Joints pain can flare up for a number of reasons some of which may be overlooked by conventional practitioners. Many women, even younger women, wonder if their pain is being caused by arthritis. Sadly, it is estimated that one in five Americans has been diagnosed with some form or arthritis. There are over a hundred different arthritic conditions, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis being the most well known.
Causes of Joints Pain
The causes of arthralgia are varied and range, from a joints perspective, from degenerative and destructive processes such as osteoarthritis and sports injuries to inflammation of tissues surrounding the joints, such as bursitis. These might be triggered by other things, such as infections or vaccinations.
Speed of onsetRheumatoid
| Cause | Mono- or polyarticular |
|
|---|---|---|
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Polyarticular | Weeks-months |
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Polyarticular | Months |
|
Polyarticular | |
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||
|
Polyarticular | |
|
Polyarticular | |
|
Polyarticular | |
|
Polyarticular | |
|
Polyarticular | |
|
Polyarticular | |
|
Monoarticular | |
|
Monoarticular | Hours |
|
Monoarticular | |
|
Monoarticular | |
|
Monoarticular | Immediate |
|
Monoarticular | Hours |
|
Monoarticular |
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease causing inflammation in the synovial fluid of the joint. It sets itself apart from other forms of arthritis with some telltale features: a general appearance in the hands or feet, a hot or warm feeling in the joint, stiffness for over 30 minutes in the morning, the same joint affected on both sides of the body, polyarthritis (more than one joint affected at a time), and pain that can last through the night. With this form of arthritis, most women notice the pain eases the more they use the joint.
Osteoarthritis on the other hand, feels worse the more we exercise and as the day wears on. Also linked to inflammation, this type of arthritis can be traced back to a breakdown in your joint cartilage. It generally affects the hips, knees, spine, hands and feet and develops as more of a wear-and-tear situation, whereas rheumatoid arthritis is closely tied with genetic factors that lead to an autoimmunity problem. It’s hard to tell if our overworked joints have progressed to arthritis, but new technology in thermal imaging will soon be able to show us how much inflammation is present in our joints.
There are many other causes of joint pain outside of arthritis. The table at right lists a few types of arthritis and non-arthritic conditions commonly associated with joint pain.
Investigating your own joint pain
- To get to the real root of joint pain, here are key questions, including some about seemingly less related issues that may contribute to the pain, issues that may be emotional as well as physical irritants.
| Inflammatory causes of joint pain | |
|---|---|
| Forms of arthritis associated with joint pain | Other causes of joint pain |
|
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Is this pain relatively new?
Think back over the past few months or years. If you’ve had a sports injury or trauma, such as an accident or a fall, your pain could be related to that. It’s not at all unusual for joint pain to develop and escalate after the date of the injury itself. Torn ligaments and tendons lack blood flow, so they can’t heal themselves and must be repaired surgically. Sprains can take a long time to repair themselves. With any kind of injury, it’s important to give your body the right nutritional support and enough time to heal.
Is the pain seasonal or related to changes in the weather?
Complaints of joint pain increase during colder weather because your blood doesn’t circulate to your extremities as well in the colder months. And it doesn’t help that pain receptors are more sensitive in cold weather. A drop in barometric pressure, such as before a rain or snow storm, can also cause any inflamed tissues to expand and become more painful.
Can you associate the pain with any specific activity?
Overuse and misalignment are common causes of joint pain, whether caused by a day of stress and strain, or accumulated over a period of years. This kind of mechanical injury can inflame the bursae (causing bursitis), or the tendons (causing tendonitis), or eventually wear down the cartilage and cause osteoarthritis. For instance, do your knees hurt only after a work-out? Does your hip ache only after a long drive? Does your neck or elbow hurt if you type for more than 30 minutes? Desk-related complaints can often be solved by making ergonomic adjustments to your workspace for increased comfort and prevention of repetitive injury.
Is it the muscle or the joint?
You may actually be experiencing pain in the muscles close to a joint and think that the joint is the problem. Muscle pain is generally associated with over-exercise or movement that has caused excess strain on the muscle, ligament or tendon. This kind of pain should resolve within two to three days of rest. You might also notice a point of tenderness or “trigger point” on the muscle in this case. Muscle pain may also respond positively to stretching or massage therapy. Dr. Sharon Stills has also had good success using homeopathic injection therapy and prolotherapy, a pain-relieving procedure that relies on injections of an “irritant solution.”
Is your pain worse in the morning?
It might be useful to start tracking your pain by using a wellness diary: if your pain lasts for longer than a half hour in the morning and gets better during the day, there is a possibility that it could mean rheumatoid arthritis. Look closely at your sleeping habits and mattress. Changes here may be a simple solution. It’s also interesting how some women who eat (or drink) refined carbohydrates at night are also more likely to have fluid retention and morning pain, and how changing just this one habit can turn joint pain around — almost overnight.
What’s going on right now in your life?
Joint pain may be reflective of some aspect of a woman’s “inner” life. In Eastern medical traditions, pain is a sign of energy blockage, and this can also mean emotional energy and life force. Pain in the knees may indicate an inability to move forward for fear of criticism or a lack of self-acceptance. Some women feel neck or back pain only while they’re at work or around certain people who make them feel tense or burdened. And while it may seem like a big leap to connect emotional stress with joint pain, we have all come to accept the idea that the body stores tension in the muscles, so it shouldn’t be difficult to accept the notion that your emotional life can impact your joints.
What is your family history?
Some forms of arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are connected to genetic make-up, and if anyone in your family has had it, this places you at higher risk — but not the certainty — of developing it. Just as important are the emotional qualities of your childhood and upbringing. These emotional overtones may be carried forward on a subconscious level and manifest themselves in our bodies as pain or disease in adulthood that keeps us stuck in a certain pattern. Like a needle stuck in a groove, we keep playing the same scratchy refrain. Luckily, our bodies often know better than we do what they need to be healthy — and often it’s simply a matter of gaining the strength to pick the needle up and put it on another song.
What’s important for every woman to know is that whatever the cause of your joint pain, there are ways to increase your mobility and decrease — or even eliminate — your pain. And the best place to start in almost every case is to address issues of inflammation.
Tips on How to Lower Inflammation and Balance Hormones
- Get tested if you’re between the ages of 35-45 to know your baseline hormones. This will help you see where your imbalance lies in order for you to help your body restore what’s dipping or missing.
- Add an adaptogenic herb like Relora or Ashwagandha to help the body adapt to stress. Adaptogens improve the entire body’s resistance to stress and create balance and harmony in the body, thereby reducing inflammation and balancing hormones
- Eat your vegetables! Vegetables contain hundreds to thousands of phytonutrients (plant hormones) that have a hormone-balancing effect in the body. Vegetables also contain fiber that binds itself to old estrogens, thereby clearing them out of the system, leading to lower inflammation and better hormonal balance.
- Remove inflammatory foods from your diets, such as processed dairy, gluten, alcohol, sugar, processed snacks, omega-6 oils, and soy. These can incite inflammation and create a hormonal imbalance. Food insensitivities and inflammatory food can lead to leaky gut, inflammation, and systemic imbalance, which in turn can put hormones in flux.
- Eat healthy fats like: coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, and grapeseed oil. Steer clear of vegetable oils, peanut oil, canola oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, margarine, shortening or “spreads” (these are all high in omega 6 fats)
- Watch for endocrine disruptors or hormone disruptors like plastics, air fresheners, dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, cleansers and cleaners, cosmetics, deodorants, toothpaste, and lotions.
- Don’t do long cardio sessions. Opt for short interval training. Long cardio sessions can actually lower your thyroid function and increase cortisol and inflammation. Interval training increases your HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and slows aging.
- Avoid all-day caffeine! Excessive caffeine raises your cortisol and slows down your thyroid.
- Take your vitamin D. Low vitamin D levels are linked to slow stomach emptying and bile production, inciting inflammation and triggering hormone disruption.
- Relax more. Help yourself lower the inflammation from within by just breathing more, sleeping more and allowing yourself to take a break. Our lives are dictated by work, family, drugs, and technology. In order to heal, we have to take a break from it all to catch our breath and put out the fire.
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