The weather is getting cooler and cold winds are coming in. When the weather changes, many people’s joints become painful, but is this joint pain necessarily arthritis? Today I will do a brief analysis for you.
1, if there is only pain is mostly “joint pain”
Although pain occurs in the joints, but the joint tissue does not appear inflammatory pathological changes such as joint redness, swelling, heat, pain and even dysfunction, which is clinically known as “arthralgia”, not “arthritis”. For example, many young women have joint pain after blowing air conditioners or fans in summer, or elderly people have different degrees of joint pain before weather changes or on rainy days, but there is no swelling, skin temperature and joint movement is normal, and it relieves itself after activities or hours or days, and there is no discomfort in general. The blood sedimentation was normal, C-reactive protein, anti-“O” and rheumatoid factor were all negative, and other diseases were also excluded. Although the disease may recur, it neither leaves any sequelae nor invades other tissues and organs of the organism. According to Chinese medicine, this symptom is called “rheumatic cold arthralgia” and should not be mistakenly called “rheumatic arthritis” or “rheumatoid arthritis”.
Rheumatic cold and damp arthralgia belongs to the “paralysis” in Chinese medicine. The common feature of rheumatic arthritis is that it has a history of being attacked by wind, cold and dampness. As stated in the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, “When wind, cold and dampness come together, they become paralysis.” Because of the different severity of the affected evil, there are wind-heavy, wet-heavy, cold-heavy, rheumatic, and cold-damp types of joint pain.
Wind, cold and wet joint pain and daily life in the bad habits are closely related to the stimulation of wind, cold and wet, so the prevention of wind, cold and wet joint pain is greater than the treatment: (1) do not live in the wet, or in high cold areas, sleep at night; (2) the hot summer do not indoor and outdoor temperature difference is too large, electric fans, air conditioning temperature is adjusted very low, or cold food and drink, so as not to sweat by the wind or sweat closed; (3) Do not wear thin clothes in the cold winter, and do not work outdoors for too long in winter; (4) women avoid getting cold after giving birth: (5) reasonable exercise to enhance their own vitality to resist external evil, etc.
2.Some “joint pains” involve tissues outside the joints
Some “joint pain” involves tissues outside the joints rather than inside them. For example, in frozen shoulder, it looks like the shoulder joint is involved on the surface, but in fact, the lesions involve extra-articular muscles and tendons. Although the lesion is inflammatory, it mainly involves the soft tissues around the shoulder, so it cannot be called “shoulder arthritis”, but only “periarthritis of the shoulder joint”, i.e. periarthritis.
3.Some joint diseases are similar to “arthritis”
Some joint diseases occur in the joints and produce joint pain, but the substance of the lesion is not inflammation, such as synovial chondromatosis, which not only produces joint pain, but also joint swelling. Although it looks like “arthritis”, it is not an inflammatory disease, but a benign tumor from the synovial tissue of the joint, and as long as it is actively treated, the pain and other symptoms will soon disappear.
4. What is “arthritis”?
Arthritis refers to inflammatory diseases that occur in the joints and surrounding tissues of the body and can be divided into dozens of types. There are more than 100 million people with arthritis in China, and the number is increasing. The clinical manifestations are redness, swelling, heat, pain, dysfunction and joint deformity of the joints, which in severe cases lead to joint disability and affect the quality of life of patients. Common arthritis include rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gouty arthritis, and reactive arthritis. In the active phase of arthritis, blood sedimentation and C-reactive protein are often elevated, and there are different specific indicators for different arthritis, and the treatment of different arthritis varies.
In conclusion, there are many causes of arthralgia, and the following two conditions must be met to confirm a diagnosis of arthritis.
❶ The lesion involves the joint itself;
❷ The substance of the lesion is inflammation. Diseases that involve joint tissues but do not cause inflammation, diseases that are not inflammatory in nature, and diseases that do not involve joint tissues cannot be called “arthritis”.
Therefore, patients with joint pain should not diagnose “arthritis” on their own, but should go to a regular hospital to find a rheumatologist for differential diagnosis, early diagnosis and early treatment to avoid delaying the disease.