Bone Pain

Bone pain, achiness, and tenderness are common problems. You may experience them during the night or when you walk. In this condition, you are prone to deep, penetrative pain. While seniors are the most susceptible, even middle-aged people experience bone pain. As you grow, your body is continuously changing. For instance, your bone density and muscle size decrease, making you less active. Without proper care, you may experience bone fractures or injury.

Causes of Bone Pain

You may suffer from bone pain due to numerous reasons, depending on your condition and life events. Here are some major reasons people develop bone pain:

1.     Injury

Injuries damaging your bone tend to cause bone pain. Primarily, you develop injury-related pain after suffering from trauma, such as a fall or car accident. The impact of these events on your bone may fracture or break it, resulting in severe pain.

2.     Mineral Deficiency

You require different vitamins and minerals to maintain strong bones. The most crucial nutrients for bones are vitamin D and calcium. Osteoporosis is a most common bone disease that occurs due to a deficiency of vitamin D and calcium. Initially, osteoporosis does not cause any pain, but at the last stage of this condition, you might develop severe bone pain.

3.     Metastatic Cancer

Cancer forms in one part of the body and spreads to the others, such as the bones. Cancers of the lung, breast, kidney, thyroid, and prostate can spread to the bones.

4.     Bone Cancer

While bone cancer is rare, it can cause a lot of pain, similar to metastatic bone cancer. In bone cancer, your bone starts developing cancer cells within the bone. When cancer cells grow, it destroys and disrupts the normal bone structure. 

5.     Blood Circulation Diseases

Diseases that restrict blood circulation to the bone, such as sickle cell anemia, can cause severe bone pain. Bone tissues start dying without an adequate blood source. Consequently, the bone weakens, leading to severe bone pain.

6.     Infection

Osteomyelitis is a bone infection that eliminates bone cells, causing bone pain. The infection may originate in the bone or spread through another body part. Despite what causes osteomyelitis, it is a severe condition and a root cause for pain in the bones.

7.     Leukemia

You may also experience severe bone pain when you suffer from leukemia. In this condition, you develop cancer in the bone marrow. Bone marrow produces bone cells, and most of your bone contains bone marrow. Legs face the most bone pain due to leukemia.

Symptoms of Bone Pain

When suffering from bone pain, you will experience discomfort while moving or staying still. However, you may also experience other symptoms of pain. These symptoms depend on the cause of the condition. These symptoms include:

·       When you have bone pain, you may experience grinding noise, snapping, swelling, and deformities of the bone after an injury.

·       If you have a mineral deficiency, you will notice fatigue, cramps, weakness, sleep disturbance, and muscle pain.

·       You may experience a loss of height, back pain, and stooped posture when you develop osteoporosis.

·       Metastatic cancer has wide-ranging symptoms. The symptoms depend on where you develop the condition. In metastatic cancer, you experience jaundice, dizziness, seizures, bone fractures, chest pain, headache, swelling of the belly, and shortness of breath.

·       Bone cancer will cause tingling or numbness and an increase in bone fractures. You may also develop a mass or lump under the skin. It will hurt when your nerves feel pressure because of the tumor.

·       You may also feel weakness, limited function, and pain in the joints. This occurs when the bones do not receive adequate blood supply.

·       Infection can cause swelling, nausea, redness, streaks, and warmness in parts of the body suffering from an infection, loss of appetite, and reduced range of motion.

·       When you suffer from leukemia, you experience shortness of breath, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, and pale skin.

Treatment from Bone Pain

The treatment program for bone pain relies on addressing the underlying condition. Seeking relief for your bone pain is complex and involves multiple interventions. Your pain management doctor will determine the actual cause of the pain, allowing better treatment.

1.     Self-Care Strategies

You cannot treat your bone pain with self-care strategies. However, performing various activities will help you relieve minor pain. For severe pain, you need advanced therapy or surgery, depending on the underlying condition. If you have a bone bruise, treating yourself through self-care strategies might help. You can utilize these techniques after recovering from a fracture:

·       Resting is the best treatment for minor conditions. For bones to heal properly, you must get enough rest.

·       You can apply frozen peas in a bag, bag of ice, and cold compress on the bruised bone. This will reduce the pain, stiffness, and swelling.

·       For a bruised bone near the joint, you can wear a knee brace to offer stability and support to the bone.

2.     Medications

Improving bone pain requires a proper course of medication. However, the use of drugs depends on your condition and level of pain. Here are some medications that your doctor might prescribe:

·       Painkillers

To provide relief from bone pain, the doctor will suggest an NSAID like Tylenol or Advil. If your bone pain is severely related to fracture, cancer, or a vaso-occlusive crisis, your doctor may recommend opioids. These drugs are stronger and have a high recovery rate.

·       Bisphosphonates

Cancer can increase your chances of developing bone damage and osteoporosis, and Paget's disease. For such conditions, your doctor will recommend bisphosphonate. This medicine blocks the bone from absorption, thereby reducing pain.

·       Antibiotics

If you suffer from bone pain due to a bone infection, you will need antibiotics for relief. 

·       Vitamin D

You may suffer from osteomalacia for numerous reasons. To treat this condition, your doctor will first diagnose the underlying cause. If you suffer from this condition due to a vitamin D deficiency, your doctor will prescribe a vitamin D supplement. After taking a vitamin D supplement, you can treat bone pain within weeks.

·       Cancer Therapies

Most doctors suggest chemotherapy as the first line of treatment for acute leukemias. This therapy helps with bone cancer. After identifying the type of cancer and diagnosing it, your doctor might suggest therapies besides chemotherapy. For instance, if you suffer from multiple myeloma, you’ll have to follow a routine of multiple drugs. Myeloma treatment is complex. Here are some medications that you might require:

·       A steroid

·       Immunomodulatory drug -This medication will target cancer with the help of your immune system.

·       A proteasome inhibitor –This drug makes a lot of proteins that target the cells, such as plasma cells.

Other than all the above treatments, your doctor may also recommend a stem cell transplant to treat multiple myeloma or leukemia. 

·       Sickle Cell Therapies

For sickle cell anemia, doctors recommend pain medications along with antibiotics. This treatment will continue throughout life. Hydrea will reduce the caso-occlusive, whereas antibiotics prevent infections from developing.

3.     Radiation

Radiation can treat both the conditions of bone cancer, primary and metastatic. Radiation kills the cancer cells, eliminating any further damage and pain.

4.     Physical Therapy

Most pain management doctors recommend physical therapy after healing from a fracture. The purpose of this treatment is to improve your health and strengthen the bones. Furthermore, it improves the mobility and flexibility of the muscles. This treatment is beneficial for a person suffering from osteomalacia or osteoporosis.

Physical therapy includes numerous exercises. A physical therapist will instruct and share an exercising routine depending on your bone pain and condition. They will also utilize ultrasound, massage, ice, and heat to offer relief from pain.

5.     Surgery

You may undergo surgery for bone pain when the doctor suggests:

·       Fixation of the bone fracture,

·       Stabilizing a bone that grew weak and broke due to cancer,

·       Removal of tissue and bone from an infection,

·       Removing part of the bone suffering from osteonecrosis. This surgery will improve blood circulation.

Conclusion

The most common reason for bone pain is an injury or decrease in the size of the bone. You might also develop pain due to other reasons. These include interception of the blood circulation, infection, or cancer. When you experience pain due to any other reason, visit a pain management doctor immediately. Even if you are unaware of the reason behind the pain, you should visit the doctor. You must undergo few tests while so your doctor can determine the cause of the bone pain. If your bone pain becomes severe and enters the root of the bone, identification and treatment can be difficult and intensive. Treating your bone pain requires a long time and multiple appointments with your doctor, so staying patient throughout the treatment process is essential.