It is believed that the most intense pain is toothache. Although the same can be said for ear pain and headaches. Joint pain is no exception. It can make a person suffer, deprive them of sleep and appetite.
The pain is sharp or dull, stabbing, painful, at night or throughout the day; These are all symptoms of joint diseases.
Prevalence of joint pain
There is no clear pattern between the severity of joint pain and its prevalence. The knee joint can hurt more than the shoulder, elbow, and hand at the same time. Sensations in the spine can be painful in case of generalized osteochondrosis or ankylosing spondylitis. But more often people are bothered by pain in the extremities.
Both arms and legs experience significant stress throughout life: weight, action, injuries. Pain, pain in the joints and their deformation are inevitable changes that accompany age in the musculoskeletal system.
pain mechanism
Why joints hurt is a question that even a doctor finds difficult to answer unequivocally.
The mechanism of pain when the musculoskeletal system is damaged is quite complex. Most often, these symptoms are caused by the following processes:
- Joint inflammation or polyarthritis.The inflammation itself triggers the production of substances that can cause pain. Additionally, they increase the sensitivity of pain receptors to repeated exposure. That is why the usual load on the inflamed joint causes a sharp pain reaction.
- Joint swelling.Its increase in volume looks like a joint tumor. The edema tissues exert mechanical pressure on the joint structures, causing discomfort and aggravating the severity of the process.
- Dystrophic changes.This can be called bone and cartilage wear. With age and constant stress, joint function deteriorates. The production of synovial fluid is altered and the gliding of the joint surfaces is difficult. Its constant irritation from friction stimulates the growth of the subchondral bone. These marginal bone growths are called osteophytes and can cause a person real suffering. They look like protruding bumps on the joints. Osteophytes are often injured, causing their inflammation, completing the pathological circle.
- Trauma and post-traumatic complications.Serious injuries: bruises, dislocations, fractures do not disappear without a trace. Even if the damage heals, joint pain and stiffness may persist for the rest of your life. Doctors often complain of pain in damaged joints. They tend to get worse when the weather changes or at night.
- Exchange disorders.Calcifications are deposited in tendons and ligaments due to metabolic disorders. Its violation leads to acute pain syndrome.
These pathological processes in the 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 throughout the world, and there are also those found in most people. The prevalence of these diseases explains why everyone suffers, at least occasionally, from joint pain.
It is important to know the main diseases of the musculoskeletal system in order not to ignore dangerous symptoms, but to start treating and curing the disease in time.
Osteoarthritis
Doctors constantly hear elderly patients say they have pain in the joints of their arms and legs, lower back, and neck. In addition to pain, they complain of deformed joints, difficulty walking, and inability to do their homework.
These symptoms are characteristic of osteoarthritis of the joints. In the case of deformation of bones and cartilage it is called deforming osteoarthritis. Deforming osteoarthritis in severe form can leave a person completely disabled.
Osteoarthritis affects any joint, whether large or small. It is only important that they experience enough stress.
If the joints are overloaded, osteoarthritis will develop several years earlier, especially if there are predisposing factors. These include:
- Constant load. It can be redundant or monotonous. Static loads play an important role in the development of osteoarthritis changes.
- Hypothermia or overheating.
- Injuries: bruises and fractures, subluxations and dislocations.
- Overweight. Fatness is one of the most important risk factors for the development of deforming osteoarthritis.
- Poor nutrition.
- Lack of movement.
- Infections and subsequent inflammation of the joints are polyarthritis.
Degenerative diseases of the shoulder girdle.
The shoulder joint is the most mobile joint in the body with the maximum range of motion. It supports dynamic loads, so degenerative changes in the structures of the shoulder girdle are rare.
They usually develop in old age. Marginal bone growths appear and the articular cartilage atrophies. If the 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 joints is painful and constant; Stiffness is often associated with degenerative changes in adjacent structures:
- Deposition of calcifications in the supraspinatus tendon and the resulting painful abduction arch syndrome. With this pathology, joint pain occurs when trying to move the shoulder along a certain arc. If you change the angle of inclination, the pain disappears.
- Frozen shoulder syndrome. This condition is characterized by severe stiffness of the shoulder girdle. It occurs as a result of prolonged immobilization of the shoulder, when a bandage is applied that provides rest to the arm with thoracic radiculitis.
No pronounced deformation of the elements of the shoulder girdle is observed. Symptoms and discomfort associated with damage to adjacent structures, rather than deforming osteoarthritis of the shoulder, usually come first.
Osteoarthritis of the elbow joint.
The probability of developing degenerative changes in the elbow joint is low. It increases in old age and in people who practice certain professions. Monotonous physical activity has a negative impact on joint processes, especially when exposed to vibrations.
Deforming osteoarthritis of the elbow region is often found in tennis players, bricklayers and miners, blacksmiths and foundry workers.
Joint pain is usually dull, painful, and intensifies with exercise. No significant deformation of the joints is observed. Sometimes, under the influence of provoking factors, joint inflammation joins osteoarthritis, painful swelling occurs in the elbow area, and the pain bothers even at rest.
Deforming osteoarthritis of the hands and finger joints.
In recent years, the diagnosis of osteoarthritis of the hands has become the answer to the question of why the joints of the fingers hurt at a young age. This disease is rapidly rejuvenating. Already between the ages of 30 and 35, with complaints of pain in the joints of the fingers, signs of first-degree deforming osteoarthritis can be observed on the x-ray. The reasons for this are varied:
- The number of professions that put pressure on the joints of the hands and fingers is increasing: programmers, typists and simply active computer users. And mainly young people participate in this.
- Work in hypothermic conditions. These are tram and trolleybus drivers in winter, builders and villagers.
- Lack of normal dynamic loads on the finger joints. Few people strive to do gymnastics, especially therapeutic exercises.
- Concomitant diseases: inflammation of the joints.
The joints of the fingers and hands are deformed over time, and an inflammatory tumor can be detected in the area of the phalanges with the development of polyarthritis. Movements in them become painful and difficult. Joint pain is intermittent at first, but then changes to constant, dull, or aching.
Degenerative foot diseases
The leg joints are most susceptible to degeneration, since their main load is static. Weight and static loads are the main causes of the development of deforming osteoarthritis of the legs. In this area it occurs in the following ways:
- Damage to the hip joints – coxarthrosis.
- Damage to the knees with the formation of gonarthrosis.
- Dystrophic foot diseases.
coxarthrosis
Coxarthrosis is a common and dangerous disease. Initially, a person pays attention to symptoms such as joint pain, creaking and clicking when walking. All of this is temporary and does not affect the quality of life much. As the disease progresses, the stiffness worsens and difficulty appears when trying to abduct or adduct the leg.
Joint pain can be unbearable, debilitating, and bother you at any time of the day. In the mornings my movements are limited, I have to do hip joint exercises to be able to move away.
gonarthrosis
Throughout life, knees experience loads that significantly exceed a person's weight. This inevitably leads to the development of degenerative processes in them. If a person suffers from obesity of at least the first or second degree, the deformation of the knees will occur much faster. In the third and fourth degrees, deforming osteoarthritis is more likely to develop at a young age.
Osteoarthritis of the knee joints has its own characteristics. Why do joint pains appear so frequently in this area? In addition to the proliferation of bone spines and cartilage degeneration, calcium crystals are deposited in the joint cavity. A kind of calcification deposit is formed. This disease is called calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition.
At first they can only be found in the thickness of the cartilage, then on its surface, in the joint cavity, in the tendons and even in the muscles.
The deposition of calcium crystals worsens the course of deforming osteoarthritis. The disease manifests itself as an aching pain, which can turn into sharp pain when the calcification is pinched. Leg mobility is significantly limited. In the knee area, deformed joint surfaces, bone growths are seen, and dense nodules can be palpated.
Dystrophic changes in the joints of the feet.
The joints of the feet are less susceptible to osteoarthritis deformans. An exception is the metacarpophalangeal joint of the first finger. Its deformities occur in almost all people after 55 to 60 years. In women, it becomes deformed at an earlier age. The reasons for this are the abuse of shoes with narrow and uncomfortable heels.
In addition to the discomfort and unsightly appearance of a deformed finger, a person experiences severe pain in the joints. As osteophytes grow, protruding bones form around the toe, making it difficult to wear even the widest shoes. Constant lesions of osteophytes cause inflammation of the joints of the toes and polyarthritis develops. The situation can be complicated by the addition of an 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. The symptoms will depend on the type of inflammation or infection that caused it:
- Joint pain.It is often acute: burning or stinging. If the cause of arthritis is an infection, the inflammation becomes purulent. In this case, the pain will be sharp and very strong. In the chronic and subacute forms, the joint pain will resemble the osteoarthritis variant.
- Changing shape.In an acute process, an inflammatory tumor forms in the joint area, the skin color changes and the temperature rises. If a bacterial infection occurs, general symptoms of poisoning appear: high fever, chills, and well-being deteriorates sharply. The disease is especially difficult to tolerate in cases of polyarthritis.
- Impaired function.Movement in a swollen joint is significantly limited due to pain and fluid buildup 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:
- Infectious.They develop when the joint is directly affected by an infection, such as Lyme disease. The infection can be viral or bacterial, penetrate from the outside or from a neighboring affected organ, the bone. Arthritis caused by a bacterial infection is especially serious.
- Reagent.In this case, the inflammatory process develops as a reaction to a past or present infection. These include damage to the musculoskeletal system after influenza, colds and urogenital infections. An important sign is the connection with infection.
- Autoimmune.Sometimes a person's immune system begins to destroy its own cells. The manifestations of such diseases are varied, but the joint syndrome is usually the most pronounced. The most common autoimmune pathology is rheumatoid polyarthritis. It is characterized by severe deformation of the joints with persistent pain.
Autoimmune polyarthritis cannot be cured, but it must be stopped to keep the disease at an early stage.
Treatment of joint diseases.
What to do if you are diagnosed with joint disease? Do I need to take medications, antibiotics or can I limit myself to home remedies? Only a doctor will be able to correctly answer all questions and 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 home remedies, cabbage leaf is considered the undisputed leader. Applying it cold or in a compress with honey to a sore joint can relieve inflammatory manifestations and alleviate the condition. Banana leaves, chopped mushrooms and vodka liqueurs are also used.
The arsenal of home remedies is varied, but it must be remembered that they can only treat mild forms of diseases 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. Main groups of drugs:
- Painkillers and anti-inflammatories.Usually these are drugs from the same group. Since the main symptom of joint diseases is pain, relieving it is the doctor's first priority. A good effect is achieved when using local remedies.
- Steroid hormones and cytostatics.It is strictly prohibited to take these medications without a doctor's prescription. They are used for all serious autoimmune processes and are designed to relieve specific inflammations in the body. Without hormonal drugs, it is impossible to get rid of pain and inflammatory tumor in rheumatoid polyarthritis. They also inhibit joint deformations.
- Antibiotics.They are prescribed if the cause of arthritis is a bacterial infection. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are used that penetrate bone tissue well. Sometimes, if the pathogen persists, the doctor can treat the infection with several groups of antibiotics. This is also justified if the disease is caused by a mixed infection. It is necessary to remember that antibiotics are powerful drugs with individual side effects and strictly follow the doctor's instructions during the treatment process.
- Preparations that protect and restore cartilage.It is impossible to treat chronic polyarthritis and deforming osteoarthritis without chondroprotectors. For this, both individual drugs (chondroitin or glucosamine) and combined drugs are used. There is a broad evidence base on the use of chondroprotectors based on many clinical trials.
- Intra-articular injections.This is the best way to deliver the medication directly to the site of the disease. Typically, hormonal anti-inflammatory drugs are injected into the joint cavity. In recent years, hyaluronic acid has also been used for intra-articular injection.
Physiotherapy
It is not worth treating joint diseases with medications alone. The integrated use of physiotherapy techniques (magnetotherapy, electrophoresis) and physiotherapy significantly increases the chances of recovery.
Orthotic devices are also used to limit movement of affected joints. These include orthotics and splints. The goal of these devices is to reduce the load on the diseased joint.
Surgical treatment
A radical cure for advanced osteoarthritis is stents. Only this method is capable of replacing a destroyed joint with a synthetic one, returning its full range of motion.
Stent replacement is a treatment option in situations where conservative therapy is powerless.