Living with joint pain can be difficult. Joint pain can make it hard to enjoy everyday activities such as going out, walking around, or playing with your children and grandchildren. Many describe joint pain as inflammation, discomfort, increased warmth, soreness, stiffness, or burning.
Many people with joint pain spend more time sitting and laying down and less time enjoying life and being active. With proper joint pain treatment, you can get back to your everyday life without having to worry about sharp, shooting pains.
For some joint conditions, a blood test, x-ray, physical exam, or ultrasound scan may be helpful in diagnosing the cause.
However, joint pain doesn’t come in one shape or size, there are many different types of joint pain that affect people differently and require various treatments.
Here are some of the common types of joint pain causes, and how to treat them.
Gout
Gout is a type of arthritis that often occurs in one joint, especially the big toe. It causes sharp attacks of pain that can occur at any time. Gout may wake you up in the middle of the night to swollen, painful joints that are incredibly tender. Even being under the covers may feel like too much for your body.
While the pain from gout can be unbearable, the symptoms come and go. You can manage flare-ups by taking NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen, acetaminophen (Tylenol), corticosteroids, and colchicine.
Bursitis
When the bursa sac becomes inflamed and irritated, it’s called bursitis. You have many bursa sacs in your body. Their main purpose is to help prevent friction between your tissues, specifically in your major joints. Many people experience bursitis in the shoulders, elbows, knees, and hips. Bursitis is also more common in older adults over the age of 40.
Some activities may make bursitis worse, such as gardening, tennis, golf, skiing, painting, and cleaning. Bursitis can be treated and prevented by using cushions when resting on hard surfaces, keeping a healthy body weight, and sitting with good posture.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes joint pain and damage in your body. RA is a type of autoimmune disorder that causes the body to attack itself. This occurs because of a malfunctioning immune system. Rheumatoid arthritis is pretty symmetrical, meaning that if you experience joint pain on one side of the body, your joints on the other side will probably be affected as well.
You’ll have better treatment options if your RA is diagnosed early, but there are still options with those who didn’t catch it early enough. To treat RA, you can use medications, different types of home remedies, some types of exercise, and even change your diet.
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. When the cartilage that cushions your bones is damaged, wearing done over a long period of time, it can cause severe joint damage that cannot be reversed.
You can’t reverse osteoarthritis effects, but you can slow the progression by eating healthy, exercising, and maintaining a healthy weight. There are some treatments that can help to slow the progress and some treatment options that are made specifically for pain management. In some cases, your doctor will need to draw out accumulated fluid in the joint area to test for gout or infection.
Bone Tumors
Bone tumors are very rare but can be a common cause of joint pain. Bone cancer or osteosarcoma most often occurs in the knee or upper arms. When osteosarcoma occurs in the knees, it can cause severe swelling and pain. Osteosarcoma will weaken your bones as cancer develops, but won’t cause them to break.
However, swelling is common with bone tumors, especially those located near joints. Treatment for bone cancer will require the help of an oncologist and a team of medical professionals. Options include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
Strains
A strain occurs when the muscles and tendons are overstretched. Strains can cause your body to ache, and if they occur in the joints, you may experience swelling and joint pain. Strains affect the tendons in your body while sprains affect the ligaments. They both can range from mild to severe, requiring different types of treatment.
Strains more frequently occur in the lower back and legs, but strains in the joints are still possible.
Sprains
Sprains, on the other hand, only occur in the joints. A sprain refers to the stretching or tearing of the ligament that connects two of your bones together. Sprains can be mild or severe, ranging from a stretch in the ligament to a complete tear.
Depending on how severe your sprain or dislocation is, there are different treatment options available for you. Surgery is only required in serious situations, so most sprains heal with a combination of rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE), and physical therapy.
Sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis occurs when granulomas, tiny collections of inflammatory cells, grow throughout your body. They can grow in any area of your body, but most commonly grow in the lymph nodes and lungs. Sarcoidosis doesn’t cause joint pain in everyone, but some may experience swelling and pain in the joints.
If you’re looking for ways to relieve the joint pain associated with sarcoidosis, you may want to try a pain cream, CBD, or other holistic methods past NSAIDs and other over-the-counter prescriptions.
Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a type of bacteria that is carried by black-legged ticks. Lyme disease should be treated immediately upon infection, as it can spread to the joints, nervous system, and heart if left untreated.
Antibiotics are used to treat Lyme disease when it’s in its early stages. If it isn’t treated right away you can develop other problems that may be painful or even life-threatening.
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes deep pain signals throughout the entire body. People with fibromyalgia also experience sleep problems, memory issues, and mood imbalance. Flare-ups are often caused by trauma, surgery, infection, or stress.
If there aren’t any triggering events in your life, you may not have a hard time with fibromyalgia. However, if you’re often stressed or you hurt yourself easily, you’ll have more flare-ups.
Lupus
Lupus is another type of autoimmune disorder that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks itself, specifically your joints, kidneys, blood cells, brain, lungs, and heart. The most recognizable symptom of lupus is a facial rash that appears across the cheeks and nose, resembling a butterfly.
With lupus, you can experience joint pain, fever, shortness of breath, chest pain, skin lesions, headaches, and fatigue. Lupus cannot be cured, so it’s important to look into pain management methods.
Broken Bones and Fractures
Broken bones and fractures may also cause joint pain. When the bone breaks or is fractured close to the joints, swelling and pain radiate throughout the entire area. In most cases, fractures and breaks heal easily without surgery, but in the case of more serious bone damage, surgery may be required to set the bone back into place so that it can heal properly.
Ankylosing Spondylitis
Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a very rare type of arthritis that causes stiffness in one’s spine. This disease is lifelong and it doesn’t have very many treatment options. AS can spread throughout the back, causing inflammation and pain in your shoulders and hips.
Like with other types of arthritis and chronic pain, finding good products that help reduce your pain or help manage your pain are incredibly helpful in leading a relatively healthy and happy lifestyle. If you let your pain dominate your life, it can lead to depression.
How to Relieve Any Kind of Joint Pain From Home
Now that you know all the different types of diseases, illnesses, and disorders that can cause joint pain, the next step involves pain relief, and how to treat that annoying joint pain.
For some, chronic pain may seem like the end of the world. After all, it is pain that refuses to go away no matter what you do. However, with the help of a physical therapist and proper at-home treatment, you can make any kind of pain management. You just have to find what works best for you and your lifestyle.
Popular pain management methods for joint pain and other types of chronic pain include:
- RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation)
- Seat cushions, lumbar back support cushions, armrests, and general comfort items
- Braces to help support the joint
- Heating pads and ice packs
- Warm baths
- Aromatherapy
- Chiropractic medicine
- Massage therapy
- Physical therapy
- Acupuncture
- And so much more
Our hemp-infused pain relief cream is essential to relieving joint pain. It’ll make for a great addition to your cabinet of supplies and products. With fast-acting pain relief, you can easily get back to your everyday life.
Here at Hempvana we also offer supplements that can help reduce the pain you feel every day. We also offer compression products and various types of creams, all to benefit your life. We want to help you live the best, most pain-free life possible.
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