What Could Cause Joint Pain Besides Arthritis

Some Facts On Arthritis

Some additional facts about arthritis include:

• Arthritis is one of the oldest diseases known to humans.
• Arthritis can affect people of all ages.
• Arthritis is not a single disease its a group of many diseases. There are over 100 types including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, gout and and many other types.
• The rheumatologist is a doctor who has specialized in arthritis and other similar diseases. If the person experiences some symptoms, they should visit the rheumatologist for future examination and therapy.
• Early diagnosis is the best option for successful control over the disease as no definitive cure is available to date.

What Can Be Done To Relieve Joint Pain

Surgery may be an option if the joint pain is long lasting and does not lessen with drugs or physical therapy and exercise. Please be sure to discuss this with the doctor to make sure that an operation makes sense.

There are many different surgical options available, including:

Arthroscopy: A procedure where a surgeon makes two or three small incisions in the flesh over the joint and gets into the joint using an arthroscope, or a thin, flexible, fiberoptic instrument, to repair cartilage or remove bone chips in or near the joint.

Joint replacement: If other treatments do not help, surgery may be needed to replace the joint once the cartilage that cushions and protects the ends of the bones gradually wears away. This can be done for hip, knee and shoulder joints.

A surgeon removes parts of the patients bone and implants an artificial joint made from metal or plastic. This procedure has had excellent results and the majority of patients feel long-lasting pain relief after this type of surgery.

When To See A Doctor

People with warning signs should see a doctor right away. People without warning signs should call a doctor. The doctor decides how quickly they need to be seen based on the severity and location of pain, whether joints are swollen, whether the cause has been diagnosed previously, and other factors. Typically, a delay of several days or so is not harmful for people without warning signs.

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Not All Joint Pain Is Arthritis

As a rheumatologist, Im becoming an expert in evaluating all types of joint pain. My adult patients are wonderful at describing how their joints feel: burning, stabbing, pressure, stiffness, crushing, aching, throbbing. Children use more creative language: the joint feels like ice cream, like aliens are poking at them with needles from the inside, like bugs are crawling over them.

Pain in a joint is one of the most common reasons why patients are referred to a rheumatologist, often with the suspicion that the pain is due to arthritis. Although there are many causes of joint pain, one simple question can help to differentiate between arthritis and most of the other conditions.

Arthritis is a term that refers to inflammation of a joint. There are two basic types of arthritis: inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis. Its easy to see inflammatory arthritis: it causes joint swelling, warmth, redness, and pain. Osteoarthritis, on the other hand, does not cause much joint inflammation and usually only presents pain.

So how is one to tell the difference between all of the entities that cause joint pain? Just ask this question: when do your symptoms occur?

Take-home points:

Acute Joint Pain Vs Arthritis

Arthritis is one of the most common ailments among American adults. Over 20% suffer from some form of arthritis in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Arthritis can cause debilitating joint pain and is the leading cause of workplace disability according to the CDC, and accounts for over $100 billion in medical costs every year.

While osteoarthritis is a common cause of joint pain, its not the only one. There are other factors that can cause short term joint pain that usually clears up without causing lasting damage to the joint.

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Tips For Treating Joint Pain

At Mile High Spine, we treat joint pain caused by injuries and inflammation. Here are the non-invasive treatments we offer patients struggling with joint pain:

Mile High Spine & Pain Center offers effective treatments for arthritis and other causes of joint pain. With numerous natural, affordable options available, you may finally be able to do away with debilitating pain. Contact us at 507-0080 to schedule a free joint pain consultation at our Broomfield clinic today.

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The Most Common Causes Of Muscle Pain

Not all aches are related to stress or physical activity. As stated above, some medical conditions can cause muscle pain. For example:

Fibromyalgia

In case you have pain on both sides of your body that lasts longer than three months, it might be a sign of fibromyalgia. It is a long-term condition that can cause pain in muscles, general fatigue, sleep and cognitive disturbances. Other symptoms of this condition include headaches, dry eyes, anxiety, pain in the lower belly, and bladder problems.

Keep in mind that only professional healthcare providers can make a diagnosis. If you notice the symptoms of fibromyalgia, make an appointment with a doctor as soon as possible and get the right treatment on time.

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Brief Anatomy Of The Knee

The knee is a vulnerable joint that bears a great deal of stress from everyday activities, such as lifting and kneeling, and from high-impact activities, such as jogging and aerobics.

The knee is formed by the following parts:

• Tibia. This is the shin bone or larger bone of the lower leg.

• Femur. This is the thighbone or upper leg bone.

• Patella. This is the kneecap.

Each bone end is covered with a layer of cartilage that absorbs shock and protects the knee. Basically, the knee is 2 long leg bones held together by muscles, ligaments, and tendons.

There are 2 groups of muscles involved in the knee, including the quadriceps muscles , which straighten the legs, and the hamstring muscles , which bend the leg at the knee.

Tendons are tough cords of tissue that connect muscles to bones. Ligaments are elastic bands of tissue that connect bone to bone. Some ligaments on the knee provide stability and protection of the joints, while other ligaments limit forward and backward movement of the tibia .

What Diseases Can Affect The Joints

Many diseases can affect the joints. They often cause joint pain and make your joints stiff, red, or swollen. Most of them are chronic. That means they last a long time. Some may never go away completely. Some of the diseases that affect the joints include:

• Arthritis. Arthritis may cause joint pain and swelling. There are many types of this disease. Osteoarthritis is the most common type. Over time, arthritis can cause severe joint damage. It can affect people of all ages. A joint injury when you’re young may cause osteoarthritis later in life.
• Lupus. This autoimmune disease affects many parts of the body and can cause joint and muscle pain. Some types of lupus often cause arthritis.
• Sjögren’s Syndrome. This autoimmune disease affects glands that make moisture in many parts of the body. The main symptoms are dry eyes and mouth, but it often causes joint pain, too.

Treatments are different depending on the disease. But most treatments include medicines and therapies to relieve pain and other symptoms.

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Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Bacteria called R. rickettsii cause it, and a tick bite is usually how you get it. Most of the symptoms are flu-like fever, chills, headache, nausea, insomnia, and muscle aches. A rash that doesnt itch can show up on your wrists and ankles after a few days, then spread. Antibiotics treat it, and the sooner you take them, the better. If not treated, it can lead to inflammation in your lungs, heart, and brain, then kidney failure.

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Severe Hip Pain But No Arthritis Maybe Its Hip Impingement

Hip pain without an injury isnt always a sign of arthritis, or a pulled groin, if youre young. Sometimes the pain is caused by a misshapen hip joint. Dr. Tom Miller talks to Dr. Stephen Aoki about why and how a hip joint can be misshaped, and what can be done to relieve and treat the hip pain.

May 20, 2020

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Vs Osteoarthritis

Many people confuse rheumatoid arthritis with osteoarthritis due to their similar symptoms, but the two diseases are caused by different factors.

What is Osteoarthritis?

Whereas rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes joint malfunction due to inflammation, osteoarthritis is a mechanical disease brought on by the destruction of joints through wear and tear.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, with approximately 27 million Americans over the age of 25 having been diagnosed with it. Osteoarthritis is also most commonly seen in people middle-aged to elderly and is the top cause of disability in those age groups, though it can also appear in younger people who have sustained joint injuries.

With osteoarthritis, the cartilage, joint lining, ligaments, and bone are all affected by deterioration and inflammation. When the cartilage begins to break down due to stress or changes in the body, the surrounding bones slowly get bigger and begin to fail.

Osteoarthritis is a slowly progressing disease and occurs in the joints of the hand, spine, hips, knees, and toes. Furthermore, risk factors of this disease most often stem from lifestyle or biological causes, such as:

Know Your Risk Factors

Anyone can develop arthritis, but some people may have a higher risk due to factors like age, family history, previous joint damage or injury, or underlying health problems like obesity.

For more information about arthritis treatment and how to manage joint pain, contact us today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Monroe, or you can book your appointment online.

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How Are Knee Problems Diagnosed

In addition to a complete medical history and physical exam, other tests for knee problems may include:

• X-ray. This test uses invisible electromagnetic energy beams to make images of internal tissues, bones, and organs onto film.

• Magnetic resonance imaging . This test uses large magnets, radiofrequencies, and a computer to make detailed images of organs and structures within the body can often determine damage or disease in a surrounding ligament or muscle.

• Computed tomography scan . This test uses X-rays and computer technology to make horizontal, or axial, images of the body. A CT scan shows detailed images of any part of the body, including the bones, muscles, fat, and organs. CT scans are more detailed than general X-rays.

• Arthroscopy. A minimally-invasive diagnostic and treatment procedure used for conditions of a joint. This procedure uses a small, lighted, optic tube , which is inserted into the joint through a small incision in the joint. Images of the inside of the joint are projected onto a screen used to evaluate any degenerative or arthritic changes in the joint to detect bone diseases and tumors to determine the cause of bone pain and inflammation.

• Radionuclide bone scan. A nuclear imaging technique that uses a very small amount of radioactive material, which is injected into the patient’s bloodstream to be detected by a scanner. This test shows blood flow to the bone and cell activity within the bone.

How It Affects Treatment

The best way to treat mechanical back pain is to allow time to let things heal, try physical therapy, and use pain relief measures like NSAIDs or heat or ice therapy. Lifestyle changes, including losing weight, quitting smoking, improving posture, and exercising more, as well as steroid injections may also be recommended. Surgery is considered a last resort.

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How Is Ra Treated

RA can be effectively treated and managed with medication and self-management strategies. Treatment for RA usually includes the use of medications that slow disease and prevent joint deformity, called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs biological response modifiers are medications that are an effective second-line treatment. In addition to medications, people can manage their RA with self-management strategies proven to reduce pain and disability, allowing them to pursue the activities important to them. People with RA can relieve pain and improve joint function by learning to use five simple and effective arthritis management strategies.

What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation in the affected parts of the body.

RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once. RA commonly affects joints in the hands, wrists, and knees. In a joint with RA, the lining of the joint becomes inflamed, causing damage to joint tissue. This tissue damage can cause long-lasting or chronic pain, unsteadiness , and deformity .

RA can also affect other tissues throughout the body and cause problems in organs such as the lungs, heart, and eyes.

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Causes Of Pain In Many Joints

In most cases, the cause of pain originating inside multiple joints is arthritis. Disorders that cause arthritis may differ from each other in certain tendencies, such as the following:

• How many and which joints they usually involve

• Whether the central part of the skeleton, such as the spine or pelvis, is typically involved

• Whether arthritis is sudden or longstanding

Acute arthritis affecting multiple joints is most often due to

• Viral infection

• or psoriatic arthritis Psoriatic Arthritis Psoriatic arthritis is a spondyloarthritis and a form of joint inflammation that occurs in some people who have psoriasis of the skin or nails. Joint inflammation can develop in people who have… read more )

Chronic arthritis affecting multiple joints is most often due to

Some chronic inflammatory disorders can affect the spine as well as the limb joints . Some affect certain parts of the spine more frequently. For example, ankylosing spondylitis more commonly affects the lower part of the spine, whereas rheumatoid arthritis more typically affects the upper part of the spine in the neck.

The most common disorders outside the joints that cause pain around the joints are

Bursitis and tendinitis often result from injury, usually affecting only one joint. However, certain disorders cause bursitis or tendinitis in many joints.

Evidence Of Central Pain Processing From Neuroimaging Studies

Schematic diagram of central pain-processing pathways implicated in OA pain processing.

Recent work by Baliki et al. has reported that painful mechanical knee stimulation in OA was associated with bilateral activity in the thalamus, secondary somatosensory, insular and cingulate cortices, with unilateral activity in the putamen and amygdala. These data suggest that painful stimulation in subjects with OA of the knee engages with many brain regions commonly observed in acute pain. Local treatment of the knee with lignocaine resulted in reduction of brain activity detected on fMRI in the regions described previously, suggesting that central activation of the brain mediates pain during OA. Such results also help to disentangle pain responses from anxiety or other emotional, non-painful responses. In the same study, patients who had spontaneous back pain in a cohort of patients with low back pain showed activity by fMRI in the medial prefrontal cortex, with reduced brain activation after treatment with lignocaine . The regions activated in these studies of OA subjects show patterns in brain regions similar to those in touch-evoked pain and acute pain .

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Signs And Symptoms Of Arthritis

Chronic joint pain may be a sign of arthritis and joint damage. There are over 100 different types of arthritis, the most common of which is osteoarthritis, which results from wear and tear on the joints over time.

Rheumatoid arthritis, another common form of arthritis, also causes joint damage and deterioration over time, but results from an autoimmune disorder where the immune system mistakenly attacks the joints.

Some of the signs and symptoms of arthritis-related joint pain include:

• Limited or decreased range of motion

It can be difficult to tell whether your joint pain is the result of temporary inflammation or arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation recommends that you keep track of your symptoms and if the pain and stiffness feels worse at a certain time of day, after physical activity or rest, and the duration of your symptoms.

If your symptoms last more than a few weeks, get progressively worse, or you develop other symptoms like a fever or a rash, seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Causes And Cures For Arthritis

Arthritis is the inflammation or swelling of one or more joints in different parts of the body. Depending on the type of arthritis, some cause wear and tear, infections, and other underlying diseases. Symptoms of arthritis that stem from such causes include reduced range of motion, pain, swelling, and stiffness. Anxiety, stress, and depression are also all common complications of conditions that are involved with chronic arthritis.

Arthritis involves the inflammation of joints and can be found in places such as the feet, hands, hips, knees, and lower back. Many develop arthritis later in life and can be harmful in the long term if left untreated. Living with arthritis can inhibit the quality of life, but there are various arthritis treatments that can be done holistically to reduce pain and further prevent the risk of developing arthritis.

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