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Top Muscle and Joint Pain - Relief Measures
Your muscular and skeletal systems have remarkable jobs. From everyday tasks like typing to dramatic athletic feats like windsurfing and gymnastics, your muscles and bones perform day after day and year after year. Although you may complain about the aches and pains that come with aging, you are lucky to have a musculoskeletall system that signals when you have pushed too hard.
Your primary care doctor (pediatrician, family practitioner, or internal medicine specialist) can offer advice and treatment for most muscle and joint problems. If your condition is very hard to handle, your primary doctor may involve other medical providers who specialize in those problems, such as physicians, physical therapist, orthopedists, or sports medicine specialists.
Whether it's your shoulder, ankle, or some joint in between, pain in or around joints has similar causes and treatments throughout the body. Of course, a broken bone will cause pain and limit movement, but more often joint pain and limited mobility are caused by an injury to muscles, ligaments, or connective tissue. Knowing what happened before the pain started gives you an important clue to the problem.
With a few exceptions, the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate) method explained below will reduce pain and help speed recovery of joint and muscle pains.
1. Rest. For most injuries, rest the area until the pain stops. For simple sore muscles, however, gentle stretching will reduce stiffness more quickly. Hold the stretch for 30 to 60 seconds, then rest and repeat 5 to 10 times. Do this several times a day.
2. Ice. Ice is the most effective treatment for reducing inflammation, pain, and swelling of injured muscles, joints, and connective tissues-such as tendons, ligaments and bursas. The cold helps keep blood and fluid from building up in the injured area, reducing pain and swelling. Apply ice as soon as possible after injury, even if you are going straight to the doctor. To speed recovery and ease pain, raise the injured area and apply ice for 20 minutes (10 to 15 minutes in children) every 2 to 3 hours while awake. For the best results, use crushed ice in a moist towel as an ice pack. Use an elastic bandage to hold the pack in place. During the first 48 to 72 hours, or as long as there is any swelling, don not apply heat to an injury. Heat increases blood flow to the affected area, which makes swelling and pain worse.
3. Compress. Between icings, wrap the injured area with an elastic bandage to help control swelling and provide support. Begin wrapping at the farthest point away from the body and wrap toward the heart. For example, to wrap an ankle you would begin at the toes and wrap to the mid-calf. Don't sleep with the wrap on, unless told to do so by a doctor. And don't wrap too tightly! If the wrap begins to cause pain or numbness, or if toes are cool or white, remove the elastic bandage and wrap it more loosely.
4. Elevate. Raising the injured area above your heart will allow gravity to help reduce welling by draining excess fluid. At night, place a pillow under the area to support and raise it.
Now those are the most important muscle and joint pain relief measures to do. Make use of such useful tips when in pain to get relief in no time.
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Your primary care doctor (pediatrician, family practitioner, or internal medicine specialist) can offer advice and treatment for most muscle and joint problems. If your condition is very hard to handle, your primary doctor may involve other medical providers who specialize in those problems, such as physicians, physical therapist, orthopedists, or sports medicine specialists.
Whether it's your shoulder, ankle, or some joint in between, pain in or around joints has similar causes and treatments throughout the body. Of course, a broken bone will cause pain and limit movement, but more often joint pain and limited mobility are caused by an injury to muscles, ligaments, or connective tissue. Knowing what happened before the pain started gives you an important clue to the problem.
With a few exceptions, the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate) method explained below will reduce pain and help speed recovery of joint and muscle pains.
1. Rest. For most injuries, rest the area until the pain stops. For simple sore muscles, however, gentle stretching will reduce stiffness more quickly. Hold the stretch for 30 to 60 seconds, then rest and repeat 5 to 10 times. Do this several times a day.
2. Ice. Ice is the most effective treatment for reducing inflammation, pain, and swelling of injured muscles, joints, and connective tissues-such as tendons, ligaments and bursas. The cold helps keep blood and fluid from building up in the injured area, reducing pain and swelling. Apply ice as soon as possible after injury, even if you are going straight to the doctor. To speed recovery and ease pain, raise the injured area and apply ice for 20 minutes (10 to 15 minutes in children) every 2 to 3 hours while awake. For the best results, use crushed ice in a moist towel as an ice pack. Use an elastic bandage to hold the pack in place. During the first 48 to 72 hours, or as long as there is any swelling, don not apply heat to an injury. Heat increases blood flow to the affected area, which makes swelling and pain worse.
3. Compress. Between icings, wrap the injured area with an elastic bandage to help control swelling and provide support. Begin wrapping at the farthest point away from the body and wrap toward the heart. For example, to wrap an ankle you would begin at the toes and wrap to the mid-calf. Don't sleep with the wrap on, unless told to do so by a doctor. And don't wrap too tightly! If the wrap begins to cause pain or numbness, or if toes are cool or white, remove the elastic bandage and wrap it more loosely.
4. Elevate. Raising the injured area above your heart will allow gravity to help reduce welling by draining excess fluid. At night, place a pillow under the area to support and raise it.
Now those are the most important muscle and joint pain relief measures to do. Make use of such useful tips when in pain to get relief in no time.
