If after a couple of hours these sensations weaken, and after a couple of days you don’t even remember about them, perhaps these were the consequences of excessive physical activity or an unfortunate sleeping position. But if the pain does not go away, and, spread throughout your body, bothers you for weeks, you should consider a disease that is beautifully and mysteriously called fibromyalgia.
Apparently, it is no coincidence that this disease is female: according to statistics, 80% of fibromyalgia sufferers are women. Although she doesn’t bypass men either.
Our expert is an employee of the laboratory of neurology and clinical neurophysiology of the Research Institute of the First Moscow State Medical University named after. Sechenova, Doctor of Medical Sciences Guzel Tabeeva .
Body aches without fever: what to do at home
There are many reasons that cause mild pain in the arms, legs, back and throughout the body, causing discomfort and sharply reducing ability to work, even if it is not accompanied by fever.
Aches and pains are a nonspecific symptom, that is, they can accompany a large number of diseases of different origins. The sensation of aching is characteristic of muscle tissue, bones and joints and occurs when they are damaged, most often by toxins or inflammatory reactions. In this case, the functions of muscle tissue, bones or joints are not impaired. Aches are never felt in the internal organs, for example, the stomach, liver, intestines, etc.
Such a pain!
According to some reports, every tenth person suffers from fibromyalgia, but this disease is diagnosed much less frequently. The problem is that both the patient himself and often the doctor do not perceive pain in a comprehensive manner. That is, if your leg hurts, then we treat your leg; if your back hurts, then we treat your back.
There are no special laboratory tests for diagnosing fibromyalgia: this disease cannot be “calculated” either by X-rays, or by blood tests, or by MRI. The doctor relies only on specific symptoms and examination data.
Describing his pain, a person often says: hellish. But this is just an emotional characteristic, not a medical one. It all depends on the individual pain threshold. In women it is lower than in men, but the latter are less patient - so pain tolerance is higher in women.
Why the body aches - the main reasons
The most common causes of body aches without fever are general intoxication, physical fatigue, nervous tension, and prolonged stay in an uncomfortable position. However, body aches can be the cause of more serious infectious diseases and indicate general intoxication of the body. For example, it can serve as a harbinger of the flu, when the temperature has not yet risen, but the first symptoms characteristic of the incubation period are already present.
Other infectious diseases that may cause pain include:
- Viral infections (ARVI, rubella, chickenpox);
- Serious infectious diseases (tuberculosis, plague, botulism, hepatitis, encephalitis, malaria);
- Food poisoning;
- Injuries (bruises, fractures);
- Malignant tumors;
- Insect (tick) bites;
- Immunodeficiency conditions (HIV, AIDS);
- Endocrine diseases (diabetes mellitus, thyroid diseases);
- Blood diseases (leukemia, myelosis).
Aches in the hands
Aches in the hands are quite common and may indicate a disease that requires urgent medical attention. The cause of aching hands can be diseases of the muscles, joints and bones, such as:
- Myositis;
- Torn muscles, ligaments and tendons
- Excessive physical activity;
- Rheumatoid arthritis;
- Osteoarthritis;
- Tendinitis (inflammation of tendons);
- Keeping your hands in one position for a long time;
- Brachial plexus plexitis;
In some cases, aching in the left arm may indicate an attack of angina, when pain during myocardial ischemia radiates to the upper limb. If you have other symptoms, cold sweat, shortness of breath, or prolonged heart pain, you should immediately consult a doctor.
If the ache lasts for several days and develops into more intense pain, you should immediately consult a doctor.
Aching legs
The cause of aching legs can be diseases of the blood vessels, muscles, joints and ligaments of the lower extremities. These include:
- Varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, atherosclerosis of the arteries of the lower extremities;
- Myositis;
- Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis of the joints of the lower extremities;
- Exercise stress;
- Staying in an uncomfortable position for a long time;
- Leg injury;
- Osteochondrosis of the lumbar vertebrae;
- Osteoporosis;
If pain persists for a long time, it increases and acute pain develops, you must seek medical help.
Aches in the back
Many people are familiar with discomfort in the back and lower back. Such symptoms can sometimes indicate banal physical fatigue, especially if this was preceded by unusual work, for example in the garden or clearing snow. In this case, the best therapy is rest. However, in most cases, back pain can develop due to serious diseases of the spine or internal organs.
The most common cause of back or lower back pain is diseases of the spine, such as:
- Osteochondrosis. Moreover, in addition to aches, a crunch in the spine and limitation of movements are also characteristic;
- With an intervertebral hernia, back pain can be an early symptom of its development.
If symptoms such as numbness, a feeling of weakness in the limbs, or exacerbation of pain develop, it is necessary to consult a neurologist for an accurate diagnosis of the disease and prescription of therapy.
Another cause of back pain can be diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract. In this case, the ache may be accompanied by frequent and painful urination.
Back pain in women can be a sign of gynecological diseases, such as uterine fibroids, endometriosis, dysmenorrhea and other menstrual disorders.
Treatment methods
If characteristic symptoms appear, you should consult a doctor and not self-medicate. Until the cause of the joint pain is determined, he needs to be provided with peace and quiet. It is allowed to take any of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. They act on damaged tissues, relieving inflammation and swelling, and reducing pain.
The mentality of the average Russian is such that if he has health problems, he does not go to the doctor, but seeks help from friends and acquaintances, which can significantly worsen his condition. What mistakes do people make when self-medicating joint pain:
- Using ointments with a warming effect. Regardless of the nature of the pain (total or local), the use of such remedies is the wrong tactic. The main cause of the symptom is inflammation and swelling of the tissue. When using warming agents, vasodilation occurs, increasing blood flow in the problem area, which worsens the patient’s condition: swelling and inflammation become even greater under thermal influences.
- The use of chondroprotectors as an independent means of therapy. Previously, these drugs were actively used in medicine. They contain glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate - chemical compounds that restore cartilage tissue and intercellular lubrication. But after research, it was proven that the use of these drugs as an independent therapeutic method is ineffective and is only suitable for the initial stages of the disease or as a preventive measure.
Conservative therapy
When the reason why all joints of the body hurt is established, treatment will be aimed at reducing discomfort, eliminating inflammation in the area of damage to bone structures, improving microcirculation and fluid outflow. For this purpose, the patient is prescribed corticosteroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, ointments, and gels.
When treating joint diseases, it is necessary to follow a gentle regimen and not put stress on the damaged area. It is best to keep it stationary with elastic bandages or a plaster cast. If the cause of the pathology is injury, then cold must be applied to the area of inflammation. This will help reduce swelling and slow down inflammatory reactions in the affected tissues. But if the pain is caused by destructive changes in the cartilage and tendons, then it is impossible to apply cold to the joint.
If all the joints of the body hurt, and the cause of the pain is associated with inflammation and tissue swelling, then the patient is prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Ibuprofen, Diclofenac, Indomethacin are popular. Your doctor may prescribe these medications in the form of tablets, ointments, or intramuscular injections. Their action is aimed at eliminating the source of inflammation in the damaged area, reducing tissue swelling, and pain relief.
NSAIDs should not be used for a long time, as they can cause addiction, discomfort in the stomach and intestines, inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, and other adverse reactions.
The use of these drugs gives a good therapeutic effect if you approach therapy wisely. If taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs does not provide the necessary pain relief, then in combination with them the patient is prescribed muscle relaxants, antidepressants or anticonvulsants.
The administration of chondroprotectors for pain in bone joints is quite effective in the initial stages of the disease. The maximum therapeutic effect is achieved with an integrated approach to the problem. The most common products in this group include Teraflex, Artra, Dona, Chondroitin sulfate and others. For diseases of large joints, local manipulations and injections with anti-inflammatory drugs can be successfully used. This type of treatment gives a quick but quite long-lasting effect.
Selective inhibitors are a new generation of anesthetic agents. They quickly improve the patient's condition associated with pain in the knees and elbows. But you cannot take them without a doctor’s permission, since they have negative side effects of a cardiovascular nature. Celebrex is considered the least dangerous. To reduce discomfort, it is recommended to use Tylenol or Acetaminophen. The basis of these remedies is ordinary paracetamol, which has an analgesic and antipyretic effect, but it has a bad effect on the liver.
For severe, prolonged pain in the joints, the causes of which are associated with tissue inflammation, when NSAIDs do not give the desired result, the patient needs stronger analgesics. It is impossible to purchase them without a special prescription from a doctor, and it is impossible to use them for too long. Uncontrolled use of opioid medications causes addiction, drowsiness, and problems with stool. Therefore, for patients experiencing severe pain and using such groups of drugs to alleviate the condition, specialist supervision is required.
Physiotherapy
When medications don’t bring relief, all your joints still hurt, and you don’t know what to do, the doctor prescribes physiotherapy. In combination with conservative treatment, they help restore limb mobility, strengthen muscle and cartilage tissue, and stabilize the functionality of the joint.
The most effective methods:
- ultrasound and electrical stimulation;
- cold and heat therapy;
- laser treatment.
For arthrosis, laser therapy is most often used. Under the influence of an infrared ray in the affected joint, blood circulation improves, tissue nutrition is normalized, the sensitivity of nerve endings is reduced, and the inflammatory process is eliminated. The procedures can be carried out daily, lasting 8-10 minutes. One course includes up to 15 sessions depending on the severity of the pathology.
The essence of magnetic therapy is the impact on the sore spot with electromagnetic waves, which produce local heating of cartilage, ligaments, and muscles. This helps to quickly get rid of the swelling of the inflammatory focus and normalize the structure of cartilage joints.
If you need to improve nutrition and blood supply to damaged ligaments and cartilage, then ultrasound therapy will help. Thanks to this type of physiotherapy, metabolic processes and fluid outflow in tissues are accelerated, regeneration proceeds faster, and cellular respiration increases. The course of therapy consists of 10-12 procedures, which can be received daily, lasting 10 minutes.
Folk remedies
If you know your diagnosis accurately, then using alternative medicine can be completely justified. You can fight pathology with the help of herbal decoctions, compresses, rubs and baths. Saline solutions, bay leaves, chestnuts, apple cider vinegar, kerosene, honey, and other available ingredients are suitable.
To use the recipes of witch doctors and healers in practice, you need to coordinate them with your doctor. He will evaluate the compatibility of “grandmother’s” methods with medications, eliminate the risks of complications and the effectiveness of folk remedies.
What to do if your whole body aches?
If there is aches throughout the body that are not accompanied by an increase in temperature, it is necessary to try to understand whether it is associated with previous physical or psychological stress, muscle strain, stress, incorrect posture and being in it for a long time. For these natural causes, you can help yourself by getting some rest.
If body aches are not associated with increased stress, do not go away on their own and last for several days, you should seek specialized medical help. Only a doctor, with the help of the necessary studies and tests, will be able to make the correct diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment.
The significance of infectious-toxic processes in the occurrence of joint pain
Any infectious diseases in the initial stages of development, when massive multiplication of pathogens occurs with their distribution to all tissues, can manifest themselves as pain in all joints and body aches with chills. Sometimes this symptom is the only one in the initial stages of a number of infections (flu, measles, rubella, intestinal infections, etc.). Common arthralgia can also be observed with specific infections: tuberculosis, syphilis, chlamydia, brucellosis, HIV infection. Acute and chronic intoxications caused by poisoning with toxic substances or the endogenous entry of toxins into the blood from any source of massive inflammation can manifest themselves in the same way.
Important to remember! Joint pain is one of the common complaints of patients after infectious diseases!
DOES YOUR ENTIRE BODY HURT?
Has it ever happened that when you woke up in the morning, you felt tired, pain and stiffness throughout your body? If after a couple of hours the condition improved, and after a couple of days you forgot about it, then perhaps it was the consequences of excessive physical activity or an unfortunate sleeping position. But if the pain does not go away, but spreads throughout the body and bothers you for weeks, it is worth considering a disease that is beautifully and mysteriously called fibromyalgia.
APPEARANTLY, IT IS NOT A CASE THAT THIS IS A FEMALE DISEASE: ACCORDING TO STATISTICS, 80% of those suffering from fibromyalgia are women. Although she doesn’t bypass men either. Everyone experiences many of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, without a clear cause. Weakness and lethargy for no reason, pain and insomnia for no reason. Headaches and difficulty concentrating at times. We've all encountered this. Moreover, when you think about medical problems that can lead to one or more of these symptoms, they are all common. For this reason, many doctors believe that there is no reason to introduce a new mystery disease, “fibromyalgia,” to explain the expected symptoms.
So what is fibromyalgia? This is when any touch, any movement causes pain. Moreover, the pain is constant, for many weeks, even months. Sometimes the whole body hurts, sometimes the pain migrates from one area to another. The patient is bothered by many unpleasant symptoms and constantly complains. Sometimes the doctor considers these complaints to be a sign of a neuropsychiatric disorder. But these diseases cannot be equated with fibromyalgia. This disease has been known for a long time, but previously it was called myositis, fibrositis, or the general term “psychogenic rheumatism,” believing that it was all about inflammatory processes in the muscles.
In fact, the problem is in the head; with fibromyalgia, the brain changes its functions towards sensitivity. This is confirmed by hardware studies: they show that the areas of brain activation in people with fibromyalgia and healthy people differ significantly. According to some reports, every tenth person suffers from fibromyalgia, but this disease is diagnosed much less frequently. The problem is that both the patient himself and often the doctor do not perceive pain in a comprehensive manner. That is, if your leg hurts, then we treat your leg; if your back hurts, then we treat your back.
There are no special laboratory tests to diagnose fibromyalgia: this disease cannot be “calculated” either from x-rays, or from blood tests, or from MRI. The doctor relies only on specific symptoms and examination data.
DESCRIBING HIS PAIN, A PERSON OFTEN SAYS: TERRIBLE. BUT THIS IS JUST an emotional characteristic, not a medical one. It all depends on the individual pain threshold. In women it is lower than in men, i.e. women feel pain more acutely, but representatives of the “stronger sex” are less patient - so women’s pain tolerance is higher.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic musculoskeletal pain of varying intensity and location. Tissue soreness is not accompanied by inflammation. Fibromyalgia does not damage the internal organs of the body. People of a certain psychological make-up are mostly affected: emotional, but with well-developed self-control. Fibromyalgia is most common in middle-aged women, although it has recently become increasingly common in children and men.
Symptoms of fibromyalgia. The main symptom of fibromyalgia is migrating musculoskeletal pain, which is chronic. The pain is usually combined with a feeling of morning stiffness, a feeling of swelling of the limbs, and rapid muscle fatigue. Symptoms intensify with changes in weather, overwork, and stress. Patients with fibromyalgia are characterized by emotional disorders, which can range from a slight decrease in mood to severe depression and anxiety. Chronic fatigue is a common companion to fibromyalgia. This is a state of exhaustion of the nervous system due to chronic stress or chronic infection. One of the most typical complaints is fatigue, which is noted by 90% of patients.
Sleep disturbance, manifested by difficulty falling asleep, intermittent restless sleep and lack of a sense of recovery after sleep, is observed in 79% of patients. Patients with fibromyalgia have worse NREM sleep, which likely explains the common symptoms of morning fatigue and lethargy in these patients. Frequent migraine-type headaches are reported by more than half of patients with fibromyalgia. Patients with fibromyalgia have been found to be deficient in the neurotransmitter serotonin. In fact, many of the therapies for fibromyalgia today are aimed at correcting this deficiency.
Fibromyalgia affects all ages, but most often the most able-bodied part of the population – 35–65 years old – suffers from its manifestations. Sometimes the pain is so severe that it affects the quality of life. The simplest things - work, household chores, even a walk - become overwhelming. Stress not only provokes the development of fibromyalgia, but also aggravates its manifestation.
Normally, stress is a beneficial response for the nervous system. The purpose of stress is a short-term increase in the body’s physical capabilities in response to danger. Under stress, in order to protect itself, the body intensively uses up accumulated “emergency reserves” - hormones, immune factors, heat, and various biologically active substances. If stress continues for too long, reserves are depleted, and this primarily concerns the nervous, immune and endocrine systems.
THESE PSYCHOGENIC CONDITIONS ARE REAL, AND THEIR CAUSE IS MOST OFTEN - STRESS, which has a tremendous impact on the general condition of the body. Stress can cause headaches, insomnia, skin manifestations, weakness, heart ailments in a whole chain of physical symptoms. There is no point in selective treatment. It is more effective to focus your efforts on reducing the effects of stress. From many examples it is obvious that eliminating the effects of stress also improves physical condition.
This group of patients is the easiest to treat, but the most difficult to persuade for treatment. When they hear “psychogenic causes,” they misinterpret the doctor’s words. It seems to them that the doctor views the patient as crazy, although he actually has physical ailments. The patient often reacts aggressively, which creates problems for the specialist.
To get rid of pain, it is necessary to regulate and restore normal brain functions. Recent studies have confirmed the effectiveness of some psychiatric medications for fibromyalgia, when the cause is completely unclear and does not necessarily resemble psychogenic factors. One explanation for this is that pain is a response of the brain, and psychiatric drugs act on the brain.
Today, three drugs are certified in Europe and the United States for the treatment of fibromyalgia: Lyrica, Cymbalta and Savella. Lyrica was initially approved for the treatment of seizures and diabetic pain. Cymbalta treats depression, anxiety and diabetic pain. Savella is the first drug approved to treat fibromyalgia, but works similarly to an antidepressant. Most fibromyalgia sufferers get relief from these medications, but not all.
Yes, this was not intended. When we see a nonspecific condition like fibromyalgia, the chances of a single cause for all (or most) cases are slim to none. Even when a patient is bedridden or unable to live a normal life due to chronic pain, there can be as many reasons as there are patients. It is unlikely that fibromyalgia is the only disease, so it is great luck to help the patient return to normal life without identifying the true cause of the disease.
OF COURSE, SYMPTOMATIC PAIN RELIEF TREATMENT IS ALSO PRESCRIBED to relieve pain, but the main thing is still the head. For fibromyalgia, antidepressants are often prescribed - not to treat symptoms of depression, but to normalize brain function, but there is a good replacement for them. Regular taking of medications can be replaced by equally regular walks in the fresh air and moderate physical activity.
Massage could be an important part of treatment, but for patients with fibromyalgia, even ordinary touch causes pain - and massage requires quite a lot of kneading of the body. “Use it, or you’ll lose it,” says an English proverb, which is also quite applicable to the brain, because in the process of movement it works differently than at rest and is better saturated with oxygen and other useful elements. Such patients benefit from swimming, breathing exercises and exercise.
In the process of movement (and with the use of special drugs), the brain seems to be “reprogrammed” and ceases to give such a strong and inadequate reaction. The pain does not become less, the brain simply stops perceiving any touch as pain.
Perhaps many of our readers, after reading this article, will discover some of the described symptoms and manifestations of this disease, but do not rush to make this diagnosis. Below I will present a number of diagnostic criteria for this disease, which will be useful both for doctors and for people experiencing chronic fatigue and unexplained body pain.
Mandatory criteria:
1. Widespread pain and stiffness for 3 months or more.
2. The absence of other diseases (rheumatic, endocrine, oncological, etc.) that can cause pain, and changes in laboratory and instrumental data.
Large criteria:
1. Pain when pressing on 12 of the 18 points of the body shown in the figure, and a positive response is considered only the occurrence of pain, and not a violation of sensitivity in the marked area.
Minor criteria:
1. Often there is a history of various psychological and functional disorders.
2. Disturbed sleep with morning stiffness and fatigue.
Under different masks
So what is fibromyalgia? This is when any touch, any movement causes pain. Moreover, the pain is constant, for many weeks and even months. Sometimes the whole body hurts, sometimes the pain migrates from one area to another. The patient is bothered by many unpleasant symptoms, he constantly complains about one thing or another. And the doctor makes a clear verdict: maybe it’s hypochondria?
Or accepts complaints as a sign of a neuropsychic disorder. But these diseases cannot be equated with fibromyalgia. This disease has been known for a long time, but previously it was called myositis, fibrositis, or the general term “psychogenic rheumatism,” believing that it was all about inflammatory processes in the muscles.
In fact, the problem is in the head; with fibromyalgia, the brain changes its functions towards sensitivity. This is confirmed by hardware studies: they show that the areas of brain activation in people with fibromyalgia and healthy people differ significantly.
If your whole body and bones hurt without fever: causes and what to do
Contrary to stereotypes, inflammatory and intoxication processes are not always accompanied by an increase in temperature. Any ailment, for example, pain in muscles and bones, can signal dysfunction of the body.
This fairly common phenomenon often serves as the first symptom of the onset of an infectious disease or exacerbation of a chronic one, and is accompanied by other manifestations of discomfort. Let's take a closer look at how to recognize an alarm signal and what should be done:
Rheumatoid arthritis is a common culprit of arthralgia.
The appearance of widespread joint pain may signal the onset or progression of rheumatoid arthritis. This disease predominantly occurs in people over 40 years of age. If such symptoms occur in childhood or adolescence, they may indicate juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
In most cases of rheumatoid polyarthritis, there are previous symptoms of damage to small groups of the hand, and the joints of the feet swell. In addition to pain, they are accompanied by stiffness of movement in the morning and severe swelling of the affected areas. Complaints from patients that all joints hurt at the same time may indicate either the onset of an aggressive form of rheumatoid arthritis, or another exacerbation of the disease in people with a history of it.
Important to remember! The likely cause of widespread joint pain can rarely be determined by clinical data alone. People who have pain in all joints for a long time should be carefully examined in order to early identify and begin treatment of the causative disease!
The whole body and bones hurt without fever
The condition of aches and pains can make itself felt for no apparent reason. The patient repeatedly complains of pain throughout the body, tendons and bones, fatigue, apathy, insomnia, however, during the examination it is not possible to identify any diseases. In medicine, this phenomenon is called fibromyalgia; there are several explanations for its origin:
- Chronic fatigue.
- Nervous disorders.
- Abnormal susceptibility of the brain.
- Deficiency of microelements in the body.
Doctors find it difficult to identify the main causative agent of fibromyalgia . The pathology is observed in every tenth inhabitant of the Earth, of which 80% are women.
A woman may encounter similar symptoms during pregnancy; they are caused by hormonal changes, in particular the active production of the hormone relaxin, which is responsible for stretching and softening blood vessels, ligaments and joints to facilitate childbirth. Fatigue or absent-mindedness are considered quite natural side effects of the hormone, but an increase in temperature is already a cause for concern and contact a doctor.
Autoimmune diseases as a cause of joint pain
Autoimmune diseases mean pathological conditions in which the body produces antibodies to connective tissue components that destroy it. Considering that the cartilage covering the joints is one of the connective tissue formations of the body, very often it is involved in a similar pathological process. Such autoimmune diseases, in which most joints of the body hurt, are lupus erythematosus, thrombocytopenic purpura, vasculitis, ankylosing spondylitis and Shagreen's disease, systemic scleroderma. They can be recognized by many other symptoms, manifested in the form of damage to the facial skin, increased bleeding, and disorders of the functioning of internal organs.
Reasons and what it could be
Fibromyalgia is not the only reason why your entire body and bones hurt. Aches and pains are often accompanied by concomitant chronic diseases, mainly of the musculoskeletal system: bone tuberculosis, arthritis, flat feet.
Nerve entrapment, excessive physical activity on a certain muscle group, and consequences of injuries are also diagnosed. In such cases, the pain is local in nature, but can be transmitted throughout the body. The doctor’s task is to identify the focus; its location may indicate a serious diagnosis that requires urgent action:
- Pain in the shoulder girdle.
- Discomfort in the hip joints or leg muscles.
- Breaks the whole body.
If unpleasant sensations are concentrated in the shoulders, arms, chest, sweating, chills, shortness of breath are observed, there is reason to consider this condition as pre-infarction. In the absence of side symptoms, an intervertebral hernia or the consequences of a recent injury are possible.
Pain in the legs and lower back is often a reaction to pharmacological drugs, sometimes indicating an inflammatory process in the muscles, joints, and ligaments. Muscle overstrain, deficiency of essential substances, or sprains are possible.
With the following disorders, it is problematic to establish the source of pain:
- Intoxication, food poisoning.
- Viral infection, general hypothermia.
- Poisonous bite.
- Oncology.
Symptoms of systemic diseases
The main symptom of joint problems is pain. Its intensity and character depend on many things: the form of the pathology (acute or chronic), the localization of the inflammatory process, the degree of damage to the bone joint.
In medicine, a distinction is made between periarticular and polyarticular sources of pain that occur inside the joint. The first occur in the structures surrounding the bone joint (bursa, ligaments, tendons). The latter are the result of inflammatory processes, mechanical injuries, and non-inflammatory disorders.
In addition to pain, other signs of problems indicate problems:
- redness, swelling of soft tissues in the area of injury;
- lameness if the joints of the leg bones are injured;
- deterioration of mobility in the problem area;
- general weakness, malaise.
When all joints of the body hurt, regardless of the cause, treatment is carried out on an outpatient basis. However, the presence of the following symptoms requires urgent consultation with a specialist, sometimes with hospitalization of the patient:
- severe redness of the tendon injury area;
- joint swelling;
- increased temperature in the area of inflammation;
- deformation, loss of functionality;
- stiffness, impaired mobility.
If, after the initial consultation and following the doctor’s instructions, the pain does not go away within a week, the victim should be shown to the doctor again.
We recommend watching the video carefully:
Why is it dangerous?
If the whole body and bones hurt for a long time, this reaction of the body threatens to take a chronic form and make itself felt with every minor illness. Poisoning and intoxication provoke an exacerbation of existing ailments, disrupt the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and liver, and lead to a weakened immune system, thereby increasing the further risk of disease.
If influenza or ARVI occurs without elevated temperature, this does not mean that they do not need to be treated: pathogenic microflora contributes to the development of respiratory tract diseases, hypoxia, and the formation of ulcers. The consequences of toxic bites are tick-borne encephalitis, fever, anaphylactic shock.
Pain and aches without fever are known in medicine as one of the signs of the early stage of cancer. Timely consultation with a doctor increases the chances of complete healing.
Rheumatism: features of pain syndrome
Rheumatism belongs to the category of those diseases that can manifest themselves as either monoarthritis (inflammation of one joint) or polyarthritis (multiple lesions). One of the main manifestations of this disease is pain and swelling in the area of the affected joints. As a rule, with rheumatism, pain does not spread to all joints at the same time. Such arthritis are characterized by volatility. This means that pain appears alternately in all large joints (shoulder, elbow, knee, hip, ankle). The joints of the hands and feet are rarely affected. It is typical for joint pain to appear some time after a sore throat. Sometimes severe rheumatic monoarthritis is preceded by widespread pain like polyarthritis.
Diagnostics
The accompanying symptoms allow you to find out why the whole body and bones hurt:
- Flu: headache, cough, sinusitis, convulsions.
- ARVI: runny nose, weakness, lack of appetite.
- Vitamin deficiency: dry skin, unsatisfactory condition of hair and nails.
- Overwork: fatigue, irritability, sleep disturbances, headaches.
- Poisoning: upset stomach, nausea, dizziness.
- Tick bite: burning, redness, rash, itching.
How can you accurately determine the cause?
The origin of pain that spreads to all joints can be determined based on a careful study of anamnestic data (existing diseases of the person and his relatives, recent illnesses, etc.), examination and assessment of the observed symptoms (except for arthralgia), and determination of the condition of the painful joints . This data is quite enough to preliminarily determine the origin of common joint pain. The next step should be to conduct additional diagnostic tests in the form of a general blood and urine test and determination of rheumatic tests. Depending on the results obtained, either a diagnosis is determined or directions for further diagnostic search are formed.
Common joint pain is one of the nonspecific symptoms that you need to be able to evaluate correctly. You should not try to interpret it yourself, since in most cases we are talking about serious illnesses.
What to do and how to treat
Symptomatic therapy has become widespread in eliminating unpleasant symptoms. If the examination does not reveal serious illnesses, the attending physician prescribes a set of procedures, which includes therapeutic exercises, massage, acupuncture, relaxation, and hypnosis, the purpose of which is to relieve muscle tension.
Medications include prescription antidepressants, anti-inflammatory, hormonal and non-hormonal drugs. At home, a single dose of paracetamol - no more than 1000 mg for children, 2000 mg for adults.
Gouty and psoriatic arthralgias: what are they?
Pathogenetically, gout and psoriasis have nothing in common. The only thing that allows us to connect them with each other is some common symptoms. In the classic version, none of these diseases manifests itself in the form of pain in all joints at the same time. But recently, cases of an atypical course have become more frequent, which can manifest as widespread arthralgia in both psoriasis and gout. Therefore, persons with a family history of this pathology or those who are ill should keep in mind that if pain occurs in all joints for no apparent reason, this may indicate the beginning or progression of the process.