoskeletal system become the cause of joint pain, it is time to find out which joint is unhealthy and what to do about it.

Joint pain in traumatological (and close to them) 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 a specific joint.

• Fever.
• Numbness and stiffness in movements.
• Sharp piercing pain on movement, and sometimes at rest.
• Joint deformity.

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

• Arthritis of the joints;
• Arthritis (polyarthritis);
• Osteoarthritis (polyarthrosis);
• Rheumatic polyarthritis;
• Arthritis;
• meniscal 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 when caused by infections. In such cases, it is pointless to treat joints without eliminating the source of infection. The pain will stop, but then all the symptoms will return again. As a rule, joint pain disappears when the infectious process is suppressed.

Another, the most common reason why the joints hurt is the pathological processes that occur inside them or the injuries that have been inflicted.

1. Rheumatic arthritis (polyarthritis)- a disease whose catalyst is serious infectious diseases: tonsillitis, rubella, influenza, brucellosis. Usually, large joints are affected, while the lesion is symmetrical: two elbow or knee joints at once. Joint pain is accompanied by high fever and fever during the exacerbation period, which practically does not happen with other diseases of the joints.

2. Osteoarthritis (polyarthrosis)- pathological processes leading to partial or complete (with advanced forms of the disease) destruction of cartilage. Joint pain is accompanied by reduced motor activity of the joint. The symptoms of osteoarthritis and arthritis are similar, but there is one difference: a sore spot with osteoarthritis hurts when you try to move, which cannot be said about arthritis (with that, the joint hurts even at rest).
3. Arthritis- degenerative processes occurring in the joint, associated with inflammation of the joint tissue and its deformation.
4. Arthritis- a violation of calcium and salt metabolism in the body, due to which growths appear on the joint, which become inflamed and hurt. Characteristic features - pain at night.
5. meniscus tear- Injury to the knee (or scapula), associated with a violation of the integrity of the meniscus. Pain in such cases arises in the knee and gives back to him, when you move, you can hear a crunch in the joints.
6. Functional joint pain occurs whendisturbances in the nervous system, it makes no sense to do anything about the articulation, as the problem must be sought elsewhere. Once it is eliminated, the discomfort will pass.

Of course, this is 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

Treatment of joint pain is rather a secondary task, the first goal is usually the elimination of inflammation and the causes 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, worsening the situation.All a person in pain needs to do is see a doctor.If it happens that the feeling of stiffness and soreness in the joints arose at night and does not allow you to fall asleep, then you can drink an anesthetic and rub with a warming ointment as needed.

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

Most orthopedic diseases are treated with traditional methods, and the use of surgical methods is carried out only as a last resort, when a long course of drug treatment has proved powerless.

Medical treatment (conservative method)

Conservative methods are the most popular in this case.

Not a single treatment for such diseases was complete without an appointment:

• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are used in various dosage forms: ointments, injections, tablets, plasters, suppositories. At the same time, it is not uncommon for a doctor to decide to prescribe NSAIDs in several forms at once: injections and ointments, tablets and suppositories with ointments. The hospitalization course is very long, the treatment conditions are determined taking into account a person's individual characteristics: age, physical. When prescribing, the presence of other diseases, contraindications and possible side effects must be taken into account.
• Painkillerused in different dosage forms. With a strongly pronounced pain syndrome, potent injections are prescribed, if it hurts a little, then it is quite possible to cope with pills, warming ointments, plasters.

If NSAIDs did not help, then resort to:

1. Corticosteroidswhich has 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 lack of hormones, which do not have a particularly 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 rush to prescribe corticosteroids.
2. Chondroprotectors, which is injected into the affected area to optimize the level of synovial fluid, normalize friction, pressure and movement of the joint.

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

Well fix the treatment:

• Massage therapy;
• Gymnastics, swimming;
• Physiotherapy.

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

Operational methods

If conservative treatment turned out to be powerless and the joint still hurts, surgery is prescribed, which surgery will be performed depending on the degree of tissue damage and the diagnosis. If this is arthrosis in the third stage, it is worth making prostheses, that is, replacing the articulation with an artificial one. If we are talking about a fracture of the meniscus, then it is sewn together with the help of special punctures. In any case, the doctors will do everything to avoid surgery, and the pain has stopped no matter what.

Conclusion

Thus, the joint can hurt for various reasons, it can be infectious and neurological problems. Joint pain is the main cause of pain. Don't ignore the pain, try to heal yourself or drown the pain with painkillers.

There are two main methods of tissue processing:

1. conservative method.
2. Operative treatment method.

Quite rare are cases where surgical methods begin treatment immediately without resorting to conservative methods. However, such cases also occur, for example, if a person is immobilized and the degeneration processes are at the stage where it is useless to treat with drugs. In such cases, it hurts so much that a person may lose consciousness due to the intensity of the pain.