Painful joints bother not only the elderly - these ailments often affect young people who have suffered injuries or suffer from a rheumatic disease that they are not aware of. In addition to medications, what will help ease the pain?

Osteoarticular pain is most often a symptom of a disease - such as rheumatoid arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis. Patients must then be under the constant care of a rheumatologist, take medications recommended by him, and receive appropriate rehabilitation. Sometimes, however, joint pain worries people who are completely he althy - it occurs as a result of microtrauma, overload or as a result of intensive sports.

Joint pains should be the reason for visiting a doctor- especially if they are related to an injury, they are accompanied by other ailments (e.g. fever, chills, skin changes, problems with movement joint swelling) or do not go away after a few days of taking painkillers. The therapy recommended by a specialist may be supported by home remedies that work well if the pain is not too intense. Which of them are worth using?

Warm and cold compresses

This is the easiest home remedy for joint pain.Cold compresses or showers can be used if the pain is accompanied by swelling.Ice cubes wrapped in foil and additionally in a thin cloth will be helpful, you can also apply a gauze or gauze soaked in cold water to the sore spot. refrigerated gel compress.

If there is no inflammatory process in the joint, you can use warm compresses- heat promotes the expansion of blood vessels, which improves the blood supply to the tissues and relieves pain. A warm gauze compress soaked with water, a hot water bottle or a gel compress heated in hot water can be applied to the sore joint.

Warm therapeutic baths

Heat increases the elasticity of collagen fibers, which in turn prevents stiffness in the tendons. Therefore, in the case of joint pain, it is also worth taking warm therapeutic baths.The water temperature should not exceed 38 ° C.You can add essential oils and camphor to it, which enhance the therapeutic effect, sulfur is also effective in such cases, but water with its addition is not very effective.it smells nice. The bath should not be longer than 20 minutes.

Warming ointments

They contain substances that have a warming effect - e.g. camphor and eucalyptus oil. After massaging into the skin, a feeling of warmth appears - this is the effect of dilating blood vessels and improving blood circulation.

Such preparations often also contain painkillers, as well as capsaicin, which increases the secretion of the so-called substance P (a peptide hormone accumulated in nerve endings, which is responsible, among others, for vasodilation) -thanks to it they effectively relieve minor pain.

Horseradish, honey, onion, white cabbage wraps

This is typically grandma's, but a surprisingly effective home remedy for joint pain. Ground horseradish combined with grated onion and honey is a treasury of anti-inflammatory substances - as the supporters of such grandma's methods claim, the prepared mixture (it must be thick so that it does not run off the skin) is enough to cover the sore joint and wrap it with a bandage for a few hours(but if the skin starts to sting, take it off immediately and rinse it with water to soothe the irritation.)

A poultice of white cabbage leaves has a similar effect - you must crush them to release the juices, apply a damp one to the sore spot, wrap it with a bandage and leave it for a few hours.

Drinking cod liver

If your joint pain does not bother you too much, but regularly, you should also drink fish oil. Regular consumption of this fat reduces joint pain, because the substances contained in it delay the processes of cartilage degeneration and strengthen the natural mechanisms of its regeneration.

Category:

Anatomy