When unpleasant sensations arise in a certain area, it is certainly a source of trouble for the patient, but the pains all over the body bring much more suffering. In this case, even daily activities take a back seat, as they become difficult to perform.
Many people experience the feelings of weakness, fatigue and body aches that interfere with an active lifestyle. Likewise, joint pain in muscles, bones or joints cannot be ignored. It must force the patient to make quick decisions in order to find out the reason and essence of the further action. But for this you must first consult a doctor.
Causes
If the muscles and joints of the whole body hurt, then first of all it is necessary to find out what it is related to.
A large area of such sensations is obliged to push the patient and the doctor to the idea of a systemic injury. The reason must be sought not in the individual tissues of the musculoskeletal system, but in the functioning of the whole organism and its systems. At the same time, it is quite difficult to understand what really hurts: the muscles, the bones or the joints. Such sensations spread throughout the body and do not have a precise localization. But, despite this, there are states for which a similar situation is quite typical. These include the following:
- Physical stress.
- Infectious diseases.
- Connective tissue pathology.
- Blood diseases.
- Tumor processes.
- Neurological disorders.
As you can see, the pathology is quite diverse and serious. If you do not take into account the quite physiological reasons for muscle weakness and pain, you should be very careful about the likelihood of these diseases. A consultation with the doctor is never superfluous.
It is possible to make a hypothesis about the origin of joint and muscle pain throughout the body after a clinical examination by a doctor.
Symptoms
Any pathology has characteristic features. All manifestations should be considered, even if they are insignificant. To identify a disease that affects the condition of muscles and joints, it is necessary to analyze the patient's objective complaints and symptoms.
Since pain is the most common symptom, its possible characteristics should be taken into account:
- Pain, burns, cuts or stab wounds.
- It is localized in the muscles, bones or joints.
- Feels in the same areas of the body or is volatile.
- Permanent or periodic.
- Moderate, strong or weak.
It can be accompanied by feelings of weakness, fatigue or stiffness. If the cause of the pain lies in general diseases of the body, then other symptoms will certainly be present, which will indicate the source of the problem.
Physical stress
To begin with, you need to rule out a situation that almost anyone could face. Excessive physical activity can lead to muscle tension, which affects sensations in different parts of the body. Pain and weakness are associated with the buildup of lactic acid in the tissues and micro-damage to the fibers. Because of this, a sore throat develops, which passes over time. It should be remembered that only the muscles are involved in the process and that there should be no other symptoms.
If physical overwork is excluded, then you need to look for more serious causes of pain.
Infectious diseases
Bone and muscle pain are familiar to anyone who has had respiratory infections. Even a trivial ARI comes with such symptoms. What about a more serious pathology, such as influenza, meningitis, hemorrhagic fevers, leptospirosis, Lyme disease. Flying pains are characteristic of brucellosis and epidemic myalgia. In many cases, such sensations are the result of microbial poisoning. Infectious diseases are accompanied by other symptoms:
- Fever.
- Cough, sneezing.
- Itchy skin.
- Nausea, diarrhea.
- Headache.
- General weakness.
Joint pain can even bother patients with liver damage - viral hepatitis. In this case, the severity of the right hypochondrium, yellowing of the skin and decreased appetite are characteristic. one should not forget the possibility of parasitic invasions, for example trichinosis, in which muscle pain is of great diagnostic value.
The spectrum of infectious pathology is very wide, therefore it is necessary to timely identify the cause of pain in the body.
Connective tissue pathology
If the muscles and joints hurt, the patient should be examined to identify systemic diseases: lupus erythematosus, polymyositis, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis. They have an autoimmune nature and occur with damage to connective tissue, which is found in all systems of the body. In this case, you should pay attention to the following features:
- Symmetrical damage to the joints of the hands with characteristic deformities - in rheumatoid arthritis.
- Redness of the skin in the shape of a butterfly - with lupus erythematosus.
- Weakness of the muscles of the limbs and neck - with polymyositis.
- Thickening of the skin on the fingers, masked face - with scleroderma.
Another disease with systemic manifestations should be mentioned - rheumatism. Although a microbial agent (streptococcus) becomes a triggering factor, an autoimmune process develops in the future. It is for this disease that flying pains in the joints will be characteristic.
Connective tissue diseases are accompanied by damage to internal organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, as well as blood vessels and the nervous system.
Blood diseases
Diseases of the hematopoietic system are a common cause of bone pain. Unfortunately, most of them are clever, so it is useful for everyone to know the characteristic signs of such a pathology. In addition to body aches, the following symptoms develop with leukemia:
- Temperature increase.
- Swollen lymph nodes.
- Bleedings from various localizations.
- Pale skin.
- Enlargement of the spleen and liver.
- Tendency to infection.
In addition, shortness of breath, general weakness, loss of appetite, nodules on the skin may disturb. The acute form of leukemia manifests itself in pronounced manifestations and poses a serious danger to life in the absence of adequate treatment.
Tumor processes
Pain in the bones, joints or muscles of the whole body can appear in the structure of paraneoplastic syndrome, which is characteristic of various malignant tumors. It develops due to metabolic, immune and other disorders associated with the primary process. Often observed arthro- or osteopathies, similar to various rheumatological diseases. Similar signs appear long before the tumor process is detected.
In addition, bone pain can result from "cancer poisoning" seen in patients with advanced tumors and metastases. In addition to the indicated symptom, general disorders will prevail in the clinical picture of the disease:
- Great weakness.
- Emaciation, until exhaustion (cachexia).
- Lack of appetite, nausea.
- Pale skin with a grayish, icteric or bluish tinge.
- Fever.
- Depression, irritability.
Such signs significantly worsen the patient's condition and adversely affect the prognosis of the disease.
It is necessary to pay increased attention to the detection of tumors at an early stage, which is possible only with regular preventive examinations.
Neurological disorders
If the patient experiences muscle, joint, or bone pain, the problem may even lie in the nervous system. Very often, similar symptoms are observed with polyneuropathy. The disease can have a different localization, but the lower limbs are most susceptible to it. In such cases, the following symptoms are noted:
- Numbness, tingling, burning, crawling "goose bumps".
- Decreased sensitivity.
- Change in the severity of reflexes.
- Muscle weakness, hypotrophy.
- Thinning of the skin, hair loss, dryness.
Polyneuropathy can cause severe pain which has a significant impact on the quality of life of patients.
Diagnostic
After a clinical examination, it is necessary to use additional methods that will help to establish the correct diagnosis. Given the wide range of possible pathologies, the doctor will need a variety of laboratory and instrumental tools. These include the following:
- General analysis of blood and urine.
- Biochemical blood test (infectious antigens, rheumatic tests, tumor markers, acute phase indicators, liver function tests, etc. ).
- Bacteriological analysis of blood and body secretions.
- Bone marrow puncture.
- Magnetic resonance and computer imaging.
- Neuromyography.
It is necessary to consult a rheumatologist, infectious disease specialist, oncologist, hematologist and neuropathologist.
It is possible to draw a definitive conclusion about the origin of the pain in the bones or muscles on the basis of the results of a thorough examination.
Processing
After the diagnosis is made, further measures are determined by the doctor. Therapeutic tactics will depend on the type of disease, its prevalence and the condition of the patient's body. It is difficult to formulate a general treatment program for all diseases that may be accompanied by pain or stiffness in the joints, muscles and bones. It all depends on the specific situation, which determines the use of conservative or operational techniques.
Drug therapy
The basic treatment for most illnesses is the use of medication. It's hard to imagine modern medicine without them. A wide variety of drugs allows you to influence almost all the mechanisms of the development of pathologies and their cause. With the advent of certain drugs, it has become much easier to treat serious illnesses.
Depending on the diagnosis and the clinical situation, the following drugs can be used for pain throughout the body:
- Antibiotics and antiparasitics.
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
- Hormones (glucocorticoids).
- Cytostatics and immunosuppressants.
- Detoxification.
Many drugs have serious contraindications for neoplastic diseases. This applies to vitamins and metabolic agents. Their use can promote the progression of the pathological process. Of course, the treatment complex can include additional drugs that will affect the individual symptoms of the disease.
Medicines should conform to generally accepted treatment standards and should only be prescribed by a physician.
Operative treatment
Surgery may be indicated for tumors or blood disorders. In the first case, the pathological focus is removed along with the regional lymph nodes. Given the nature of the disease, the subsequent appointment of radiation therapy is possible. In case of progressive leukemia against the background of conservative therapy, a bone marrow transplant is recommended.
Pain in the musculoskeletal and joint system, covering almost the entire body, can be of serious concern. Early diagnosis and proactive treatment will help prevent complications and improve the prognosis of any disease.