Hi there! Thank you for your question. There are several possible reasons for your joint pain and stiffness.

Osteoarthritis. It is “wear and tear” arthritis that happens when your joints are overused. It can be caused age, joint injuries or obesity and affects joints that bear weight (knees, hips, feet, and spine). It comes on gradually over months or years. It makes the affected joint hurt. But you don’t feel sick or have the fatigue that comes with some other types of arthritis.

Symptoms include; deep, aching pain, trouble gripping things, morning stiffness that typically lasts less than 30 minutes, pain when walking, stiffness after resting, warm to the touch, swollen and harder to move and reduced range of motion
Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is a disease where the immune system attacks parts of the body, especially the joints.

It can cause severe joint damage if you don’t treat it. About 20% have rheumatoid arthritis get lumps on their skin called rheumatoid nodules which form over joint areas that receive pressure. Symptoms can come on gradually or start suddenly and usually affects multiple joints and are more severe than with osteoarthritis. Happens in a symmetrical pattern. The most common symptoms include pain, stiffness (can last for hours or even most of the day), swelling, warm joints, fatigued, loss of weight and poor appetite.

Psoriatic Arthritis. It is a disease where patients have inflammation of the skin (psoriasis) and joints (arthritis). Psoriasis causes patchy, raised, red and white areas of inflamed skin with scales. Symptoms are pain, swelling, stiffness, skin lesions and fingernails that are pitted or discolored. It can happen with one joint or a few joints.

Gout. Gout occurs due to excessive amount of uric acid in the body known as hyperuricemia. The symptoms are sudden, severe joint pain, redness, swelling, warm joints and bone destruction/deformity. The joint that are affected most of the time are the toes, knee, wrist, shoulder and elbow.

So the best way to be sure is to visit your doctor, because he/she will be able to rule out diseases based on a proper history taking alone and several investigations will be done for a proper diagnosis.

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