Joint pain is a symptom inherent in many diseases of the musculoskeletal system. Painful sensations are experienced once or repeatedly by up to half of the world's population. More often, the development of pathological processes begins in the second half of life, but it often worries 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 specialist doctors helps to make a correct diagnosis and begin treatment that completely relieves joint pain and eliminates its causes.
Causes of joint pain
Pain can result from a variety of reasons. Between them:
- Recent or old injuries.
- Overweight.
- High physical or sporting activity.
- Work that involves standing for a long time.
- Passive lifestyle.
- Age.
- Genetic predisposition.
- Weakening of the immune system.
- Infectious lesions of the body.
- Osteoarthritis, arthritis, gout.
- Vascular spasms during stress or overload.
Types of joint pain
Joint pain during the injury or shortly after is a natural phenomenon. But discomfort can be caused by several hidden reasons: inflammation, infections, overload and others. If you experience recurring joint pain without visible causes and the disease progresses, consult a specialist as soon as possible. Any joint toxicity is potentially dangerous.
| Type of pain | Occurrence condition | Description | Possible reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanic | Occurs in people of any age during physical activities or sports | Aching pain that disappears at rest, with self-massage, physiotherapeutic procedures | Metabolic disorders, previous injuries, dystrophic changes in the cartilaginous tissue of the joints |
| Getting started | Marked at the beginning of the movement | Acute pain and limitation of joint mobility, decreases 3-5 minutes after the start of physical activity | Arthrosis, osteochondrosis |
| Night | Intermittent intensity drawing pain | Occurs at rest, during stress, excessive exertion, after consuming smoked meats or pickles | Osteoarthritis, gout |
| Reflected | Twisting, aching, pulling pain | Spreads to surrounding tissues. Occurs during sporting activities, excess body weight | Spinal diseases, osteoarthritis, arthritis |
Medical consultation and diagnosis
- Chiropractor
- Vertebrologist
- Osteopath
- Neurologist
During the consultation a complete diagnosis is carried out. Based on the results of the consultation, the doctor gives detailed treatment recommendations and, if necessary, prescribes additional diagnostics.
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 outcome, consult a general practitioner, orthopedist, rheumatologist or neurologist. Don't let the pain become constant, painful, deform the organ and affect your general 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:
- Bloodtests. By changing some indicators, the causative disease can be immediately established;
- 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 osteoarthritis changes;
- MRI. Provides layer-by-layer visualization of the tissue structures of the joint and the area around it. Accuracy is enhanced by contrast. When planning surgical intervention, such a diagnosis is mandatory;
- Ultrasound. Effective in inflammatory processes, systemic diseases, some types of injuries;
- Duplex scanning. Allows you to assess the vascular environment of the organ and the quality of blood flow in it;
- TC. It creates a three-dimensional image of the organ under study, making it possible to evaluate its functionality in movement.
A comprehensive examination of the body will help to obtain a complete picture of the disease, establish an accurate diagnosis, differentiate diseases with similar symptoms and begin restorative and rehabilitation therapy.
Therapeutic therapy for joint pain
The treatment chosen will depend on the disease diagnosed, its severity and the rate of progression. The sooner 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 physical therapy are sufficient, but severe cases may lead to surgery.
The following methods are used to treat 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 field, temperature influence and others are used. Painless procedures that activate the body's own defenses;
- Massage. Mechanical effect on subcutaneous receptors, relieving spasms, tensions, optimizing blood flow;
- Orthopedic shoes, insoles. Eliminate foot deformities, correct postural disorders, relieve joints;
- Reflexology. Insertion of needles into biologically active points on the body. Improves microcirculation, blood pressure and reduces pain;
- Ozone therapy. Saturates tissues with oxygen, accelerates the regeneration of damaged organs, increases personal immunity, cleanses from toxic damage;
- Plasma therapy. Injecting your own platelet-rich plasma restores joints, skin and other organs;
- Drug therapy. The pain syndrome is relieved by taking analgesics. Chondroprotectors are used to restore affected joints. Injections into the internal cavity of the joint are possible;
- Surgical intervention. Joints destroyed by the disease are replaced with modern prostheses with identical functionality and a significant time resource. Recommended for serious cases of injuries.
Joint pain prevention
To strengthen joint tissues and maintain their healthy state, it is recommended:
- perform series of special exercises that support optimal joint functionality;
- go for a swim;
- avoid overload and hypothermia of the joint capsule;
- control your own weight, avoiding excess weight;
- drink 2-3 liters of water daily;
- minimize alcohol consumption, stop smoking;
- do regular industrial exercise during routine sedentary work or standing;
- treat infectious and viral diseases in a timely and high-quality manner. inflammatory diseases;
- attend a scheduled annual medical exam; 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 provided effective treatment for a variety of joint diseases, putting the most difficult patients on their feet, whom other doctors or clinics refused. A guaranteed positive result is the natural result of using an integrated approach that combines classical therapeutic methods proven by many years of experience and modern, innovative achievements of medicine 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 undergo training, retraining, seminars or conferences in the best clinics in other countries and learn about advanced achievements in therapy and surgery.
The clinic's patients receive free consultations and diagnostics, 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 annoying painful symptoms.
Common questions
Is it true that only elderly people have joint pain?
Joint pain can occur in people of any age. The cause of its appearance is 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 may be a consequence of dysplasia syndrome, in which there is weakness of the connective tissue.
Could joint pain be a reaction to climate change?
Yes, joint pain makes people dependent on the weather. Changes in pressure in the area where you live increase or decrease intraosseous blood pressure. The increase leads to intense pain. Typically, pressure changes precede climate changes. Furthermore, 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 inadequate lifestyle, genetic predisposition will drive the development of the disease.
Should I give up sports if I have joint pain?
Professional sports with enormous loads are contraindicated in joint diseases. But to keep your joints in good shape, you need a strong muscular structure, which can only be achieved through physical exercise. Therapeutic gymnastics, a set of exercises specially selected to have a gentle effect on the affected joints, will help to significantly reduce pain and protect the organ from future destruction.
Do you need a special diet for joint disease?
For patients with gout, it is necessary to exclude tomatoes and other products from the nightshade family from the diet, as they cause severe pain and provoke the development of inflammation. For everyone else, no special diet is prescribed. But it's worth remembering that consuming sweets, smoked meats and fats leads to excessive weight gain, which harms joint health.