When uncomfortable sensations arise in a certain area, this is certainly a source of problems for the patient, but pain all over the body brings much more suffering. In this case, even the daily activities fade into the background, as they become difficult to perform.
Many people are familiar with the feeling of weakness, fatigue and pain that interfere with an active life. Similarly, common pain in muscles, bones or joints cannot be ignored. It should force the patient to make quick decisions in order to discover the reason and essence of further measures. But for this you must first see a doctor.
Causes
If the muscles and joints of the whole body are injured, then first of all it is necessary to find out what it is related to.
A wide area of such sensations is bound to push the patient and physician to the idea of a systemic lesion. The reason should 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: muscles, bones or joints. Such sensations spread throughout the body and have no 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 disease.
- 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 the weakness and pain in the muscles in them, then you should be very careful about the likelihood of these diseases. Consulting a doctor is never superfluous.
It is possible to make an assumption about the origin of pain in the joints and muscles of the whole body after a clinical examination by a doctor.
Symptoms
Each pathology has characteristic features. All manifestations must be taken into account, 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 complaints and objective symptoms.
Since pain is the most common symptom, its possible characteristics should be considered:
- Pain, burning, cutting or stinging.
- It is located in the area of muscles, bones or joints.
- It feels in the same areas of the body or is unstable.
- Permanent or periodic.
- Moderate, strong or weak.
It can be accompanied by feelings of weakness, fatigue or pain. If the cause of the pain lies in general diseases of the body, then of course other symptoms will 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 can handle. Excessive physical activity can lead to muscle strain, which affects the sensations in different parts of the body. Pain and weakness are associated with accumulation of lactic acid in the tissues and micro-damage to the fibers. Because of this, 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 ruled out, then you should look for more serious causes of pain.
Infectious diseases
Bone and muscle aches are known to anyone who has ever had a respiratory infection. Even a banal ARI is associated with such symptoms. What can we say about a more serious pathology, such as influenza, meningitis, hemorrhagic fever, leptospirosis, Lyme disease. Flight 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:
- Ethe.
- Cough, sneezing.
- Redness of the skin.
- Nausea, diarrhea.
- Headache.
- General weakness.
Joint pain can also 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 should not forget the possibility of parasitic invasions, for example, trichinosis, in which muscle aches have great diagnostic value.
The spectrum of infectious pathology is very wide, so it is necessary to identify in time the cause of pain in the body.
Connective tissue pathology
If muscles and joints are injured, then the patient should be examined to identify systemic diseases: lupus erythematosus, polymyositis, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis. They are autoimmune in nature and occur with damage to connective tissue, which is found in all body systems. In this case, you should pay attention to the following features:
- Symmetrical lesions of the wrist joints with characteristic deformities - in rheumatoid arthritis.
- Redness of the skin in the form of a butterfly - with lupus erythematosus.
- Weakness of the muscles of the limbs and neck - with polymyositis.
- Thickening of the skin on the fingers, face like a mask - with scleroderma.
A disease with systemic manifestations - rheumatism should also be mentioned. Although a microbial agent (streptococcus) becomes a stimulus 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 associated with damage to internal organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, as well as blood vessels and the nervous system.
Blood disease
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 body aches, leukemia develops the following symptoms:
- Rising temperature.
- Swollen lymph nodes.
- Hemorrhages of different localization.
- 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 can be disturbing. The acute form of leukemia manifests itself with pronounced manifestations and has a serious risk to life in the absence of adequate treatment.
Tumor processes
Pain in the area of bones, joints or muscles of the whole body may appear in the structure of paraneoplastic syndrome, which is characteristic of various malignant tumors. It develops due to metabolic, immune and other disorders related to the primary process. Arthro- or osteopathy, similar to various rheumatic diseases, is often observed. Similar signs appear long before the tumor process is detected.
In addition, bone pain may result from the "cancer intoxication" observed in patients with advanced tumors and metastases. In addition to the symptoms shown, general disorders will predominate in the clinical picture of the disease:
- Great weakness.
- Weakness, to exhaustion (cachexia).
- Lack of appetite, vomiting.
- Pale skin with a gray, icteric or bluish tinge.
- Ethe.
- Depression, irritability.
Such signs significantly worsen the patient's condition and negatively affect the prognosis of the disease.
It is necessary to pay extra attention to the detection of tumors in the early stages, which is possible only with regular preventive examinations.
Neurological disorders
If the patient feels that muscles, joints or bones are aching, then the problem may also be in the nervous system. Very often, similar symptoms are observed with polyneuropathy. The disease may have different localization, but the lower extremities are more susceptible to it. In such cases, the following symptoms are observed:
- Numbness, tingling, burning, crawling "goose bumps".
- Decreased sensitivity.
- Change in the severity of reflexes.
- Muscle weakness, hypotrophy.
- Thin skin, hair loss, dryness.
Polyneuropathy can cause severe pain that has a significant impact on patients' quality of life.
Diagnosing
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 range of laboratory and instrumental tools. These include the following:
- General blood and urine analysis.
- 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.
- Computer imaging and magnetic resonance imaging.
- Neuromyography.
It is necessary to consult a rheumatologist, infectologist, oncologist, hematologist and neuropathologist.
It is possible to make a definitive conclusion about the origin of bone or muscle pain 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 condition of the patient's body. It is difficult to formulate a general therapeutic program for all diseases that may be associated with aches or pains 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 main treatment for most diseases is the use of medication. It is hard to imagine modern medicine without them. A wide variety of drugs allows you to influence almost any mechanism of development of the pathology and its cause. With the advent of some medicines, it has become much easier to treat serious illnesses.
Depending on the diagnosis made and the clinical situation, the following medications may be used for pain throughout the body:
- Antibiotics and antiparasitics.
- Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
- 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 medications that will affect the individual symptoms of the disease.
Medications should be in accordance with generally accepted standards of therapy and should only be prescribed by a physician.
Surgical 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, subsequent appointment of radiation therapy is possible. With progressive leukemia in the background of conservative treatment, bone marrow transplantation is recommended.
Pain in the musculoskeletal system, 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 for any disease.