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 fade into the background, since they become difficult to perform.
Many people are familiar with the feeling of weakness, fatigue and aches that interfere with an active life. Similarly, common pain in muscles, bones or joints cannot be ignored. She must force the patient to make quick decisions in order to find out the reason and essence of further measures. But for this you need to see 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.
An extensive zone of such sensations is obliged to push the patient and the doctor to the idea of a systemic lesion. One should look for the reason not in 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 actually hurts: muscles, bones or joints. Such sensations spread throughout the body and do not have 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.
- 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 an assumption about the origin of pain in 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 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 need to be considered:
- Aching, burning, cutting or stabbing.
- It is localized in the area of muscles, bones or joints.
- Feels in the same areas of the body or is volatile.
- Permanent or periodic.
- Moderate, strong, or weak.
It may 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 exclude a situation that almost everyone could face. Excessive physical activity can lead to muscle strain, which affects sensations in different parts of the body. Pain and weakness are associated with the 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 muscles are involved in the process and there should be no other symptoms.
If physical overstrain is excluded, then you have to look for more serious causes of pain.
Infectious diseases
Bone and muscle aches are familiar to anyone who has ever had respiratory infections. Even a banal ARI is accompanied by such symptoms. What can we say 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 intoxication. Infectious diseases are accompanied by other symptoms:
- Fever.
- Cough, sneezing.
- Skin rash.
- Nausea, diarrhea.
- Headache.
- General weakness.
Joint pains can even bother patients with liver damage - viral hepatitis. In this case, the severity in the right hypochondrium, yellowing of the skin, and decreased appetite are characteristic. we must not forget about the possibility of parasitic invasions, for example, trichinosis, in which muscle pains have an important diagnostic value.
The spectrum of infectious pathology is very wide, so it is necessary to timely identify the cause of pain in the body.
Connective tissue pathology
If muscles and joints hurt, then the patient must be examined to identify systemic diseases: lupus erythematosus, polymyositis, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis. They have an autoimmune nature and occur with damage to the connective tissue, which is found in all body systems. 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.
One more 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.
Diseases of the connective tissue are accompanied by damage to internal organs: heart, lungs, kidneys, as well as blood vessels and the 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 body aches, the following symptoms develop with leukemia:
- Temperature increase.
- Swollen lymph nodes.
- Hemorrhages of various localization.
- Pale skin.
- Enlargement of the spleen and liver.
- Infection tendency.
In addition, shortness of breath, general weakness, loss of appetite, nodules on the skin may disturb. The acute form of leukemia occurs with pronounced manifestations and has a serious danger to life in the absence of adequate treatment.
Tumor processes
Pain in the area of 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. Such signs appear long before the tumor process is detected.
In addition, bone pain may result from "cancer intoxication" observed 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, up to exhaustion (cachexia).
- Lack of appetite, nausea.
- Pallor of the 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.
It is necessary to pay increased attention to detecting tumors in the early stages, which is possible only with regular preventive examinations.
Neurological disorders
If the patient feels that muscles, joints or bones ache, then the problem may even lie in the nervous system. Very often, similar symptoms are observed with polyneuropathy. The disease can have different localization, but the lower extremities 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 skin, hair loss, dryness.
Polyneuropathy can cause severe pain that has a significant impact on the quality of life of patients.
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.
- Computed and magnetic resonance imaging.
- Neuromyography.
It is necessary to consult a rheumatologist, infectious disease specialist, oncologist, hematologist and neuropathologist.
It is possible to make a final conclusion about the origin of pain in the bones or muscles based on the results of a comprehensive examination.
Treatment
After the diagnosis is established, further measures are determined by the doctor. 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 therapeutic program for all diseases that may be accompanied by pain or aches 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 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 any pathology development mechanism and its cause. With the advent of certain drugs, it has become much easier to treat serious illnesses.
Depending on the established diagnosis and clinical situation, the following medications can be used for pain throughout the body:
- Antibiotics and antiparasitic.
- 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 enhance the progression of the pathological process. Of course, the complex of treatment may include additional medications that will affect individual symptoms of the disease.
Medicines must comply with generally accepted standards of therapy and must be prescribed only 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. With progressive leukemia against the background of conservative treatment, bone marrow transplantation is recommended.
Pain in the musculoskeletal and articular system, covering 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.