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

What should a person do in such a situation when the joints of the arms and legs hurt? Of course, the very first thing that comes to mind is to go to the clinic and see your local doctor and he will figure out 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 visit a medical institution, because for this you have to take time off from work and then, most likely, stand in line there or prepare a certain amount of money for a visit toa paid medical center.

In general, there are many reasons for self-medication at home. And it's not uncommon for this to actually help. 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 designed specifically to solve such problems. But first, we advise you to take seriously reading the next chapter of our story.

How important it is to make the correct diagnosis

If you ask everyone you meet, "What should you do if the joints of your arms and legs hurt? "", people often do not understand that the pain that worries them may be the initial stage of a serious disease, the development of which can be stopped or slowed down in the initial stages, when the destructive processes in the joints have not yet progressed too far.

By treating themselves with the help of lotions, rubs, compresses, etc. , a sick person puts their health at considerable risk. After all, home remedies are not that safe and may be contraindicated for certain diseases.

For example, there is an opinion that for a quick solution to 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 diseased joints and a local increase in temperature is observed, applying heat to the problem area can only aggravate the situation. If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, the causes, symptoms and treatment measures should first be discussed with specialists (rheumatologists, orthopedists or traumatologists).

We will not 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 can harm.

Various causes of joint pain

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

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

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

2. Rheumatism.In 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 early rheumatism is periodic joint pain, sometimes accompanied by increased body temperature and swelling.

3. Arthrosis.A disease associated with dystrophic-degenerative changes in cartilage, in which bone, ligamentous and synovial tissues are gradually included in the pathological process. The most common osteoarthritis affects the knee, hip and elbow joints. Main symptoms:

   • The main symptom is pain that occurs when moving or putting pressure on the affected joint.
   • gradual restriction of mobility. If the disease is not treated in a timely manner, the process can progress rapidly, ultimately leading to disability.

4. Injuries, bruises, physical strain on the joints.

5. gout- one of the types of arthritis.

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

Let's outline the main steps that must be carried out consistently when dealing with joint pain:

1. Before you find out the cause of the pain, you should try to protect your joints.
2. Take a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
3. Contact a medical facility to find out the causes of the pain.
4. Get detailed recommendations from your doctor about the treatment plan and medications to take, and find out about traditional treatment methods if you want to use them.

Arthritis treatment

Arthritis usually involves severe pain in the joints of the hands. What to do in this situation? The patient must understand that treatment requires a complex set of 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 cartilages, etc. For this, in addition to non-steroidal anti-epileptic drugs, the doctor may prescribe -inflammatory drugs, antibiotics. As part of this article we can give an excellent recipe from traditional medicine.

A honey cabbage compress is very helpful for arthritis. You have to do it before 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 on top with cellophane, bandaged and wrapped in a warm woolen scarf. In the morning the patient will certainly feel relief.

The role of proper nutrition

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

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

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

Arthrosis. Treatment

Nowadays, many people 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 help to quickly relieve the torment. Consultation with a doctor is required. An x-ray must be taken to help the doctor determine the degree of joint destruction.

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

A good alternative to the natural chondroprotector is regular gelatin, which is commercially available. This product should 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 jellied meat more often, since it also contains large amounts of natural substances from which cartilage tissue is built.

drug

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

If the pain is severe, you can go beyond just topical ointments and take highly effective NSAIDs in the form of tablets or powder.

physical therapy

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

• UHF;
• phonophoresis or electrophoresis;
• UV irradiation;
• magnetic field therapy;
• transcutaneous electrical stimulation;
• Paraffin baths and applications etc.

Treatment of joints with ointments according to traditional recipes

We continue to deal with the main topic of the article: "What to do if your joints hurt? "Treatment with home-made ointments can be an excellent addition to the procedures prescribed by a doctor. What are these remedies and how are they made?

1. Ointment for rheumatism.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 create a mass that is similar in thickness to village sour cream. The medicine is rubbed into sore spots at night.
2. Arthritis ointment made from honey and egg yolk.Take an egg yolk, a block of beeswax (small) and 1 tbsp. l. HoneyFirst, the egg yolk is heated in a water bath, into which the wax is then crumbled and honey is poured. Everything is mixed into a homogeneous ointment. To use it, take a piece of gauze folded in several layers, place a hot 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 for arthrosis.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 joints with gout. To do this you need activated carbon. You need to make a paste from this product. This is done as follows: tablets from several packs of coal are ground into powder, a little water and 1 tbsp are added to them. Spoons of crushed flax seeds. After mixing thoroughly, the paste is applied to the painful joint overnight, then bandaged and wrapped warmly until morning.

Sound therapy

Here is another excellent folk remedy when the joints of the legs and arms hurt. We have already talked about the causes and treatment of many diseases and found out that different diseases should be treated differently. But there is an almost universal recipe - compresses, baths, clay wraps that can be used for arthrosis, arthritis and rheumatic pain. Clay perfectly relieves pain, relieves inflammation and swelling, sucks toxins from the body, etc.

Physical education and sports: benefits or harms for the joints

Those who exercise too much often experience joint pain. What should you do if your knees and ankles hurt after long, strenuous runs seemingly done in the name of health? First, reconsider your lifestyle. Any excesses are harmful - this statement can also be applied to sport.

To relieve the feeling of constant discomfort in the leg joints, sometimes it is enough 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 is unlikely to cause pain in your joints. On the contrary, such physical education classes will fill them with strength and endurance.

Last word

We hope that the information contained in this article will help those who experience 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 made available to the public. Use this information for your health and may your joints always be normal!