The joints of my arms and legs hurt, what should I do? Pain in the joints of the legs and arms: causes and treatment

If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, what should a person do in such a situation? Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is to go to the clinic and consult your local doctor, and he will know what to do: prescribe tests or refer you to a specialist. However, many of us know how difficult it can be to find time to go to a medical institution, because to do this you will have to take time off from work, and then, most likely, wait in line or prepare acertain amount of money for a visit to a paid medical center.

In general, people have many reasons to self-medicate at home. And it’s not that rare that it actually helps. Well, in our article you will find several traditional recipes that relieve joint pain of various types, as well as a list of pharmacological drugs specially designed to solve such problems. But first, we advise you to take seriously reading the next chapter of our story.

The importance of making the right diagnosis

Asking everyone they meet: "If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, what should I do? "", people often do not understand that the pain that worries them can be the initial stage of a serious illness, the development of which can be stopped or slowed down at the initial stage, when the destructive processes in the joints have not yet gone too farfar.

By carrying out treatment independently using lotions, frictions, poultices, etc. , a sick person exposes their health to considerable risks. After all, home remedies are not at all safe and may be contraindicated for certain diseases.

For example, there is an opinion that to quickly solve joint problems there is nothing better than warming up. But that's not true at all! If the disease is accompanied by swelling, acute inflammatory processes occur in the diseased joints and a local increase in temperature is observed, applying heat to the problem area can only aggravate thesituation. If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, the causes, symptoms and treatment regimens should first of all be discussed with specialists (rheumatologist, orthopedist or traumatologist).

We are not going to criticize folk remedies here: they can be of great help in the fight against various diseases, but only after the doctor makes the correct diagnosis and gives recommendations on what can benefit the joints and whatwhich will harm.

Various causes of joint pain

Why joints hurt and what to do in these cases will be much easier to understand if you know the reasons that cause aches, pain in the limbs and limitation of their motor functions. Here are some of the most common joint diseases:

1. Rheumatoid arthritis.Chronic disease in which inflammatory processes are observed in connective tissues. Characteristic symptoms accompanying arthritis:

   • Pain in one or more joints gradually increases over one to two weeks or may occur suddenly. At rest, the pain intensifies, especially in the morning.
   • Rheumatoid arthritis can affect the large joints of the arms and legs (wrist, ankle, elbow, knee) as well as the small joints of the feet and hands. Inflammation of one joint is called monoarthritis and inflammation of multiple joints is called polyarthritis.
   • One of the symptoms of the disease in question is limited mobility of the affected limbs during the first hours after waking up in the morning.
   • The disease is accompanied by noticeable enlargement of the joints, redness of the skin in the problem area and increased sensitivity.

2. Rheumatism.With this chronic disease, all organs (heart, kidneys, lymphatic system, etc. ), including the joints, are gradually affected. The process can take many years. It is very important to start treatment as early as possible. One of the most characteristic signs of incipient rheumatism is joint pain that occurs periodically, sometimes accompanied by high body temperature and swelling.

3. Osteoarthritis.Disease associated with dystrophic-degenerative changes occurring in cartilage, with progressive involvement of bone, ligament and synovial tissues in the pathological process. The most common osteoarthritis affects the knee, hip and elbow joints. Main symptoms:

   • the main symptom is pain that occurs with movement or pressure on the affected joint;
   • progressive restriction of mobility. If the disease is not treated in time, the process can progress rapidly, which will ultimately lead to disability.

4. Injuries, bruises, physical overload of the joints.

5. Drop- one of the types of arthritis.

The joints of the arms and legs hurt: what to do?

Let's describe the main measures to take systematically in case of joint pain:

1. Before finding out the causes of the pain, you should try to give the joints some rest.
2. Take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications.
3. Contact a medical facility to find out the causes of the pain.
4. Get detailed recommendations from your doctor regarding the treatment regimen and medications to take, as well as advice on traditional treatment methods, if you plan to use them.

Arthritis treatment

Arthritis most often results in intense pain in the joints of the hands. what to do in this situation? The patient must understand that treatment will require a number of complex measures. After all, it is necessary not only to relieve symptomatic pain, but also to slow down the inflammatory process, restore normal blood flow in the affected tissues and cartilage, etc. For this, the doctor can prescribe, in addition to non-steroidal anti-drugs. -inflammatory medications, antibiotics. Within the framework of this article, we can cite an excellent recipe from traditional medicine.

For arthritis, a compress of honey and cabbage is very useful. You must do this before going to bed. You need to take a fresh cabbage leaf, heat it, grease it with a thin layer of honey and apply the coated side to the sore spot. The compress is covered with cellophane, bandaged and wrapped in a warm woolen scarf. In the morning, the patient will certainly feel relief.

The role of good nutrition

The joints of the legs and arms often hurt due to metabolic disorders in the body. Gout disease is one of the types of arthritis, a frequent companion of modern people, it especially torments the stronger sex. Everyone has probably heard this term: "salt deposition in the joints". Some people think it's just regular table salt, but that's not the case.

With gout, uric acid salts are deposited in the joints, due to the constant consumption of meat, fatty fish and alcohol. Smoking also contributes to the development of the pathological process. If the joints in your fingers and toes become very swollen and painful, this discomfort may indicate the presence of gout.

This disease is easier to prevent than to cure. The main recommendation for preventing the disease is proper nutrition. Nothing complicated: you need to introduce more vegetables, whole grains, fruits, cottage cheese into your diet and give up tobacco and alcoholic libations.

Osteoarthritis. Treatment

Today, many people complain of pain in the joints of their arms and legs. What to do if the pain is caused by osteoarthritis? Here, too, most likely, you cannot do without NSAIDs: they will help quickly relieve torment. A consultation with a doctor is necessary. An x-ray will need to be taken - it will help the doctor determine the degree of destruction of the joints.

In the treatment of osteoarthritis, in addition to anti-inflammatories, taking chondroprotectors (substances that restore articular cartilage) plays an important role.

A good alternative to natural chondroprotector is ordinary gelatin, which can be purchased in stores. This product should be diluted in warm water and drunk several times a day. And for faster restoration of cartilage, it is recommended to prepare homemade jelly or jellied meat more often, which also contains large amounts of natural substances from which cartilage tissue is built.

Drugs

Several times, when we raised in our article the question "what to do if the joints of the arms and legs hurt", we wrote that pain and inflammation are well relieved by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDsabbreviated. When treating joints, ointments of this group are very effective.

In case of severe pain, you can go beyond simple external ointments and take highly effective NSAIDs in the form of tablets or powders.

Physiotherapy

If painful joint pain persists, the doctor may consider it necessary for the patient to undergo certain physical interventions:

• Ultra-high frequency;
• phonophoresis or electrophoresis;
• UV radiation;
• magnetic therapy;
• transcutaneous electrical stimulation;
• paraffin baths and applications, etc.

Treatment of joints with ointments prepared according to traditional recipes

We continue to consider the main topic of the article: "What to do if your joints hurt? Treatment with independently prepared ointments can be an excellent addition to procedures prescribed by a doctor. What are these remedies and how to carry them out?

1. Ointment for rheumatism.To prepare it, you will need 100 g of powdered mustard and 200 g of table salt, which must be mixed together, then add enough kerosene to the mustard-salt mixture obtained to obtain a mass of thickness similar tothe village sour cream. The medicine is rubbed into sore spots at night.
2. Arthritis ointment made from honey and egg yolks.Take an egg yolk, a block of beeswax (small) and 1 tbsp. L. HoneyFirst, the yolk is heated in a water bath, into which the wax is then crumbled and the honey is poured. Everything is mixed to form a homogeneous ointment. To use it, take a piece of gauze folded in several layers, place a warm mass there and in this form the medicine is applied to the joint and firmly fixed with a bandage.
3. Ointment for the treatment of joints suffering from osteoarthritis.Take equal parts of nettle leaves, juniper berries (green) and sheep oil. The berries and leaves are carefully ground in a mortar and then mixed with oil. The prepared ointment should be rubbed into the joints in the morning and evening.

Activated carbon treatment

There is a simple but effective way to treat joints with gout. To do this, you will need activated carbon. You will need to make a paste from this product. This is done as follows: tablets from several packs of charcoal are ground into powder, to which a little water and 1 tbsp are added. spoon of crushed flax seeds. After thorough mixing, the paste is spread over the painful joint overnight, after which it is bandaged and wrapped warmly until morning.

Clay therapy

Here is another great popular method of healing if the joints of the legs and arms hurt. We have already discussed the causes and treatment of many diseases and found that different diseases need to be treated differently. But there is an almost universal recipe: compresses, baths, clay wraps, which can be used for arthrosis, arthritis and rheumatic pain. Clay perfectly soothes pain, relieves inflammation and swelling, draws toxins from the body, etc.

Physical education and sport: benefits or disadvantages for the joints

Those who are too fond of sporting activities often have joint pain. What should you do if your knees and ankles hurt after long, grueling runs that seem to be done in the name of health? First of all, reconsider your lifestyle. Anything in excess is bad – this statement can also be applied to sport.

In order to get rid of the feeling of constant discomfort in the joints of the legs, sometimes a person is enough to simply reduce physical activity. Jogging or walking (for older people), morning exercises, yoga and swimming are good for improving health. All of the above are unlikely to cause joint pain. On the contrary, such physical education will fill them with strength and endurance.

Last word

We hope that the information presented in the article will help those who experience pain in the joints of the arms and legs. Diseases and methods of treatment, folk recipes and a list of medicines - all these materials were carefully studied by us in advance and only then presented to the public. Use this information for your health and so that your joints are always normal!