Causes of Joint Pain Dr. Vasudeva Juvvadi

Surprising Causes of joint pain has become very common nowadays especially when you are in your 40s to 50s. According to one national survey nearly about 1/3^rdof adult population reported joint pain within the past one month. The most common type of joint pain is knee pain. Hip pain is the next common followed by shoulder pain, ankle pain and wrist pain. Joint pain can affect anyone irrespective of age in some point in their lives.

Acute and Chronic Joint Pain

An acute joint pain can go away after a few weeks, but chronic joint pain may last for up to several weeks or months The symptoms can range from mild, moderate to severe, irritating and debilitating pain. Even short-term inflammation and pain in the joints can affect the quality of life.

Whatever may be the Surprising Causes of joint pain – an injury, infection, inflammation and swelling in the joints, can affect a person’s life. There are several ways to manage your joint pain including medications, alternative treatments, and physiotherapy.

Surprising causes of joint Pain

A person experiences joint pain in any part of the body ranging from neck, shoulder, elbow, wrists, to hip, knee, ankles and feet. The following are some of the conditions that cause joint pain:

Tendinitis, sprains, sarcoidosis, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever, reactive arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, osteomyelitis, osteoarthritis, lupus, viral fever, gout, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome and bursitis.

The most Common Causes of Joint Pain

Sprains, strains, bruises and other soft tissue injuries are the most common causes of joint pain.

Rheumatoid arthritis – an autoimmune disorder occurs throughout the joints in the body. It occurs when immune cells attack body’s own cells particularly in the joints and cartilages.

When fluid filled sacs in the joints get irritated and inflamed, bursitis occurs.

Osteoarthritis – a wear and tear type of arthritis is a debilitating and disabling type of arthritis commonly occurs in the knee and hip joints.

Surprisingly, in some cases of heart attacks, chest pain radiates to neck and shoulder joints triggering inflammation. It happens when the brain receives less oxygen. People who have rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions, the risk of inflammation and heart attack increases in them.

Carpal tunnel syndrome causes shooting pain in the wrist bringing severe pain in the joints. The other symptoms may include a sensation of swelling, difficulty gripping things, numbness and tingling sensations in the hands.

Poor Body Posture While Sitting can lead to Joint Pain

Joint pain related to poor sitting posture causes stiffness and pain in the neck and shoulder joint. This mostly happens when a person leans or slouches for a long period of time while sitting on desks. Software professionals, graphic designers and editors who work continuously on their desktops or laptops are often prone to joint pain due to bad posture. Procrastination in correcting body postures and failure in approaching a specialist in time can lead to progressive joint damage and chronic joint pain.

Bottom Line

In a majority of cases, joint pain is mostly due to bad habits and lifestyle related health issues such as obesity, sedentary life style, excessive use of joints, poor postures, high risk and high impact sports and other such factors. The best way to correct the posture is to improve the ergonomics of your desk. To ensure this adjust your arms and shoulders at 90% when you sit at a desk, and then adjust the monitor position to your eye level such that you should look straight at the monitor but not down. In addition, if you involve in desk sitting jobs then take intermittent breaks in between to stand, stretch or walk. If you fail to do so, it may cause long-term and lasting pain in the joints.