If joints of arms and legs hurt, what should a person do in such a situation? Of course, the very first thing that comes to mind is to go to the polyclinic to your local therapist, and then he will figure out what’s what: he will prescribe tests or send him to some specialist. However, many of us know how difficult it is to find time to go to a medical institution, because you will have to take time off from work, then, most likely, sit there in line or prepare a certain amount of money for a visit to a paid medical center.
In general, people have many reasons in favor of self-medication at home. And it’s not so rare when it really helps. Well, in our article you will find several folk recipes that help with various types of joint pain, as well as a list of pharmacological preparations specially designed to solve such problems. But first, we advise you to be very serious about reading the next chapter of our story.
The Importance of Making the Right Diagnosis
When asking everyone who crosses: “If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, what should I do?”, People often don’t understand that the pains that disturb them can be the initial stage of a serious illness, the development of which can be stopped or slowed down at the initial stage, when destructive processes in the joints have not yet gone too far.
Carrying out treatment independently with lotions, grindings, poultices, etc., a sick person puts his health at considerable risk. After all, home remedies are not at all so safe and may be contraindicated in some diseases.
Here, for example, there is an opinion that there is nothing better than warming up to quickly solve joint problems. But this is not at all! If the disease is accompanied by edema, acute inflammatory processes occur in the diseased joints, a local increase in temperature is observed, then exposure to heat on the problem area can only aggravate the situation. If the joints of the arms and legs hurt, the causes, symptoms, treatment regimens should first be discussed with specialists (rheumatologist, orthopedist or traumatologist).
We are not going to cherish folk remedies here: they can be a great help in the fight against various diseases, but only after the doctor makes the correct diagnosis and gives recommendations on what can bring benefits to the joints and what will do harm.
Various causes of joint pain
Why joints hurt and what to do in these cases, it will be much easier to understand if you know about the causes of aches, pains in the limbs and limitation of their motor functions. Here are some of the most common joint diseases:
1. Rheumatoid arthritis. A chronic disease in which inflammatory processes in the connective tissues are observed. Typical symptoms accompanying arthritis:
- Pain in one or more joints increases gradually, within one to two weeks, or may occur suddenly. At rest, the pain intensifies, especially in the morning.
- Rheumatoid arthritis can affect both large joints of the hands and feet (wrist, ankle, elbow, knee), and small joints of the feet and hands. Inflammation of one joint is called monoarthritis, several - polyarthritis.
- One of the symptoms of the disease in question is the limitation of the mobility of sick limbs during the first hours after morning awakening.
- The disease is accompanied by a marked increase in the joints, redness of the skin in the problem area and an increase in its sensitivity.
2. Rheumatism. In this chronic disease, all organs (heart, kidneys, lymphatic system, etc.) are gradually affected, including joints. The process can last for many years. It is very important to start treatment as early as possible. One of the most characteristic signs of rheumatism beginning is just articular pain that occurs periodically, sometimes accompanied by fever and swelling.
3. Arthrosis. A disease associated with degenerative-degenerative changes occurring in the cartilage, with the gradual involvement in the pathological process of bone, ligamentous, synovial tissues. The most common arthrosis of the knee, hip and elbow joints. The main symptoms are:
- the main symptom is pain that occurs when moving or loading on a sore joint;
- gradual restriction of mobility. If the disease is not started to be treated on time, the process can progress rapidly, which will ultimately lead to disability.
4. Injuries, bruises, physical overload of joints.
5. Gout is a form of arthritis.
Joints of arms and legs hurt: what to do?
Let's outline the main steps that need to be taken sequentially in case of joint pain:
1. Before finding out the causes of pain, try to keep your joints calm.
2. Take some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine (a list of such drugs is published in our article below).
3. Contact to find out the causes of pain in a medical institution.
4. Get detailed recommendations from the doctor regarding the treatment regimen and drugs that you need to use, as well as consult about alternative treatment methods, if you are going to use them.
Arthritis Treatment
Arthritis is most often severe pain in the joints of the hands. What to do in this situation? The patient should understand that treatment will require a number of complex measures. After all, it is necessary not only to relieve symptomatic pain, but also to slow down the inflammatory process, restore normal blood flow in the affected tissues and cartilage, etc. For this, the doctor can prescribe, in addition to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, the use of antibiotics. As part of this article, we can provide one excellent prescription from traditional medicine.
With arthritis, a honey-cabbage compress helps very well. You need to do it before bedtime. It is necessary to take a fresh cabbage leaf, heat it, grease it with a thin layer of honey and apply it to the sore spot with the spread side. The compress is covered with cellophane on top, bandaged and wrapped in a warm wool scarf. In the morning, the patient will certainly feel relief. 
The role of proper nutrition
The joints of the legs and hands often hurt due to metabolic disorders in the body. Gout disease is one of the varieties of arthritis, a frequent companion of modern people, especially it torments the stronger sex. Probably everyone has heard such a term: "deposition of salts in the joints." Some read that the whole thing is in ordinary table salt, but this is not so.
With gout, uric acid salts are deposited in the joints, and this is due to the constant consumption of meat, oily fish and alcohol. Smoking also contributes to the development of the pathological process. If the joints of the fingers and toes greatly swell and hurt, then perhaps the discomfort indicates the presence of gout.
This disease is easier to prevent than to cure. The main recommendation for disease prevention is proper nutrition. Nothing complicated: you need to introduce more vegetables, cereals from whole grains, fruits, cottage cheese into your diet and give up tobacco and alcohol libations.
Osteoarthrosis. Treatment
Today, quite a few people complain that the joints of the arms and legs hurt. What to do if the pain is caused by arthrosis? Here, too, most likely, you can not do without NSAIDs: they will help to quickly ease the torment. A consultation with a doctor is required. You will need to take an x-ray - it will help the doctor determine the degree of destruction of the joints.
In the treatment of arthrosis, along with anti-inflammatory drugs, an important role is played by the use of chondroprotectors (substances that restore articular cartilage). Arthra, Chondroitin sulfate, Chondrolon, Teraflex, Structum, etc. can be prescribed.
A good alternative natural chondroprotector is regular gelatin, which can be purchased in stores. This product must be diluted in warm water and drunk several times a day. And for the quickest restoration of cartilage, it is recommended to cook homemade jelly or jelly more often, it also contains large quantities of natural substances from which the cartilage tissue is built.
Pharmaceuticals
Several times, when we mentioned the question "what to do if the joints of the arms and legs hurt" in our article, we wrote that pain and inflammation are well removed by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, abbreviated NSAIDs. In the treatment of joints, ointments from this group are very effective. Here is a short list of similar medicines:
- Nise
- Movalis
- Nurofen
- Indomethacin;
- Bystrumgel;
- Ibuprofen
- "Final gel";
- Diclofenac
- Voltaren gel, etc.
With severe pain, you can not be limited to some external ointments and take highly effective NSAIDs in the form of tablets or powders:
- Nimesil;
- Piroxicam;
- Ketorol
- "Upsarin UPSA" and others.
Physiotherapy
With persistent painful joint pain, the doctor may consider it necessary for patients to undergo any physiotherapy:
- UHF;
- phonophoresis or electrophoresis;
- UV irradiation;
- magnetotherapy;
- transcutaneous electrical stimulation;
- paraffin baths and applications, etc.
Treatment of joints with ointments prepared according to folk recipes
We continue to consider the main topic of the article: "What to do if joints hurt?" Treatment with ointments prepared on their own can be a great addition to the procedures prescribed by the doctor. What are these funds and how to make them?
1. Ointment for rheumatism. To prepare it, you will need 100 g of mustard powder and 200 g of table salt, which need to be mixed with each other, and then add so much kerosene to the mustard-salt mixture so that a mass similar in density to village sour cream is obtained. The medicine is rubbed into sore spots at night.
2. Ointment for arthritis from honey and egg yolks. Take the yolk of the egg, a block of beeswax (small) and 1 tbsp. l honey. First, the yolk is heated in a water bath, into which wax then crumbles and honey is poured. Everything is mixed to make a homogeneous ointment. For use, a piece of gauze is taken, folded in several layers, a hot mass is laid on it, and in this form the drug is applied to the joint and is properly fixed with a bandage.
3. Ointment for the treatment of joints with arthrosis. Nettle leaves, juniper berries (green) and sheep oil are taken in equal proportions. Berries and leaves are thoroughly chopped in a mortar and then combined with oil. Ready ointment should be rubbed into the joints in the mornings and evenings. 
Activated Carbon Treatment
There is a simple but effective way to treat joints for gout. This will require activated carbon. From this tool you will need to cook a paste. This is done as follows: tablets from several packs of coal are ground into powder, into which a little water and 1 tbsp are added. a spoonful of chopped flaxseed. After thorough mixing with a paste, a sore joint is smeared overnight, after which it is bandaged and wrapped up warmer until the morning.
Clay treatment
Here's another great folk method of healing if the joints of the legs and arms hurt. We have already discussed the causes and treatment of many diseases and found out that different diseases should be treated differently. But there is a practically universal recipe - these are compresses, baths, clay wraps that can be used for arthrosis, arthritis, and rheumatic pains. Clay perfectly soothes pain, relieves inflammation and swelling, sucks toxins from the body, etc.
Physical education and sport: benefits or harm to joints
Those who are too keen on sports activities often have joint pains. What should I do if my knees and ankles hurt after long exhausting runs that seem to be done in the name of health? To begin to reconsider your lifestyle. Any excesses are harmful - this statement can be attributed to sports.
In order to rid yourself of the feeling of constant discomfort in the joints of the legs, sometimes a person just needs to reduce physical activity. To strengthen health, jogging or walking (for older people), morning exercises, yoga, swimming are well suited. From all of the above joints are unlikely to get sick. On the contrary, such physical education will fill them with strength and endurance.
Final word
We hope that the information presented in the article will help those who have joint and leg pain. Diseases and treatment methods, folk recipes and a list of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - all of these materials we have previously carefully studied and only then posted on public display. Use this health information and let your joints always be normal!