Intermittent Joint Pain

When suffering from intermittent joint pain, your pain comes and goes. You may be able to discover a pattern. Perhaps your joints ache more on rainy days or after you have done physically strenuous exercise. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to intermittent joint pain. Joint pain is called arthralgia.

Degenerative Arthritis

• If you have overused your joints, this can result in intermittent joint pain, particularly if you are an older person and have exposed your joints to a lot of wear and tear over the years. You may have osteoarthritis, which is degenerative arthritis and comes with age.

Considerations

• Intermittent pain in your knee joints can be caused by chondrocalcinosis. This condition results in swelling of the joints and extreme inflammation, according to the Mayo Clinic. Chondrocalcinosis refers to localized joint pain caused by trauma to the joint.

Additional Causes

• Other conditions that can result in episodes of pain include reactive synovitis, septic arthritis, which means infected arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Reactive synovitis is also referred to as Reiter’s syndrome and is a common type of inflammatory arthritis found in young men, according to Dr. Werner F. Barth and Dr. Kinim Segal of the Washington Hospital Center, Washington D.C.

Effects

• Septic arthritis can cause intermittent pain that include swelling of the affected joint, warmth in the region of the affected joint, chills, fever and severe pain, particularly when moving, explains the Mayo Clinic. Septic arthritis occurs when the joint has become infected. The fungi or bacteria that have infected your joint and caused pain can travel to other parts of your body.

Connective Tissues Become Inflamed

• Another condition called systemic lupus erythematosus, which is a chronic inflammatory disorder that involves the connective issues in the joints, blood vessel walls, kidneys and mucous membranes, can cause intermittent joint pain or arthralgias, notes Merck.com. When multiple joints are involved this is called acute polyarthritis. Joint deformity can occur, which is referred to as Jaccoud’s arthropathy, although this is not common. The intermittent joint pain, as agonizing as it can be, does not generally damage the joints.

Solution

• Consult with your physician if your intermittent joint pain is interfering with your life. There are medications available that can help relieve your pain.