Joint pain is a natural symptom of many diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Painful sensations are experienced once or repeatedly by up to half of the world's population. Most often, the development of pathological processes begins in the second half of life, but it often concerns young patients. Joint pain affects adjacent tissues, muscles and tendons. If left untreated, the problem progresses rapidly, leading to a significant deterioration in quality of life and disability. Timely contact with medical specialists helps to make an accurate diagnosis and start treatment that completely relieves joint pain and eliminates its causes.
Causes of joint pain
Pain can be caused by many reasons. Among them:
- Fresh or old injuries.
- Excess weight.
- High physical or sports activity.
- Work that involves standing for long periods of time.
- Passive lifestyle.
- Age.
- Genetic predisposition.
- Weakening of the immune system.
- Infectious lesions of the body.
- Arthrosis, arthritis, gout.
- Vascular spasms during stress or overload.
Types of joint pain
Pain in the joint during the injury or shortly after it is a natural phenomenon. But discomfort can be caused by a number of hidden reasons: inflammation, infections, overload and others. If you have repeated pain in the joints in the absence of obvious causes and if the disease progresses, you should visit a specialist as soon as possible. Any joint intoxication is potentially dangerous.
| The type of pain | Display state | Description | Possible reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering | It occurs in people of any age during physical activity or sports | Aching pain that goes away at rest, with self-massage, physiotherapeutic procedures | Metabolic disorders, previous injuries, dystrophic changes in the cartilage tissue of the joints |
| Starting | Marked at the beginning of the movement | Sharp pain and limitation of joint mobility, decreases 3-5 minutes after the start of physical activity | Arthrosis, osteochondrosis |
| night | Pain drawing with permanent intensity | Occurs at rest, during stress, excessive exertion, after consumption of smoked meat or pickles | Arthrosis, gout |
| REFLECT | Twisting, aching, pulling pains | It spreads to the surrounding tissues. Occurs during sports activities, excess body weight | Diseases of the spine, arthrosis, arthritis |
Doctor consultation and diagnosis
- Beauty Clinics Chiropractors
- Vertebrologist
- Osteopaths
- Neurologist
During the consultation, a complete diagnosis is made. Based on the results of the consultation, the doctor gives detailed recommendations for treatment and, if necessary, prescribes additional diagnosis.
Diagnostic tests
Advanced joint pain is fraught with extremely negative consequences. It spreads to adjacent tissues, affecting them pathologically. Large ulcerative lesions develop on the skin. Inflammation can affect the urinary system and genitals. Limb mobility will decrease. The quality of life will drop significantly.
To avoid such a sad result, consult a general practitioner, orthopedist, rheumatologist or neurologist. Do not allow the pain to become constant, painful, deform the organ and affect your overall health.
With a well-structured diagnostic process, the doctor, after listening to the patient's complaints and visual examination, collects an anamnesis and prescribes the following procedures depending on the reasonable suspicion of a specific disease:
- Blood tests. By changing some indicators, the causative disease can be determined immediately;
- X-ray of the affected area. One of the most accessible and reliable studies;
- Synovial fluid sample. Thickening or changes in properties indicate the development of arthrosis changes;
- MRI. It provides layer-by-layer visualization of the tissue structures of the joint and the area around it. Accuracy is enhanced by contrast. When planning the surgical intervention, such a diagnosis is mandatory;
- Ultrasound. Effective in inflammatory processes, systemic diseases, some types of injuries;
- Duplex scan. It makes it possible to evaluate the vascular environment of the organ and the quality of blood flow in it;
- CT. It creates a three-dimensional image of the organ under study, making it possible to evaluate functionality in motion.
A comprehensive examination of the body will help to get a complete picture of the disease, to make an accurate diagnosis, to differentiate diseases with similar symptoms and to start restorative and rehabilitative therapy.
Therapeutic therapy for joint pain
The treatment chosen will depend on the diagnosed disease, its severity and rate of progression. The earlier the causes of joint pain are identified, the easier the treatment will be and the better the results will be. In the early stages, exercise therapy and physiotherapy are sufficient, but severe cases may lead to surgery.
The following methods are used in the treatment of joint pain:
- Manual therapy. Manual correction of musculoskeletal problems. Returning joints and bones to physiological positions;
- Physiotherapy. Effective treatment with natural and artificially created factors. Light, water, magnetic or electric fields, temperature influence and others are used. Painless procedures that activate the body's own defenses;
- Massage. Mechanical effect on subcutaneous receptors, relieving spasms, tension, optimizing blood flow;
- Orthopedic shoes, insoles. Elimination of foot deformities, correction of postural disorders, relief of joints;
- Reflexology. Insertion of needles into biologically active points of the body. Improves microcirculation, blood pressure and reduces pain;
- Ozone therapy. It saturates tissues with oxygen, accelerates the regeneration of damaged organs, increases personal immunity, cleanses from toxic damage;
- Plasma therapy. Injecting your platelet-rich plasma restores joints, skin, and other organs;
- Drug therapy. The pain syndrome is relieved by taking painkillers. Chondroprotectors are used to restore affected joints. Injections into the inner cavity of the joint are possible;
- Surgical intervention. Joints destroyed by the disease are replaced with modern prostheses that have the same functionality and a significant time resource. It is indicated for severe cases of lesions.
Prevention of joint pain
To strengthen joint tissues and maintain their healthy condition, it is recommended:
- perform groups of special exercises that support the optimal functioning of the joints;
- Go swimming;
- avoid overloading and hypothermia of the joint capsule;
- control your weight, avoiding excess weight;
- drink 2-3 liters of water a day;
- minimize alcohol consumption, stop smoking;
- do regular industrial exercise during routine sitting or standing work;
- treat infectious and viral diseases in a qualitative and timely manner. inflammatory diseases;
- participate in a scheduled annual medical examination; if there are signs of joint discomfort, consult a doctor immediately.
Joint diseases: successful treatment in a modern clinic
For many years, the clinic's specialists have offered effective treatment for a variety of joint diseases, putting the most difficult patients on their feet, who were rejected by other doctors or clinics. A guaranteed positive result is a natural result of using an integrated approach that combines classical therapeutic methods proven by many years of experience and modern innovative medical achievements in the field of joint pain. The professional arsenal of the clinic's doctors includes a large number of rehabilitation and recovery programs, which are constantly updated with the latest and most effective developments. To do this, doctors regularly go for training, retraining, seminars or conferences in the best clinics of other countries and become familiar with the advanced achievements of therapy and surgery.
Clinic patients are offered free consultation and diagnosis, drawing up a preliminary treatment plan. The results of the effectiveness of the therapy will not be long in coming; after the first sessions, patients notice a significant reduction and even complete disappearance of unpleasant pain symptoms.
FAQ
Is it true that only old people have joint pain?
Joint pain can occur in people of any age. The cause of its appearance are many infectious diseases, bacterial infections, diabetes mellitus, chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and many other problems of the body. Joint pain at a young age can be a consequence of dysplasia syndrome, in which there is weakness of the connective tissue.
Could joint pain be a reaction to the change in weather?
Yes, joint pain makes people addicted to the weather. Pressure changes in the area where you live increase or decrease intraosseous blood pressure. Growth leads to excruciating pain. Typically, pressure changes precede weather changes. In addition, diseased joints react strongly to heat or cold. Therefore, people with gout will feel more comfortable in winter and people with osteochondrosis in summer.
Are joint diseases hereditary?
It is not the disease itself that is transmitted, but the predisposition to its occurrence. In the presence of concomitant factors, diseases or bad lifestyle, genetic predisposition will give impetus to the development of the disease.
Should I give up sports if I have joint pain?
Professional sports with heavy loads are contraindicated for joint diseases. But to keep the joints in good shape, you need a strong muscular frame, which can only be obtained through physical exercise. Therapeutic gymnastics, a set of exercises specially chosen to have a gentle effect on the affected joints, will help significantly reduce pain and protect the organ from further destruction.
Do you need a special diet for joint diseases?
For patients with gout, it is necessary to exclude tomatoes and other nightshade products from the diet, as they cause severe pain and provoke the development of inflammation. For everyone else, no special diet is recommended. But it is worth remembering that eating sweets, smoked meat and fats leads to excessive weight gain, which is harmful to joint health.