Facts to know about joint pain

 

Your body is connected to each other and that connection is known as “joints”.  You never feel this connection until something happens in your joints. This something can be pain, swelling, inflammation when you get hurt by some accident or this can also be due to some other problems in joints such as arthritis.

 

If you suffer from these problems you are not alone in this world. It is estimated that more than 50 million Americans have arthritis or have some or the other kind of joint problem. We can classify this joint pain fact into two sections and have thing discuss with you:

Having pain in joints due to some injuries:

Injuries affect ligaments, bursae, or tendons surrounding the joint, which then leads to joint pain. Due to this internal damage to joints parts it lead to pain, inflammation, swelling and tenderness in joints. Sometimes these types of injuries make the skin color to get changed as blood is accumulated in the nearby tissues.

This type of injuries if treated well, will not again create problem in future, but if left untreated can lead to infection and internal wear and tear in joints and leads to tumors in joint.

If you have pain in your joints due to injuries, then you have to first follow the basic step of RICE.

• R- Rest: If you give proper rest to you joints, it will never again hurt to in future. Sometimes due to staining your joints the small problem to pain becomes a, life time pain.
  
• I-Ice: Try to ice you joints. Keep ice cubes in a cotton cloth and wrap it will. Then have 10-15 minutes of ice massage on your joints.
  
• C-Compress: Compress your joints.  It will help your joints to heal early.
  
• E-Elevate: This will help the swelling to get minimized.

Along with this you have to follow your doctor’s advice and take the medicines on time.

     Having pain in joints due to arthritis:

Arthritis is defined as a complex musculoskeletal disorder that leads to internal wear and tear of synovial fluid and cartilage around the joints. It is not just a disease when you get old but the fact is that every 2 person out of 10 in Americans have arthritis.

There are many types of arthritis form, but most common diseases that make up arthritis are:

•   Osteoarthritis (OA):  Called as a progressive degenerative joint disease.
  
•   Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA): Causes extreme inflammation of the membranes lining the joint.
  
•   Juvenile Arthritis (JA): Commonly found in children below the age of 16 year.

Depending upon the type of arthritis, treatment is followed. You have to first consult a doctor; he will examine you and then decide a proper treatment for you. Still the basic treatment includes:

            Medication: It helps to ease the pain and inflammation in your joints. It helps to prevent the further infection in joints. For example corticosteroids or disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs are given to RA to suppress your immune system.

            Surgery: Joints are replaced with an artificial one, but this is the last option when all the other treatment fails.

            Physical Therapy: This is the first and last line defense army of your joints. When your pain is started it’s the first thing to go with this therapy and is continued it till it can be done with ease. 

Preventing joint pain:

If you have pain, then pain can be minimized but for preventing pain you have to take care that your joints don’t get hurt.  Stay healthy and stay away from injuries. This joint pain fact is applicable for both the type of pain- Pain due to injuries or Pain due to arthritis.

 Before ending this one last point that if you have family history of arthritis then it’s wise enough to get yourself diagnosed if pains in joints are unexplainable.