When unpleasant sensations arise in a certain area, this is certainly a source of problems for the patient, but pains throughout the body bring much more suffering. In this case, even everyday activities take a back seat, as they become difficult to perform.
Many people are familiar with the feeling of weakness, fatigue and aches that interfere with an active life. Likewise, pain common to muscles, bones or joints cannot be ignored. He must force the patient to make quick decisions to find out the reason and essence of further measures. But for this it is necessary to consult a doctor first.
causes
If the muscles and joints of the whole body hurt, then it is necessary first of all to find out what it is connected with.
A large zone of such sensations is obliged to prompt the patient and the doctor to the idea of a systemic lesion. One should look for the reason 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 - muscles, bones or joints. These 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.
- Pathology of the connective tissue.
- Diseases of the blood.
- Tumor processes.
- Neurological disorders.
As you can see, the pathology is quite diverse and serious. If you do not take into account the completely physiological reasons for muscle weakness and pain in them, then you need to be very careful about the likelihood of these diseases. A doctor's consultation is never superfluous.
It is possible to make a hypothesis about the origin of pain in the joints and muscles of the whole body after a clinical examination by a doctor.
Symptoms
Any pathology has characteristic features. All manifestations should be considered, even if insignificant. To identify a disease affecting the condition of the muscles and joints, it is necessary to analyze the patient's complaints and objective symptoms.
Since pain is the most common symptom, it is necessary to consider its possible characteristics:
- Aching, burning, sharp or stabbed.
- It is localized in the area of muscles, bones or joints.
- It is felt 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 aches. 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 should rule out a situation that almost everyone could face. Excessive physical activity can lead to muscle fatigue, which affects the sensations in different parts of the body. Pain and weakness are associated with the accumulation of lactic acid in the tissues and the micro-damage of 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 there should be no other symptoms.
If physical overload is excluded, it is necessary to look for more serious causes of pain.
Infectious diseases
Bone and muscle pains are familiar to anyone who has ever had respiratory infections. Even a trivial ARI is accompanied by such symptoms. What about a more serious disease, such as influenza, meningitis, haemorrhagic fevers, leptospirosis, Lyme disease. Flying pains are characteristic of brucellosis and epidemic myalgia. In many cases, such sensations are the result of microbial intoxication. Infectious diseases are accompanied by other symptoms:
- Fever.
- Cough, sneezing.
- Rash.
- Nausea, diarrhea.
- Headache.
- General weakness.
Joint pain can even bother patients with liver damage - viral hepatitis. In this case, severity in the right hypochondrium, yellowing of the skin and decreased appetite are characteristic. we must not forget the possibility of parasitic invasions, for example trichinosis, in which muscle pains are of great diagnostic value.
The spectrum of infectious pathology is very broad, so it is necessary to timely identify the cause of pain in the body.
Pathology of the connective tissue
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, mask-like face - with scleroderma.
Another disease with systemic manifestations should be mentioned - rheumatism. Although a microbial agent (streptococcus) becomes a trigger, an autoimmune process develops in the future. It is for this disease that flying pains in the joints will be characteristic.
Diseases of the connective tissue are accompanied by damage to internal organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, as well as blood vessels and nervous system.
Diseases of the blood
Diseases of the hematopoietic system are a common cause of bone pain. Unfortunately, most of them are malignant, so it is useful for everyone to know the characteristic signs of such a pathology. In addition to muscle aches, the following symptoms develop with leukemia:
- Temperature increase.
- Enlarged lymph nodes.
- Hemorrhages of various locations.
- Pale skin.
- Enlargement of the spleen and liver.
- Tendency to infections.
Also, shortness of breath, general weakness, loss of appetite, nodules on the skin can disturb. The acute form of leukemia is manifested by pronounced manifestations and presents a serious danger to life in the absence of adequate treatment.
Tumor processes
Pain in the area of the bones, joints or muscles of the whole body can appear in the structure of the 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.
Additionally, bone pain can result from "cancer intoxication" seen in patients with advanced tumors and metastases. In addition to the indicated symptom, general ailments will prevail in the clinical picture of the disease:
- Great weakness.
- Weight loss, until exhaustion (cachexia).
- Lack of appetite, nausea.
- Pale skin with a grayish, icteric or bluish tinge.
- Fever.
- Depression, irritability.
Such signs significantly aggravate the patient's condition and adversely affect the prognosis of the disease.
More attention should be paid to the detection of tumors in the early stages, which is possible only with regular preventive examinations.
Neurological disorders
If the patient feels that the muscles, joints or bones are hurting, the problem may also lie in the nervous system. Most often, similar symptoms are observed with polyneuropathy. The disease can have a different localization, but the lower extremities are more susceptible to it. In such cases, the following symptoms are noted:
- Numbness, tingling, burning, "goosebumps".
- Reduced sensitivity.
- Change in the severity of reflexes.
- Muscle weakness, hypotrophy.
- Thinning of the skin, hair loss, dryness.
Polyneuropathy can cause severe pain that has a significant impact on patients' quality of life.
Diagnostics
After a clinical examination, it is necessary to use additional methods that will help 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.
- Puncture of the bone marrow.
- Magnetic and computerized resonance.
- Neuromyography.
It is necessary to consult a rheumatologist, an infectious disease specialist, an oncologist, a hematologist and a neuropathologist.
It is possible to draw a firm conclusion about the origin of pain in the bones or muscles based on the results of a comprehensive examination.
Treatment
After establishing the diagnosis, the doctor determines further measures. Therapeutic tactics will depend on the type of disease, its prevalence and the state of the patient's body. It is difficult to formulate a general treatment program for all diseases that can be accompanied by aches or pains in the joints, muscles and bones. It all depends on the specific situation, which determines the use of conservative or operative techniques.
Pharmacological therapy
The mainstay of treatment for most diseases is the use of medications. It is difficult to imagine modern medicine without them. A wide variety of drugs allows you to influence almost all the mechanisms of development of pathology and its cause. With the advent of certain drugs, it has become much easier to cure serious diseases.
Depending on the established diagnosis and the clinical situation, the following drugs can be used for pain throughout the body:
- Antibiotics and pesticides.
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.
- Hormones (glucocorticoids).
- Cytostatics and immunosuppressants.
- Detoxification.
Many of the drugs have serious contraindications for neoplastic diseases. This applies to vitamins and metabolic agents. Their use can improve the progression of the pathological process. Of course, the treatment complex may include additional drugs that will affect the individual symptoms of the disease.
Medicines must conform to generally accepted therapeutic standards and should only be prescribed by a physician.
Operative treatment
Surgery may be indicated for cancers or blood diseases. In the first case, the pathological focus is removed together with the regional lymph nodes. Given the nature of the disease, the subsequent appointment of radiotherapy is possible. With progressive leukemia against the background of conservative treatment, bone marrow transplantation is recommended.
Pain in the musculoskeletal and joint systems, which covers almost the entire body, can be a serious cause for concern. Early diagnosis and proactive treatment will help prevent complications and improve the prognosis of any disease.