Musculoskeletal disorders (bones, joints, muscles): symptoms, types & medications

Definition of musculoskeletal disorders

Musculoskeletal disorder is a condition that interferes with the function of joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves and tendons, as well as the spine. Your musculoskeletal system involves structures that support the limbs, neck and back.

Musculoskeletal disorders are often degenerative diseases, diseases that cause your body's tissues to become damaged over time.

This can result in pain and reduce your ability to move, which can prevent you from carrying out your normal daily activities.

Musculoskeletal disorders can affect any area in the body. The main parts include the neck, shoulders, wrists, back, hips, knees and feet.

Symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders

Musculoskeletal disorders can cause inflammation in many different parts of the body. If you have a musculoskeletal disorder, you may feel pain all over your body.

You may feel hot muscles or twitch as if they are being pulled. Symptoms will vary from person to person, but common signs and symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders include:

• Pain or tenderness.
• Sore.
• Back pain.
• Back pain.
• Neck pain.
• Fatigue.
• Sleep disturbance.
• Poor posture.
• Inflammation, swelling, redness.
• Decreased range of motion.
• Loss of function.
• Tingling sensation.
• Numbness or stiffness.
• Muscle weakness or decreased grip strength.

If you have questions about symptoms or have any problems, contact your doctor for more information.

Causes & risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders

Since musculoskeletals cover many parts of the body, the causes of these disorders vary widely. The exact causes of musculoskeletal disorders depend on:

• Age, elderly people tend to experience musculoskeletal pain from damaged body cells.
• Type of work or profession.
• Activity intensity.
• Bad posture habits.
• Too passive in doing physical activity.
• Injury or trauma to a part of the body caused by sudden movement.
• Car or motorcycle accident.

Who is at risk for musculoskeletal disorders?

Musculoskeletal disorders occur when you overuse or abuse a muscle group or bone for a long time without resting.

There are several things that might increase your risk of experiencing this movement system disorder, including:

1. Certain movements

• Bending or crouching.
• Lifting heavy objects.
• Pushing or pulling heavy objects.
• Excessive stretching of muscles.
• Trying to reach an object that is far away.
• Repeat movements using the same limb over and over again.
• Doing too long physical work.
• Drive in heavy vehicles, travel long distances, or drive on tough roads.

2. Stress

Not only physical activity, it turns out that stress and too much thought can cause musculoskeletal disorders.

3. Certain health conditions

If you have certain illnesses, health problems, or have recently been injured, you could be experiencing musculoskeletal disorders.

Not only that, pregnancy also increases your risk of experiencing it. In fact, when you feel tired and less fit, it is easier to experience movement system disorders than when you are in a healthy and fit condition.

How to diagnose musculoskeletal disorders

To diagnose musculoskeletal disorders, your doctor will do physical examination and a thorough medical history to find the exact cause of your pain.

Your doctor may test muscles and joints to:

• Weakness or degeneration.
• Any twitch that can indicate nerve damage.
• Swelling or redness.

Also, depending on the specific disorder, the doctor may perform imaging tests to confirm the diagnosis. They may take x-rays to look at bones, or blood tests for rheumatic disease.

Musculoskeletal disorders of bones and joints

Musculoskeletal disorders affecting the bones

Diseases, disorders, or problems in the bones that interfere with their function in the motor system are considered musculoskeletal disorders. The following are various disorders of the skeletal system in the form of diseases, disorders, and bone health problems, including:

1. Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that occurs when there is bone loss in the body. This causes the bones to become weak and break easily. In fact, in cases that are moderately broken, the bone can break just from sneezing or a minor impact.

Although osteoporosis is not caused by increasing age, this condition is more susceptible to experienced by women in old age. However, this does not mean that it is impossible for men or young people to experience this condition.

2. Broken bones

Fractures can be distinguished by severity. At a level that is still relatively mild, the bones may only experience cracks. However, to a severe enough degree, the bone may break in half or more.

Fractures can co-occur with other movement system health problems, such as sprains or displaced bones and joints.

3. Spinal disorders

Abnormalities in the spine are also included in musculoskeletal disorders. The characteristics of this spinal disorder is a problem with its curvature or position.

Types of spinal disorders include kyphosis (the spine curves forward), lordosis (the spine curves backwards), and scoliosis (the spine curves sideways to form an S).

There are also other spinal problems, such as spondylolithesis, which is a condition that occurs when the spine shifts downward. This causes the shifting bone to press on the nerves underneath and cause pain or tenderness.

Then, spondylosis is a degeneration problem of the spine. This spinal disease is divided into three types, namely lumbar spondylosis (degeneration that attacks the lower spinal disc), cervical spondylosis (degeneration that attacks the spinal discs in the neck area), and thoracic spondylosis (degeneration that attacks the joints in the spine in the area. chest).

4. Osteopenia

Osteopenia is a musculoskeletal disorder that affects bones characterized by reduced bone density. This causes the bones to become more brittle.

This condition occurs when the bone's need for calcium is not fulfilled. If you have osteopenia, your risk of experiencing bone loss is higher.

5. Osteomalacia

Osteomalacia is a musculoskeletal disorder that occurs when bones become more flexible and cannot harden, so they often bend and are prone to fractures. This condition usually occurs because the body is deficient in vitamin D.

If this condition is experienced during growth, osteomalacia can cause the posture to become bent or the bones to become bent as adults. In addition, osteomalacia can also cause elderly people to be prone to fractures.

6. Bone paget disease

Paget's disease of bone will interfere with the process of recycling new bone tissue when replacing old bone tissue.

Over time, this disease can cause bones to become brittle. Usually, bone paget disease affects the pelvic area, skull, spine, and leg bones.

7. Osteopetrosis

This musculoskeletal problem is characterized by increased bone density that occurs due to the problem of bone reabsorption by cells in the body known as osteoclasts.

This condition causes bones to become brittle and break easily. Under certain conditions, osteopetrosis occurs in conjunction with abnormalities in the skeleton.

8. Achondroplasia

Achondroplasia is a musculoskeletal problem that inhibits the growth of cartilage to become bone completely. Problems that attack these bones can cause complications such as respiratory problems, obesity, and ear infections.

This condition is characterized by a stunted body or dwarfism , limited elbow movement, a head size that is larger than normal, and a finger size that is smaller than normal.

9. Osteogenesis imperfecta

This musculoskeletal disorder is hereditary and appears from birth. If a child born with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) may have bones that break easily, or bones that are not formed properly, and various other bone diseases.

10. Osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis is an infection that attacks the bones through the bloodstream or spread from the tissues that are close to the bones. However, this infection can also originate from the bones themselves as a result of being contaminated by bacteria when they are injured.

Musculoskeletal disorders affecting the joints

Problems and diseases affecting the joints are also part of the musculoskeletal or motor disorders. Here are some types of movement system disorders that attack the joints:

1. Arthritis

Arthritis is a disease that causes inflammation of the joints. This disease is divided into several types, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout or gout, psoriasis arthritis, and ankylosing spondylosis.

2. Bursitis

Bursitis is a musculoskeletal disorder that irritates joints, to be precise Bursae , which is part of the joint in the form of a pocket that stores lubricating fluid. According to the National Health Service, this condition can cause pain or soreness in the joints.

3. Tendinitis

Tendinitis is a joint problem that attacks the tendons, which are the joints between the bones and muscles. When experiencing it, the tendon will experience swelling quite badly.

Usually, this condition occurs after you repeatedly experience the same injury in an area such as your wrist or foot. One of the symptoms of this joint problem can be pain and tenderness in the joint area.

4. Tendon injury

Tendon injuries usually occur because the tendon is damaged as a result of overuse or part of the aging process. Usually, people who make the same movement repeatedly have the potential to experience it.

5. Tennis elbow

Actually, this one musculoskeletal disorder is almost the same as a tendon injury, but tennis elbow usually occurs in the joint in the elbow area when you use it too much due to repeated repetitive movements of the wrist or arm.

6. Carpal tunnel syndrome

This disease occurs due to pressure on your wrist. This can cause pain to numbness in the hand and finger area. Carpal tunnel syndrome may occur when the joints in the area press on the median nerve, causing pain.

Musculoskeletal disorders that affect muscles

Given that the musculoskeletal system includes the human muscular system, disorders of the movement system also include health problems, disorders, and various diseases of the muscles. Among others are:

1. Myalgia

Myalgia or muscle pain is a condition that occurs when muscles are used too often to perform repetitive movements. Usually, this condition is experienced after you do strenuous work that requires you to do the same movements repeatedly, or intense exercise with the same movements.

2. Fibromyalgia

Similar to myalgia, fibromyalgia is muscle pain that appears all over the body at the same time. Usually, this condition is also accompanied by excessive tiredness, sleep disturbances, or a chaotic mood.

3. Muscle injury

Muscle injury or known as sprain is also one of the musculoskeletal disorders that interfere with the human muscular system.

Sprains can be distinguished based on their location. For example, if an injury attacks a tendon, it is called muscle strain . While sprains that attack ligaments are called muscle sprain .

4. Muscular dystrophy

Muscular dystrophy is a group of muscle ailments that cause slow muscle weakness. This condition is caused by abnormal genes that interfere with the production of proteins needed by healthy muscles.

This condition cannot be cured, but at least treatment and therapy can be done to overcome or relieve the symptoms that exist.

5. Muscle atrophy

This muscle disease is characterized by muscle weakness that makes it unusable. Muscle atrophy can be caused by overuse of the muscles, such as in stroke sufferers. Then, malnutrition, the use of drugs, and certain diseases can also be the cause.

6. Muscle cramps and spasms

Muscle cramps and spasms are similar muscle health problems. Muscle cramps and muscle spasms are conditions that occur when muscles contract suddenly and get out of control. This condition can appear when you are sleeping at night, so that you are awake.

If you experience this, the contracted muscle cannot be used or moved for a while until the condition improves on its own.

Medications & treatment of musculoskeletal disorders

Depending on the cause and severity of the pain, there are various treatments for musculoskeletal disorders.

For pain that is classified as mild or appears occasionally, you can use over-the-counter pain relievers. For example, ibuprofen or paracetamol.

Meanwhile, drugs such as anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be used to treat inflammation and pain. For more severe pain, you may need stronger pain relievers which will require a prescription from your doctor.

For work-related pain, physical therapy can help you avoid further damage, as well as control the pain. Manual therapy, or mobilization, can be used to treat problems with spinal alignment.

Other treatments may include:

• Relaxation techniques.
• Injections with anesthetic or anti-inflammatory drugs.
• Muscle strengthening and stretching exercises.
• Chiropractic care.
• Massage therapy.

How to control musculoskeletal disorders?

You can control musculoskeletal disorders by managing your risk factors and preventing injury. Here are a few tips that can help:

• Keep frequently used objects close to you and easily accessible to avoid over-stretching your arms.
• Use auxiliary machines whenever possible, such as using a trolley when you want to shop in large quantities.
• Take short breaks when doing activities that cause you to perform long-term repetitive movements.
• Use a soft chair when you have to sit for long periods of time.
• Position the objects on the table effectively when you want to work.
• Use headset or earphones when you want to communicate for a long time via a cell phone.
• Limit lifting heavy weights.