What Causes Pain In The Knees And Feet ?

Posted on Fri, 4 May 2012

Question: Hello there. I hope you can help. I am a 36 year old female. My knees and feet have always been painful if I walked for a long distance or after periods of physical exercise. I have in the past worn orthotics to help them. However, lately, my knees and feet in particular are very painful during the day, together with an acute level of tiredness all over my body. I find it hard to get out of bed some mornings with the tiredness. By afternoon, my joints are quite painful again and my body is aching with tiredness. I have also been suffering from a cold/cough for nearly a month with an overall feeling of having the 'flu. Is there anything I can do to help relieve this? Thank you for your time.

Answered by Dr. Jasvinder Singh (1 hour later)

Hi Lorraine,

Thanks for your query. There are several possibilities which need to be entertained considering your signs and symptoms.

The first one is Fibromyalgia in which there’s persistent widespread pain, stiffness, fatigue & usually disrupted unrefreshing sleep.

Other possibilities are SLE, rheumatoid arthritis & hypothyroidism. You’ll need to undergo a few tests to reach to a diagnosis.

TSH levels will help us in ruling out hypothyroidism. An ESR if raised and the presence of XXXXXXX suggests the possibility of some inflammatory joint disease like rheumatoid arthritis or SLE.

The specific tests for Rheumatoid arthritis are rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP antibodies and that of SLE is anti-ds DNA.

The treatment will depend upon the underlying diagnosis. Please do consult a Rheumatologist for the same as it is not possible to make an online diagnosis.

Hope this answers your query. If you have additional questions then please do post us.

Wishing you good health.

Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar