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Joint Pain

Stiff, painful and constant achey joints can constantly hinder your daily lifestyle and routine. Joint pain is commonly characterised as a difficulty in moving a joint through its range of motion with pain.  Stiffness with some form of pain with or without swelling is common. 

At System Health & Spine, we focus on the history and presenting factors of your problem, either it be due to a specific injury, metabolic change or general wear and tear of your joints.  Determining the cause and reason of any joint change is detrimental in getting back to your daily routine, pain free.

Our treatment methods and years of clinical experience in treating all joint injuries and changes are important to getting your body back to it's optimal form, quickly and efficiently.

Symptoms of a Joint Injury

Joint pain can affect people in different ways, and can vary from mild, intermittent or niggling pain, all the way to a chronic, disabling, severe pain. It is common to experience just one, or multiple of the following symptoms:​

  • Dull pain or aching

  • Sharp pain which can be a sudden, throbbing, burning or stabbing pain

  • Stiffness or loss of flexibility

  • Feeling compressed

  • Numbness or Pins and Needles'

  • Radiating Pain

  • One sided, Right/Left or unilateral pain

  • Poor quality sleep due to joint pain.

Shoulder

Shoulder Pain & Symptoms

Pain in the shoulder can be due to a number of different things. Problems with the shoulder itself or the pain can stem from an issue in a different part of the spine, usually the neck area. Poor posture and shoulder position, nerve pressure, trauma to the area, or repetitive strain can all cause problems with the shoulder.

The exact cause of pain in your shoulders can be found through a full examination, possibly including x-rays or other methods of diagnostic imaging. This allows our clinical team to work out which is the most suitable treatment for your case. Conditions that can cause shoulder pain could be:

Referred pain from the neck:

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  • A SLAP Lesion (a tear in the glenoid section of the shoulder)

  • Ligament damage

  • Rotator cuff tear/impingement

  • AC Joint Damage

  • Frozen Shoulder

  • Bicep Tendinopathy

  • Fracture

  • Dislocation

  • Bursitis

 The pain can vary in intensity, from mild, infrequent pain to chronic and constant pain in severe cases. If you’re having shoulder pain, you might notice:

  • Pain when performing certain movements or daily activities

  • A cracking, locking or grinding sensation in the shoulder blade

  • Loss of movement, flexibility or strength

  • Pain while resting or sleeping

  • Dull aches or pains

  • Neck and shoulder pain

  • Pain in the shoulder and arm

Elbow

Elbow Pain & Symptoms

Alternative causes for pain in the arm or wrist can be brought on by many different things, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Often specific injuries can be related from a certain individual action or a direct injury with an obvious cause such as a work or sports injury.

Yet there may be a more complicated problems related to a bio-mechanical issues as a result of stresses and strains on the system, it is impossible to underestimate the role of the neck and the nerves supplying the arm in this scenario; as they coordinate the firing or movement patterns or the arm an irritation at the top of the neck can lead to a muscular instability and eventual injury further down the extremity.

To find out an exact diagnosis; a full examination and sometimes x-rays will be needed. Here are just some of the possible locations or causes of pain in the arms:

• Epicondylitis: Repetitive strain injuries including golfers/tennis elbow,
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: pain in the wrist and hand
• Muscle strains or sprains: i.e. bicep strain/tendinopathy
• Bursitis (various locations)
• Rotator cuff injuries (shoulder)
• Arthritis: (various locations)
• Clavicle or Scapular dysfunction and referral​

If you have an injury in the arm, you might experience:

  • Pain that varies in intensity

  • Pain on repeated movements (joint/muscle)

  • Sensations such as pins and needles, weakness or tingling. (nerve)

  • Aching in the upper arm

  • Aching in the wrist or forearm

  • Swelling

Wrist

Wrist Pain & Symptoms

Wrist pain has become a very common problem in society.  Constant overuse of keyboards and cell phones have now shown possible injuries that cannot be avoided.

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Repetitive stress as well as injuries yo one's wrist can leave a debilitating effect on your life without the proper care.  Stiff, achey movements are usually the key symptoms found with non fractured wrists.  Our clinic focuses on the root of the problem, helping alleviate pain and biomechanical changes to your wrist pain. 

Conditions that affect wrist:

  • sprain

  • strains

  • fractures

  • carpal tunnel syndrome

  • arthritis

Knee

Knee Pain 

& Symptoms

The knee is a joint that bears the weight of your body on a day-to-day basis, so it’s unsurprising that knee injuries are extremely common. You are more likely to suffer knee injuries if you play sports that involve sudden turns, like football, tennis or running. Knee pain can also be caused by wear and tear from everyday activities.

  • Common conditions that can cause the above symptoms include:

  • Ligament Damage

  • Most often caused by trauma from a sudden change of direction. The knee has four ligaments at the front, back and on both sides. If damaged, the ligament will be swollen, cause pain on movement, and you may be unable to put weight on the knee.

  • Meniscus Tear

  • A meniscus tear is a common injury among athletes, and can happen when the knee is suddenly twisted. The tear occurs to a piece of cartilage located between the femur and the tibia, which absorbs shock in the knee. This condition causes pain, swelling and sometimes a crunching sound can be heard when moving the knee.

  • Knee Bursitis

  • A bursa is a small sac of fluid which protects the knee joint, so that the tendons and ligaments can move easily. If this is damaged, the knee can become swollen.

  • Osteoarthritis

A wear and tear condition caused by the loss of cartilage in a degenerating knee. People with osteoarthritis may experience pain, stiffness and perhaps clicking or crunching sound within the knee. With osteoarthritis, the joint in the knee becomes much weaker, this can leave you more prone to fractures.

  • Fracture

A knee fracture can be caused by a sudden trauma to the area. This is likely to mean severe pain when touching the area or when moving.

  • Tendinitis

Tendinitis is a direct result of overuse of the patella tendon. The knee may become very swollen and it can hurt to bend the knee normally when going up or down stairs.

  • Patellafemoral Pain Syndrome (or ‘Runner’s Knee’)

The most common injury caused by running. Those with runner’s knee may have a pain around or behind the kneecap. This can make everyday activities like walking up or down stairs, or sitting painful.​

​The symptoms of knee pain vary depending on the condition, but these are the most common:

  • Swelling

  • Stiffness in areas of the body

  • Unable to bend or straighten the knee

  • Hot to the touch

  • Instability

  • A clicking or crunching sound in the knee

Ankle

Ankle Pain 

& Symptoms

Many causes of leg and calf pain are due to localised inflammation; unless a large and unusual force has been exerted on those tissues, then it is likely that it is a repetitive strain that has caused the issue. In these cases, there are likely to be one or more additional mechanical issues in the chain from lower back to the foot that are causing dysfunction in the muscle tissues. Causes of leg or calf pain can include:

  • Dropped Arches

Dropped or dysfunctional arches (flat feet) can happen as a result of the arches not forming properly or becoming stiff due to the overwhelming strain caused by walking on hard surfaces like concrete. Local inflammation of tissue in the foot is often known as plantar fasciitis – which we can treat by mobilising the joints in the feet and giving the correct advice on footwear and potentially orthotics.

  • Muscle Strains

Muscle strains very commonly affect the legs or calves, usually as a result of an excessive force damaging the tendons around joints. If you have a muscle strain you may have swelling or pain in and around the joint area where the muscles connect into the bones; you my experience stiffness in the leg when trying to move the area.

  • Ankle/Knee Tendinitis

This condition is particularly common in athletes, as the ankle and knee absorb force constantly during strenuous activity. You may get ankle or knee tendinitis as a result of weaker muscles in the legs, for example the hamstrings or thigh muscles, as this puts greater stress and strain on the knee and ankle.

  • Baker’s Cyst

Baker’s Cysts commonly occur from arthritis in the knee or from a sports injury, it is a form of swelling behind the knee. While this can originally cause pain in the knee, if a Baker’s Cyst ruptures this causes swelling and a sharp pain in the calf.​

  • Compartment Syndrome

This condition can affect ‘compartments’ in the body, for example the leg or arm, and usually happens because of a sudden trauma, like a road accident. Trauma can result in bleeding and swelling within the muscles and can cause symptoms such as severe pain, tenderness or tightness. While acute compartment syndrome may need surgical intervention, chronic compartment syndrome can cause cramping or swelling during exercise which can improve with rest.

  • Shin Splints

Shin splints can, again, occur as a result of injury from exercise as a result of more intense weight bearing on the legs. Examples of intense weight bearing include; running on a hard surface, or rapidly increasing training distances over a short space of time. The pain can vary in severity from a dull ache to more severe pain during exercise and occurs over the shinbone.

  • Lower back or neck misalignment

Lower back or neck misalignment can cause referred pain into the legs, this can be as a result of overcompensating with the legs during load bearing, or from a disc injury that may be causing symptoms such as sciatica. This can cause sensations such as pain down the back of one or both legs, weakness, tingling or pins and needles.

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