Joint Muscle Pain

Joint Muscle Pain Causes

There are many causes of joint muscle pain. The goal of this article is to list and describe the most common.

This article will focus more on medical conditions that cause joint muscle pain - not on sprains, fractures, injuries or trauma for which the cause is easily known.

Lupus This is one of the most serious causes of joint muscle pain. The medical name is Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. It is often simply abbreviated SLE. Lupus is called an autoimmune disorder, because it occurs when your immune system attacks your own body.

When you have lupus, your joints and muscles become inflamed, which is the cause of the pain. Some people have described the joint and muscle aches caused by lupus as similar to body aches you get when you have the flu. They may also feel like the pain of arthritis.

When the muscles become swollen, they can become weak. Joint pain may sometimes be relatively mild.

If you have never been diagnosed with lupus, but you begin to experience unexplained joint pain, it could be a sign that lupus is developing. Inflammation caused by lupus affects more than joints and muscles. It can also affect many different organs systems in your body, including your skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart and lungs.

Arthritis Most people are familiar with this condition. Arthritis causes inflammation of the joints, but the pain can be diffuse enough that it also seems as if there's muscular pain.

There are more than 100 different kinds of arthritis. Pain usually begins in middle age or beyond, but joint pain from arthritis can also affect children.

Rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory condition that principally causes pain in the joints. But rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, can affect many other tissues and organs. Like lupus, it is an autoimmune disorder.

Bursitis A bursa is a fluid-filled sac between a tendon and the skin or bone, or between a tendon and a bone. It's purpose is to help the joint more smoothly.

When a bursa somewhere in your body becomes inflamed, it's called bursitis. Bursitis is often caused by overuse, but it may also result from trauma, rheumatoid arthritis, gout (see below), or some kind of infection.

Gout Gout is a painful condition that usually attacks the big toe and other small joints. It can usually be controlled with medication and changes in diet. Gout is caused by an irregularity in your body's chemistry that raises the amount of uric acid in the blood. Deposits of crystals grow in and around joints.

Tendinitis Tendons are thick fibrous cords that connect the muscles to the bones. Tendinitis occurs when a tendon or group of tendons become irritated and inflamed. Tendinitis can happen anywhere in the body, but it’s more common in the wrists, elbows, shoulders and heels.

Nerve pain Sometimes a problem in your spinal column will cause pain in your back or legs. The pain may originate in your back but travel along nerve pathways and cause discomfort in muscles and joints. This process is called referred pain.

Sciatica This is a type of pain that occurs from damage to the sciatic nerve, which starts in your back and travels all the way down to your feet. When the sciatic nerve is injured, the pain can feel like it's happening in the buttocks, legs or feet.

Other diseases and conditions that cause joint and muscle pain

A number of diseases and medical conditions routinely cause joint and muscular pain. The list includes:

Fibromyalgia This causes chronic pain, stiffness, and tenderness of the muscles, tendons, and joints. pain can range from mild to severe.

Infections Influenza, pneumonia and other illnesses caused by germs often trigger muscle and joint pain.

Lyme disease Symptoms of Lyme disease, which is transmitted through tick bites, include a rash followed by fever, joint pain and muscular pain, and headaches.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever This is another disease you get from a tick bite. One of its classic symptoms is muscular pain.

Malaria This is a disease that's more common in the tropics and sub-tropics. It's transmitted through mosquito bites. Symptoms include fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, anemia, and convulsions.

Trichinosis or roundworm We don't think much about this one these days. It causes muscle pain associated with breathing, chewing, or using large muscles.

Conclusion

While this article has described many of the most common causes of joint and muscle pain, there are many others. The purpose of this article has simply been to give you an overview.

As always, it's better to talk to your doctor about joint and muscle pain to get the best possible diagnosis.