The joints of the 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 very first thing that comes to mind is to go to the clinic and see your local physician, and he will figure out what’s what: prescribe tests or refer you to some specialist. However, many of us know how difficult it can be to find time to go to a medical facility, because to do this you will have to take time off from work, then, most likely, sit in line there or prepare a certain amount of money for a visit to a paid medical center.

In general, people have many reasons for self-medication at home. And it’s not that rare that this 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 specifically designed to solve such problems. But first, we advise you to take the reading of the next chapter of our story seriously.

The importance of making the correct diagnosis

Asking everyone they meet: "If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, what should you do? ", people often do not understand that the pain that worries them may be the initial stage of a serious illness, the development of which can be stopped or slowed down at the initial stage, whenthe 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 at all that 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 this is 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, then 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 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 on what can benefit the joints and what will cause 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 about the reasons that cause aches, pains 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 tissues. Characteristic symptoms accompanying arthritis:

   • 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 of the arms and legs (wrist, ankle, elbow, knee) and 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 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 a 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 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 rheumatism is joint pain that occurs periodically, sometimes accompanied by elevated body temperature and swelling.

3. Arthrosis.A disease associated with dystrophic-degenerative changes occurring in cartilage, with the gradual involvement of bone, ligamentous, and synovial tissues in the pathological process. The most common arthrosis is of the 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 on time, the process can progress quickly, which will ultimately lead to disability.

4. Injuries, bruises, physical overload of 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 need to be taken consistently in case of joint pain:

1. Before finding out the causes of the pain, you should try to provide rest to the joints.
2. Take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine.
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 methods of treatment, if you are going to use them.

Treatment of arthritis

Arthritis is most often severe 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 may prescribe, in addition to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics. Within the framework of this article, we can give one excellent recipe from traditional medicine.

For arthritis, a honey-cabbage compress is very helpful. You need 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 with cellophane on top, bandaged and wrapped in a warm wool scarf. In the morning the patient will certainly feel relief.

The role of proper nutrition

The joints of the legs and arms often hurt due to metabolic disorders in the body. The disease gout is one of the types of arthritis, a frequent companion of modern people, it especially torments the stronger sex. Probably everyone has heard this term: "deposition of salts in the joints. "Some people think that it's all about 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, 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, then perhaps the discomfort indicates 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 grain cereals, fruits, cottage cheese into your diet and give up tobacco and alcoholic libations.

Osteoarthritis. Treatment

Today, quite a lot of people complain that their joints in their arms and legs hurt. What to do if the pain is caused by arthrosis? Here, too, most likely, you cannot do without NSAIDs: they will help quickly relieve the torment. Consultation with a doctor is required. 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 arthrosis, along with anti-inflammatory drugs, the intake of chondroprotectors (substances that restore articular cartilage) plays an important role.

A good alternative natural chondroprotector is regular gelatin, which can be purchased in stores. 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; it also contains large quantities of natural substances from which cartilage tissue is built.

Pharmaceuticals

Several times when we mentioned 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 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 just 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 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 to make 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 in thickness to 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 honey is poured. Everything is mixed to form a homogeneous ointment. For use, 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 with 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 combined with oil. The prepared ointment should be rubbed into the joints in the mornings and evenings.

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 coal are ground into powder, to which a little water and 1 tbsp are added. spoon of crushed flaxseed. After thorough mixing, the paste is smeared on the sore joint overnight, after which it is bandaged and wrapped warmly until the morning.

Clay therapy

Here is another excellent folk 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 out that different diseases should 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, sucks toxins out of the body, etc.

Physical education and sports: benefits or harm for 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, reconsider your lifestyle. Any excesses are harmful - this statement can also be applied to sports.

In order to relieve oneself from the feeling 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. All of the above is unlikely to cause pain in your joints. On the contrary, such physical education will fill them with strength and endurance.

Final word

We hope the information presented in the article will help those who have pain in the joints of their arms and legs. Diseases and treatment methods, folk recipes and a list of drugs - all these materials were carefully studied by us in advance and only then laid out for public viewing. Use this information for your health, and may your joints always be normal!