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

If the joints in the arms and legs hurt, what should a person do in such a situation? Of course, the very first thing that comes to mind is to go to the clinic and see your local doctor, and he will find out what is what: prescribe tests or refer you to a specialist. But many of us know how difficult it can be to find time to go to a doctor's office, because to do this you will have to take time off from work, and then most likely sit in line there or prepare a certain amount of moneyfor a visit to a paid medical center.

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

The importance of making the right diagnosis

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

Carrying out treatment independently with the help of lotions, rubbing, poultices, etc. , a sick person exposes his health to considerable risk. After all, home remedies are not that safe at all 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 is not true at all! If the disease is accompanied by swelling, acute inflammatory processes occur in diseased joints, and a local temperature increase is observed, then applying heat to the problem area can only worsen the situation. If the joints in 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 an excellent help in the fight against various diseases, but only after the doctor makes the correct diagnosis and gives recommendations about what can benefit the joints and what will cause harm.

Different 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 soreness, pain in the limbs and limitation of their motor functions. Here are a number of the most common joint diseases:

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

   • Pain in one or more joints increases gradually over one to two weeks or may occur suddenly. At rest, the pain intensifies, especially in the morning.
   • Rheumatoid arthritis can affect both large joints in the arms and legs (wrist, ankle, elbow, knee) and small joints in the feet and hands. Inflammation in one joint is called monoarthritis, and inflammation in several joints is called polyarthritis.
   • One of the symptoms of the disease in question is limited 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 of the skin in the problem area and increased sensitivity.

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

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

   • the main symptom is pain that occurs when you move or strain the affected joint;
   • gradual limitation of mobility. If the disease is not treated in time, the process can progress rapidly, which will eventually lead to disability.

4. Injuries, bruises, physical overload of joints.

5. Arthritis- one of the types of arthritis.

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

Let us outline the main steps to be taken consistently in case of joint pain:

1. Before finding out the causes of the pain, you should try to give rest to the joints.
2. Take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.
3. Contact a medical facility to find out the causes of pain.
4. Get detailed recommendations from your doctor regarding the treatment regimen and medications to be taken, as well as consult about traditional treatment methods if you need to use them.

Treatment of gout

Gout is most often severe pain in the joints of the hands. What to do in this situation? The patient must 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 tissue and cartilage, etc. For this, the doctor can prescribe, in addition to non-steroidal antibodies -inflammatory drugs, antibiotics. Within the framework of this article, we can provide an excellent recipe from traditional medicine.

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

The role of proper nutrition

The joints in the legs and arms often hurt due to metabolic disorders in the body. The disease gout is one of the types of gout, a frequent companion of modern people, it especially afflicts the stronger sex. Probably everyone has heard this expression: "deposition of salts in the joints. "Some people think that it is all about ordinary table salt, but it is not so.

In gout, uric acid salts are deposited in the joints, and this happens 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, then the discomfort may indicate the presence of arthritis.

This disease is easier to prevent than to cure. The most important recommendation for the prevention of the disease is proper nutrition. Nothing complicated: you need to introduce more vegetables, whole grain products, fruits, cottage cheese into your diet and give up tobacco and alcoholic beverages.

OsteoarthritisTreatment

Today, there are many people who complain that their joints in their arms and legs hurt. What to do if the pain is caused by osteoarthritis? Here, too, you most likely cannot do without NSAIDs: they quickly help relieve the pain. Consultation with a doctor is required. An X-ray must be taken - it will help the doctor determine the degree of destruction of the joints.

In the treatment of osteoarthritis, along with anti-inflammatory drugs, the intake of chondroprotectors (substances that restore joint cartilage) plays an important role.

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

Medicines

Several times, when in our article 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. In the treatment of joints, ointments from this group are very effective.

For severe pain, you can go beyond just external ointments and take highly effective NSAID preparations in the form of tablets or powders.

Physiotherapy

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

• UHF;
• phonophoresis or electrophoresis;
• UV irradiation;
• 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 ointments prepared independently can be an excellent addition to procedures prescribed by a doctor. What are these remedies and how do you make them?

1. Ointment against arthritis.To prepare it, you 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 in thickness to village sour cream. The medicine is rubbed into sore spots at night.
2. Gout 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 honey is poured. Everything is mixed to form a homogeneous ointment. For use, take a piece of gauze folded in several layers, place a warm mass on it, and in this form apply the medicine to the joint and fix it with a bandage.
3. Ointment for the treatment of joints with osteoarthritis.Take equal parts of nettle leaves, juniper berries (green) and sheep oil. The berries and leaves are thoroughly crushed 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 arthritic joints. To do this, you need to use activated carbon. You must make a paste of this product. This is done in the following way: tablets from several packs of coal are ground into powder, to which is added a little water and 1 tbsp. spoon crushed flaxseed. After thorough mixing, the paste is smeared on the sore joint overnight, after which it is tied and wrapped warm in the morning.

Clay therapy

Here is another excellent folk remedy for pain in the joints of the legs and arms. We have already discussed the causes and treatment of many diseases and found that different diseases should be treated differently. But there is an almost universal recipe - compresses, baths, clay wraps, which can be used for osteoarthritis, rheumatism and rheumatic pain. Clay perfectly relieves pain, relieves inflammation and swelling, absorbs toxins from the body, etc.

Physical education and sports: benefits or harm to the joints

Those who are too keen on sports 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, consider your lifestyle. Any excess is harmful - this statement can also be applied to sports.

To relieve oneself from the feeling of constant discomfort in the joints of the legs, it is sometimes enough for a person to simply reduce physical activity. Jogging or walking (for the elderly), morning exercises, yoga and swimming are good for improving health. All of the above are unlikely to 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 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 put out for public viewing. Use this information for your health and may your joints always be normal!