The joints of 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 your mind is to go to the clinic and contact your local doctor, and he will understand what is happening: prescribe tests or refer to some specialist. But many of us know how difficult it is to find time to go to a medical facility, because to do this, you will have to take time off from work, most likely, you will have to sit in line there or prepare a certain amount of medicine. money for a visit to a paid medical center.

In general, people have many reasons for self-treatment at home. And it is not rare that it really helps. Well, in our article you will find several folk recipes that help with various types of joint pain, as well as a list of pharmacological drugs specially designed to solve such problems. But first, we advise you to seriously read the next chapter of our story.

The importance of making a correct diagnosis

People who ask everyone they meet: "What to do if the joints of the arms and legs hurt? ", often do not understand that the pain that bothers them can be the initial stage of a serious disease. at the initial stage, the destructive processes in the joints were stopped or slowed down when they had not yet progressed too far.

Pain in the joints of the hands often bothers the elderly

Treatment can be done independently with lotions, rubs, poultices, etc. After all, home treatment is not very safe and may be contraindicated for certain diseases.

For example, there is an opinion that there is nothing better than warming up to quickly solve joint problems. But this is 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 worsen the situation. If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, the causes, symptoms and treatment schemes should first be discussed with specialists (rheumatologist, orthopedist or traumatologist).

We are not going to criticize folk remedies here: they can be an excellent helper 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 what can harm them.

Various causes of joint pain

It will be easier to understand why the joints hurt and what to do in these cases, if you know the reasons that cause pain, pain in the limbs and limitation of their motor functions. Some of the most common co-morbidities are:

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

    • Pain in one or more joints may gradually increase over a week or two or occur suddenly. The pain is worse during rest, especially in the morning.
    • Rheumatoid arthritis can affect both the large joints of the arms and legs (wrist, ankle, elbow, knee) and the small joints of the feet and hands. Inflammation of one joint is called monoarthritis, and inflammation of several joints is called polyarthritis.
    • One of the symptoms of the mentioned disease is the limitation of mobility of the affected limbs in the first hours after waking up in the morning.
    • The disease is accompanied by a noticeable expansion of the joints, redness and increased sensitivity of the skin in the problem area.
  2. Rheumatism.With this chronic disease, all organs (heart, kidneys, lymphatic system, etc. ), including joints, are gradually affected. The process can take many years. It is very important to start treatment as soon as possible. One of the most characteristic symptoms of early rheumatism is intermittent joint pain, sometimes accompanied by elevated body temperature and swelling.

  3. Arthrosis.A disease associated with dystrophic-degenerative changes in cartilage with the gradual involvement of bone, ligament and synovial tissues in the pathological process. The most common arthrosis is knee, hip and elbow joints. Main symptoms:

    • the main symptom is pain that occurs when moving or putting stress on the affected joint;
    • gradual restriction of mobility. If the disease is not treated in time, the process can develop rapidly, which eventually leads to disability.
  4. Injuries, bruises, physical loading of joints.

  5. Gout- one of the types of arthritis.

Pain in the joints of the arms and legs caused by various diseases

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

Let's mention the main steps that should be taken consistently during joint pain:

  1. Before finding the causes of pain, you should try to rest the joints.
  2. Take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
  3. Consult a medical facility to find out the causes of the pain.
  4. Get detailed recommendations from your doctor about the treatment regimen and medications to be taken, as well as consult about traditional therapies if you are going to use them.
If you experience joint pain, you should consult a doctor.

Treatment of arthritis

Arthritis is a severe pain most often in the joints of the hands. What to do in this situation? The patient should understand that the 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. - anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics. Within this article, we can give an excellent recipe from traditional medicine.

Honey-cabbage compress is very useful for arthritis. It should be done before going to bed. You need to take a fresh cabbage leaf, heat it, lubricate it with a thin layer of honey and apply the covered side to the painful area. The compress is covered with cellophane from above, wrapped and wrapped with a warm woolen scarf. In the morning, the patient will definitely feel relief.

Therapeutic compresses will help relieve pain in the joints of the limbs.

The role of proper nutrition

Due to metabolic disorders in the body, the joints of the legs and arms often hurt. Gout is one of the types of arthritis that is a frequent companion of modern people, especially it causes strong sexual suffering. Probably, everyone has heard this term: "deposition of salts in the joints". Some people think that it comes from ordinary table salt, but this is not so.

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

It is easier to prevent this disease than to treat it. The main recommendation for disease prevention is proper nutrition. There is nothing complicated: you should include more vegetables, whole grain cereals, fruits, cottage cheese in your diet and give up tobacco and alcohol.

Osteoarthritis. Treatment

Today, many people complain of joint pain in their arms and legs. What to do if the pain is caused by arthrosis? Here, too, you probably can't do without NSAIDs: they will help to quickly relieve the suffering. A doctor's consultation is required. It is necessary to take an X-ray - this will help the doctor determine the degree of destruction of the joints.

Along with anti-inflammatory drugs, chondroprotectors (substances that restore joint cartilage) play an important role in the treatment of arthrosis.

A good alternative natural chondroprotector is regular gelatin, which can be purchased in stores. This product should be diluted in hot water and drunk several times a day. For the fastest recovery of cartilage, it is recommended to prepare homemade jelly or jelly meat more often, it also contains a large amount of natural substances from which cartilage tissue is built.

Pharmacy

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

For severe pain, you can go beyond only external ointments and take highly effective NSAIDs in the form of tablets or powder.

Physiotherapy

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

  • UHF;
  • phonophoresis or electrophoresis;
  • ultraviolet 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 the procedures prescribed by the doctor. What are these tools and how to do them?

  1. Ointment for rheumatism.To prepare it, you will need 100 g of mustard powder and 200 g of table salt, which must be mixed together, then add enough kerosene to the resulting mustard-salt mixture to obtain a mass similar to sour cream. The medicine is applied to painful places at night.
  2. Arthritis ointment made from honey and egg yolk.Take one egg yolk, one beeswax block (small) and 1 tbsp. l. honey First, the yolk is heated in a water bath, then the wax is split and the honey is poured. Everything is mixed to create a homogeneous ointment. To use, take a piece of gauze folded in several layers, put a warm mass on it, and in this form the medicine is applied to the joint and firmly fixed with a bandage.
  3. Ointment for the treatment of joints with arthrosis.Take nettle leaves, juniper berries (green) and sheep oil in equal parts. Berries and leaves are crushed well in a mortar and then combined with oil. The prepared ointment should be applied to the joints in the morning and evening.
Ointment prepared from folk medicine will relieve pain in the joints of hands and feet

Activated carbon treatment

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

Clay therapy

Here is another excellent folk method of treatment if the joints of the legs and arms ache. We have already discussed the causes and treatment of many diseases and learned that different diseases should be treated differently. But there is an almost universal recipe - compresses, baths, clay bandages, can be used for arthrosis, arthritis and rheumatic pain. Clay perfectly soothes pain, removes inflammation and swelling, absorbs toxins from the body, etc.

Physical education and sports: benefit or harm for joints

People who do a lot of sports often have joint pain. What if your knees and ankles hurt after long, tiring runs in the name of health? First, reconsider your lifestyle. Any excessive damage is harmful - this expression can also be applied to sports.

Excessive exercise causes knee pain

To get rid of constant discomfort in the joints of the legs, sometimes it is enough for a person to simply reduce physical activity. Jogging or walking (for older people), morning exercises, yoga and swimming are good for improving health. Not all of the above can cause pain in your joints. On the contrary, such physical training will fill them with strength and endurance.

Last word

We hope that the information presented in the article will help those who have pain in the joints of their 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, may your joints always be normal!