Joint pain--any suggestions?

Part of the joy of having this wonderful condition.

I suffer with painful knees and one shoulder.

Many years ago i had really painful hips to the point where i couldn't move my affected leg, they had to inject the joint with steroids to reduce the imflamation, fortunatly i've not had it since,

emilee9182,

Welcome to the forum Emily.

Sorry you're suffering so much from the joint pains associated with UC.

1) Have you ever had your blood tested for vitamin d3 levels and b12 levels?

2) Epsom salt baths could help

3) Heating pad IMO works well

4) Astaxanthin is a powerful anti-oxidant that may be helpfu

5) Omega 3's are very important: eating lots of good fish- salmon, and you can supplement additionally as well

6) Also, you can rub on Biofreeze, it comes in a roll-on, it might give you some short lived relief enough to get through the day, until the omega 3's and anti-oxidants kick in.

I have horrible joint pain but I don't have RA - which is a known complication of having an IBD. If you haven't seen a Rheumatologist yet, you might want to make an appt to see one. I have had every test under the sun and right now my Rheumy is diagnosing me with Peripheral arthritis - this is arthritis that wax and wanes in relation to the inflammation of Uc and it causes no damage.

I take Tylonel Arthritis mainly to help with my pains (I also have Fibromyalgia and this helps this as well). But on occasion I also take Aleve when the pain gets bad. But if you use Aleve, use with caution because it's an Nsaid. I also use Blue Emu cream or Aspercreme. For my hands, I have a wax paraffin machine. The moist warm wax on my hands feel wonderful! :)

Thank you for all of the help everyone. I really appreciate it!

I have joint pain in my knees, feet, hands and sometimes feel pain in my shoulders and neck. I haven't been taking anything for it. I wanted to do fish oil but I took it once and it gave me a horrible stomach ache. I haven't seen a rheumatologist yet either...my knees, feet and hands are the worst. If it gets much worse that will be my next step.

I've been dealing with buildup of fluid in my left ear and going to an ent. I can only handle so many doctor appts at a time. Gets overwhelming. :(

I posted on this, i have just recently experienced joint pain a new symptom for me aswel-l knees are the worst but all joints, and heavy feeling in legs difficult to stand and sleep sometimes, lasts for a day or 2, think its just another symptom added to many?



Jennie England
Pentasa 2000mg daily UC DIA 2007

I get joint pains when my UC is acting up - sometimes even when it isn't acting up. My GI said usually you get them when you are in a flare or as the early signs of a flare-up.  I've noticed that the longer I have UC, the more I get them.  I get pains in my knees (especially the left knee), cramping in my feet and hands, pain in my fingers and in my jaw which can cause headaches.  I also have noticed that any injury I get seems to be magnified if I'm in a flare - I injured my groin/side last year and when I'm flaring the pain is much worse - almost seems like the injury acts up then as well.

Prednisone also causes joint pains - especially when you are tapering the dose. 

I agree on the Biofreeze - I actually put it on before I workout and it helps alot! Sometimes even before I'm going to just work in the garden or do housework.  I also have been doing more yoga which seems to help although sometimes I notice after a hard yoga class my fingers are a little sore (from all the downward-facing dogs!).  Ice helps me as well on my knee.

 

I was diagnosed with UC a year ago and started feeling the joint pains in my knees and shoulder recently. I didn't want to take anymore medicine so I researched natural solutions. I've started taking 1 Turmeric pill a day along with salmon oil pills. My pains were gone in two days. Now I make sure I take them every day to avoid the joint pains. (Please note that Turmeric is a natural blood thinner, so talk to your doctor is you are on blood thinning meds). I don't do blogs, but after reading about so many people having this issue, I just had to share my solution. Good luck.

--heat pack, cold pack ...........

6-pack

Try eliminating sugars / Doing so saved my joints

I'm in my 30's and I've had moderate / sever ulcerative colitis for 9 years and about 2 or 3 years after my first symptoms I started experiencing severe joint pain that would migrate from joint to joint (knees, knuckles, shoulders, toes, ankles, inner hip/groin, as well as in my back and chest muscles. The pain would last severely in one joint/area for a 1-4 days often being debilitating (sleepless nights, extreme pain, inability to use joint) then would travel to another joint usually then travel to the other or go dormant for a time then flair up again.

After almost giving up on trying to fix the problem I saw a pattern (a few days after gorging on Halloween candy) that the flairs were directly associated with my consumption of processed sugars. It was amazing after cutting candy, soda, and high fructose corn syrup and other processed sugars out of my diet for about a month the joint pain stopped completely.

I found can eat natural sugars no problem such as in fruit and juice and have no problem. Once again the pain literally stopped after about a month and hasn't returned for now years.

However, if I stray and start to each too much processed sugars I can feel it creeping in once in full force for a time after straying from my strict no sugar rule). Those little reminders and one large reminder have allowed me to stay "bad" sugar free and pain free. Before when I had the pain I used high and low doses of prednizone but even prednizone didn't completely help me. It wasn't until I stopped the sugar and stayed off it that I found relief. Also, I've been able to stay predizone free as well). Although my colitis is still an issue (mostly managed by Asocal / Asathiaprine) the joint pain is past.

I hope this helps and I highly recommend you try this as it saved me so much pain. On a related note I also try to stay away from too much fake sugars (diet drinks, etc) as I have found that these have caused me some trouble although not nearly as much as processed sugars.

Good luck!!!