Joint and Bone Health

Our joints are the connections between our bones. As we age, we will invariably have pain in our joints. In surveys, one third of adults report they’ve had joint point within the past 30 days. Knee pain is the most common, followed by shoulder and hip pain.

Much of that is simply the result of the impacts on our joints from living, known as osteoarthritis. But there are a variety of reasons our joints can become painful and inflamed.

• Osteoarthritis — Known as “wear and tear” arthritis, just about everyone has some degree of this most common form of arthritis as they get older. It is simply the result of decades of stresses and impacts on the soft tissues in our joints, leading to inflammation and pain.
• Rheumatoid arthritis — This is an autoimmune disorder where our body’s immune system mistakenly attacks our joints.
• Bursitis — Bursa sacs in the joints act as cushions. When they become inflamed, often from overuse, this is bursitis.
• Gout — This form of arthritis most often affects the big toe joint.
• Strains, sprains, and other trauma or overuse injuries.

The definition of arthritis is “inflammation of the joints.” While some people refer to the term arthritis as if it were a single disease, it can’t be so easily categorized. Arthritis in the broadest sense simply refers to joint pain or joint disease. There are over 100 different forms of arthritis. It is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. It is most common among women and older people. Common joint symptoms are swelling, pain, stiffness, and decreased range of motion. In some people these symptoms come and go; in others the pain is chronic, and mobility becomes affected in the joints in question.

At our three Vascular Institute of Virginia locations, we treat patients most often with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. We check your joints for swelling, redness, and warmth. We test mobility of the joints in question. We may utilize lab tests of blood, urine, and joint fluid. We may perform some imaging tests, such as x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasound. These tests may be necessary to rule out other factors, such as bone spurs.

Inflammation or irritation. That could apply to many things in life, but when it applies to your tendons, the clinical term is tendinitis. Our tendons are the thick fibrous cords that attach our muscles to our bones. Tendinitis will show itself with pain and tenderness just outside a joint. Technically, you can get tendinitis in any tendon, but it’s most common around the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and heels.

You may know some common cases of tendinitis by their more common monikers:

• Tennis elbow
• Golfer’s elbow
• Pitcher’s shoulder
• Swimmer’s shoulder
• Jumper’s knee

Bunions form on the joint at the base of your big toe. A bunion forms when your big toe pushes inward against your next toe. This forces the joint of the big toe to become enlarged and to stick out. This leads to swelling and pain.

It’s not unusual for people to confuse a bunion with big toe arthritis. Both conditions are painful and cause a bump and enlargement at the big toe joint. But they are actually very different conditions.

A bunion forms when the big toe moves out of position and the tendon pulls the toe inwards.

In big toe arthritis, the big toe moves upwards or begins to form bone spurs, limiting the range of motion of the toe. The jamming of the joint causes pain, swelling, and tenderness with activity.

Gout is a common and complex form of arthritis that can affect anyone. It’s characterized by sudden, severe attacks of pain, swelling, redness, and tenderness in one or more joints, most often in the big toe.

An attack of gout can occur suddenly, often waking the person up in the middle of the night because it feels as if their big toe is on fire. The affected joint is hot, swollen, and so tender that even the minimal weight of a sheet may seem intolerable.

Gout occurs when urate crystals accumulate in your joint, causing inflammation and intense pain of a gout attack. Urate crystals can form when you have high levels of uric acid in your blood.