Your knees hurt after being in a sitting position in a while, they also hurt when you climb a flight of stairs, or sometimes you feel some soreness on your hip when you bend down to do some chores. What could be the issue? Well, you are suffering from joint pains and they can be a bit frustrating.
In your lifetime, there’s a high chance that you have experienced joint pain one time or the other. Joint pain can greatly influence your quality of life by making sure that there are some simple daily activities that you will not be able to accomplish.
So, what exactly is a joint? The area between your bones that is formed when your bones connect is what is called a Joint[1]. Joint pain[2] is known to affect millions of people suffering from different conditions.
Research[3] estimates that 126.6 million Americans suffer from some form of joint pain.
Joint pain can be a symptom of many different conditions. It can signify an underlying problem. That being said, there is a need for some investigation so as to determine the reason behind it.
As opposed to treating a symptom, it’s safer to find out what disease is causing it first so as to nip it in the bud! When you do this, you will have taken care of the root cause of the symptom, thereby eliminating it altogether, making sure it will not recur. Otherwise, if you keep treating the symptom, you might just be taking yourself and your emotions through a vicious cycle. Nobody wants that, right?
There are Many Reasons Behind Joint Pain, Here, We Will Look Into 7 of them:
1. Bone Cancer
Anything cancer-related sounds scary. Joint pain could be a symptom of bone cancer. More often, bone cancer will occur in the long bones of your arms and legs. As cancer starts to manifest itself, you may feel pain only at night or when active.
If your joint pain symptoms[4] include, swelling, unintended weight loss and fatigue, this could be a sign of bone cancer and you should go for a diagnosis. But to ease your worries, there’s a very small chance that your joint pain may be as a result of bone cancer, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
2. Fibromyalgia
If you are a woman and you’re having joint pain, then there is a possibility that it may be as a result of fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia occurs mostly in women. This disease causes an inflammation of your central nervous system, which means that other parts of your body will get pain signals. This will, in turn, make you feel pain in your joints but not limited to your joints as you may feel this pain in other organs too.
So, if your joint pain includes symptoms like headaches, feeling fatigued and stressed out, then you should be checked out for fibromyalgia, so as to rule it out.
3.Lyme Disease & Joint Pain
Lyme disease is a disease primarily caused by a bacteria[5] found in an infected tick. Lyme disease is known to cause joint pain. How? If Lyme disease is not treated, that’s when the bacteria from the ticks spread to the joints, which will then cause you joint pain.
The Arthritis Foundation states that if the Lyme disease is not treated, more than 50% of all patients end up developing sporadic arthritis bouts.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, older adults and children are more likely to contract this disease. Also, people whose occupation require them to work in the outdoors are also susceptible. So, if you’re having joint pains and you spend a lot of time outdoors, then you should probably get checked out by a doctor.
4. Musculoskeletal Sarcoidosis
The Disorder With an Unknown Cause – According to an article by Disabled World[6] , sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that is multisystem. Musculoskeletal Sarcoidosis[7] is sarcoidosis of the muscles, joints and skeletal system. Symptoms include pain in the joints, stiffness and also swelling. These symptoms will mostly occur in 6months of contracting the disease.
5. You are Suffering from Gout
Gout is a condition that is painful. It’s caused when uric acid builds up, which then forms crystals that cause your joints to be inflamed.
If you take alcohol in excess, you are obese or some of your relatives have gout, then you are more than likely to suffer from it. You can get Gout on your big toe, which is usually where it’s more likely to develop first, but you can also get it in your ankles and also knees.
6. Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is type of joint pain that is degenerative. It’s mainly caused by wearing and tearing of your joints. Joint pain goes hand in hand with stiffness.
If your work involves you sitting at your desk for the better part of the day, you will most likely experience stiffness, which is normal. But here is the bad news. Joint stiffness[8] could also be a sign of Osteoarthritis.
7. Reaction to the Pharmaceuticals
You are suffering from a known disease and your doctor writes you a prescription to consume medication that will treat that condition. After taking the medication, you start to experience some joint pain. This joint pain could be accompanied by a rash on your skin and maybe your eyes also become red.
Medication is there to treat you, but there are some that could actually react on you and cause pain instead. This could mean that your joint pain is being caused by the medication and so you should request your doctor to choose another treatment for you.
Read Next: The #22 Different Types of Joint Pain You Must Know
Conclusion
When your joints are healthy then your quality of life is enhanced. So, now since you know some of the causes of joint pain, you are better placed to figure out the underlying problem behind your joint pain. So, don’t ignore or treat the symptom of joint pain, get to the root of the problem and treat the underlying problem. You can also use a joint pain supplement such as MegaRed Advanced 4-in-1 which might improve overall health.
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