Does Rheumatoid Arthritis Cause Muscle Pain?

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Prolonged exercise is a common cause of muscle spasm. When you are going with continuously strenuous exercise, at certain point you will experience sensation of fatigue or even pain. This is a normal signal that your body needs to take a rest. Ignoring this warning could lead to muscle cramp and pain.

The same thing goes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). If the pain of RA is very severe and lasts continuously, there is greater chance for the pain to make muscles surrounding the involved joint to get more contraction and then stiffen up, making the pain become more painful.

Furthermore, it is not only about muscle spasm!

RA also could cause muscle strain (over tearing /stretching of muscles). This occurs due to overworked muscles around the affected joint when attempting to support or protect the joint from the painful movements.

Treatment options for both RA and muscles pain

If your muscle pain is linked to your RA, treating and controlling your RA are so crucial to prevent the pain from worsening. Some treatments and medications are available to help control the progression of this joint disease, these include:

  1. Medications to help ease inflammation, control the progression of RA, and suppress the overactive immune system abnormality in RA. Some common choices for these goals are NSAIDs, corticosteroid medicines, DMARDs, and the use of biologic agents – ask a physician /doctor for more advice!
  2. Psychological therapies to help deal with stress caused by the disease or to treat other psychological problems related to RA.
  3. Physiological therapy such as to help teach you how to exercise properly with RA.
  4. And even surgery if necessary.

Some home remedies can help, too. These include:

  1. Talk with others! Being social and build a good relationship with your family & friends can help support you psychologically, and this is also important to deal with the pain.
  2. RA could pose the risk of back pain – see also home remedies for back pain relief!
  3. Do your exercise regularly! Having RA doesn’t mean your joints need to stop from exercise. Instead, regular exercise in the right way can be essential to cope with RA. But remember not all kinds of exercise are safe for arthritis!
  4. To ease the pain, you can try with heat & cold treatment by applying ‘a bottle containing hot water’ or ‘some ice packs wrapped in the wet cloth’ on the affected joint.
  5. Try some relaxation techniques to help you learn how to relax!
  6. Eating right and sleep well!
  7. Change some habits that can help cope with the problem! These include not smoking, not abusing alcohol, not spend all day in bed (instead, it is much better to remain active as much you could), etc.
Citations /references:

  1. http://www.patient.co.uk/health/rheumatoid-arthritis-leaflet
  2. http://www.arthritis.ae/download.php?file=165384_rheumatoid_arthritis.pdf
  3. http://www.orthop.washington.edu/?q=patient-care/articles/arthritis/managing-arthritis-pain.html

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One Comment
  1. Jennifer Jones
    April 26, 2020 | Reply

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