Chronic joint pain and swelling may be caused by a 'rheumatic' condition — a condition that affects your joints, bones and muscles. There are more than 200 different kinds of rheumatic conditions, including arthritis, gout and lupus. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
The most common causes of chronic pain in joints are: Osteoarthritis, a common type of arthritis, happens over time when the cartilage, the protective cushion in between the bones, wears away. The joints become painful and stiff. Osteoarthritis develops slowly and usually occurs during middle age.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
It is a disease that affects multiple joints, resulting in pain, swelling, and stiffness.
Joint pain can be a symptom of many ailments, including some viruses. The most common cause of joint pain is arthritis. There are more than 100 types of arthritis. Joint pain can be mild, causing soreness only after certain activities.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease. Normally, your immune system helps protect your body from infection and disease. In rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system attacks healthy tissue in your joints. It can also cause medical problems with your heart, lungs, nerves, eyes and skin.
Lupus can also cause inflammation in the joints, which doctors call “inflammatory arthritis.” It can make your joints hurt and feel stiff, tender, warm, and swollen. Lupus arthritis most often affects joints that are farther from the middle of your body, like your fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, ankles, and toes.
Allergies, wounds, and diseases can all cause inflammation. The most common causes of joint inflammation are injuries and inflammatory arthritis. Pain and inflammation resulting from injuries usually resolve, but inflammatory arthritis is a chronic condition that may get worse with time.
COPA syndrome is a rare, genetic autoimmune disorder that can affect multiple systems of the body, especially the lungs, kidneys, and joints. Symptoms usually appear in childhood during the first or second decade of life.
If you experience joint pain symptoms that last a few days and don't improve with the self-care tips listed above, or you experience swelling, redness, or tenderness and warmth around the joint, it's time to see a healthcare provider.
Rheumatoid arthritis can be one of the most painful types of arthritis; it affects joints as well as other surrounding tissues, including organs. This inflammatory, autoimmune disease attacks healthy cells by mistake, causing painful swelling in the joints, like hands, wrists and knees.
The most common viruses causing arthritis and/or arthralgias are parvovirus, the alphaviruses, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and tropical viruses, such as Zika and chikungunya (CHIKV).
Familial apatite crystal deposition disease is a rare inherited metabolic disorder characterized by deposits of carbonate-substituted calcium hydroxyapatite in the joints. Symptoms may include morning stiffness, pain, and limited mobility due to crystal accumulation in the joints and spine.
Pain and aching in your muscles is common with lupus. You'll usually feel it in your thighs and upper arms. In about 5%-10% of people with lupus, the disease advances to myositis, which can cause painful muscle inflammation, especially in your shoulders, upper arms, hips, and thighs.
Musculoskeletal pain
Back, neck and joint pain can be indirectly caused by MS, particularly for people who have problems walking or moving around that puts pressure on their lower back or hips.
Your immune system normally makes antibodies that attack bacteria and viruses, helping to fight infection. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system mistakenly sends antibodies to the lining of your joints, where they attack the tissue surrounding the joint.
Multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and polymyalgia rheumatica are three types of autoimmune disorders that affect the joints or nerves. Autoimmune disorders occur when the body's own immune system mistakenly starts attacking healthy tissue.
Other researchers believe fibromyalgia is caused by a lack of deep sleep. It is during stage 4 sleep that muscles recover from the prior day's activity, and the body refreshes itself. Sleep studies show that as people with fibromyalgia enter stage 4 sleep, they become more aroused and stay in a lighter form of sleep.
Several rheumatic diseases can mimic fibromyalgia. These include sero-negative rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Lyme disease, polymyalgia rheumatica and lupus. They have symptoms of widespread pain along with joint involvement. Most rheumatic diseases are treated with medication and physical therapy.
The FM/a ® Test analyzes your immune system's white blood cells for their chemokine and cytokine protein patterns. Those who suffer from fibromyalgia will show an abnormal pattern of these protective proteins.