Prognosis
The prognosis is highly dependent on the cause of the bone pain.
Prophylaxis
Some causes of bone pain can be prevented by a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet and regular physical activity.
Bone pain in certain situations
Almost every flu patient complains of bone and joint pain in addition to the typical flu-like symptoms. The reasons for this are still not fully understood. However, it is suspected that it is the smallest inflammation in the area of the muscles that span the bones.
These inflammatory pains are then passed on and give the impression that the bone may hurt. Often bone pain is the sole and only symptom of an incipient flu. Before coughing or rhinitis as well as sore throat begin, patients complain of pain in the bones that is initially stress-related and then also at rest.
As the flu progresses with the typical symptoms, the bone and joint pain often disappears on its own. For the symptomatic treatment of bone pain, drugs such as paracetamol in a dosage of 500 mg should be used, e.g. 2-3 times a day. Physical rest can also speed up the recovery process in the case of influenza and relieve the bone pain.
Alternatively, treatment with numerous herbal preparations can be carried out. For example, tinctures or ointments with cayenne pepper, mint oil or devil’s claw as well as butterbur can be applied to the aching muscles over the bones to relieve the pain. Very often, especially women who are going through the menopause complain about bone and joint pain in very different parts of the body.
The pain can occur either at rest or after a short period of physical exertion and during sports. The knee joints, hip joints, shoulder joints and elbow joints are most frequently affected. One of the many other possible causes should always be medically excluded.
Here above all rheumatism and gout would be excluded. Also the osteoporosis occurring in parallel with some women in the menopause should be excluded. Why some women suffer from joint and bone pain during the menopause is not completely scientifically clarified until today.However, it is suspected that hormones that lead to elasticity of the connective tissue at a young age are absent during menopause, resulting in a hardening of the bones and joint capsules, which can lead to the recurrent bone pain.
In very rare cases, hormone replacement therapy is carried out exclusively for bone pain. Whether a symptomatic treatment with an anti-inflammatory drug has to be carried out remains to be weighed up due to the possible side effects and the long time of use required. Bone pain occurs almost regularly after and during chemotherapy.
The cause is usually a common side effect of the chemotherapeutic drug, which inhibits cell division throughout the body. This also leads to cell inhibition in the area of the bone, which can then also react with pain. Furthermore, bone pain under chemotherapy is often caused by the usually very aggressive chemotherapeutic drugs themselves.
The drugs given through the veins are distributed throughout the body and start to irritate not only the sensitive nerves of the skin but also the periosteum. In the area of the skin there is almost always numbness, discomfort and pain, in the area of the periosteum the main symptom is often bone pain, which can be very strong and tormenting. Once the chemotherapy is completed, the bone pain also disappears again, usually with some delay.
Sometimes the pain can be so severe that appropriate pain treatment must be initiated. In rare cases, chemotherapy must be discontinued because of isolated bone pain.
