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5983099 tn?1416418472

Sudden onset of cracking joints all over

Hi,
About 18 months ago my body literally started cracking all over from one day to the next. It started in my neck, followed by the thorax. Then, in a few weeks, the rest of my body with knees, ancles, writst, shoulders etc were equally affected. The cracking is loud and audible to others, but I feel it as well. As if the joins slightly slips out of alignment.

My doctor acknowledge my symptoms, but without any idea of what is going on. I`m sent from one professional to the next. First, blood tested for everything (lyme, inflammation, rheumatic markers, vitamin deficiency etc.) without any indications.   All is fine. Been checked for rheumatic diseases, tested by a neurologist and tested my muscles with EMG and so forth.

To me it feels like my muscles no longer support my bone structure as it`s supposed to. My knees are giving me the most trouble, but if my theory is correct this makes sense as this joint suffer a heavy load. They crack and grind and are constantly painful. But also my ankles tend to grind and sometimes lock up, but so far without any pain. I only have to tighten my chest muscles (sitting straight up in a chair) for my clavicle to pop slightly out of place. Lifting things I can feel my spine pop and muscles in my back kind of snap over one another.

I could provide lots of examples but my questions are:
Does anybody experience anything similar? Is it the wearing of cartilage? Could be if it was just my knees, but all over, and present in just a few weeks? Some kind of system wide inflammation? Well, then it should show up on my bloodwork, and I should be feeling quite ill, should I not? What about muscle dystrophy and wasting? My weight is about the same and I`m able to walk on my heels and toes. My muscles kind of “lag” and act strange, but still. If that is the case, it is system wide and I would expect more severe symptoms.

I`ve also experienced a lot of muscle twitching and fasciculations. In just about every muscle, small and large. Could be anxiety, but I don`t know.

I`m waiting for a muscle biopsy, but until then I have to continue my own digging for answers.
Hope that someone out there can provide some insight.

Br,
Oystein
9 Responses
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Avatar universal
https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/infectious-arthritis-a-to-z

No clear cause and difficult to diagnose accurately. Likely the result of secondary symptoms emerging from your body fighting bacterial, viral or fungal infection. Unfortunately GPs will be generally dismissive of investigating further unless you are experiencing pain. Long-term self observation of increasingly pervasive joint clicking and general degeneration of musculature isn't likely to spur active engagement unless you're unlucky enough to have an extreme case.

I'm in my late 20s and experiencing similar to yourself. Initial symptoms popped up for me in 2017 (3 years ago at time of writing), following what I believe was possible infection via a colleague who'd also and only recently been experiencing audible joint clicking in their feet/ankles. Over several months, greatly increased joint clicking/cracking spread around many parts of my body, most notably including: feet (toes, internal joints, ankle), spine (around the ribcage and neck), shoulders + arm ball socket, sternum/ribcage. Severity seems to eb and flow with the seasons and factors like diet, stress and sleep - better with more sleep but longer sleep stretches seem to aggravate the condition. I do not experience any pain, although can be stiff, particularly if I stop exercising regularly. I am quite an active runner and cyclist and have found continuous exercise helps combat the seemingly accelerated muscle deterioration and general feeling of fatigue.

Unfortunately, I strongly believe this is related to an infectious medium because I've observed my partner and family develop symptoms too. Standard blood tests and general consultations have not proved revealing. Think I'll be following up with a virologist at some point as this condition ain't going away by itself. Who knows, eventually enough people may develop these systems, so national medical institutions start to take notice. Personally, I'm betting on some lab scientist developing some CRISPR-based treatment when this is better understood.
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Avatar universal
Look up Ehlers Danlos Syndrome 2017 classification.  Consider genetic testing because your doctor can order this from Invitae Labs for 12 of the 13 EDS types, as well as LDS and Marfan.  These are all connective tissue disorders.  EDS genetic mutations have been relatively recent findings.  A lot of doctors don’t even know what this is.  
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Avatar universal
I have the same thing going on. What kind of job do you work at? Do you sit all day or are you moving around?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Did you find out what this was OP?
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Avatar universal
Yes! I have this WITH the twitching! Did it ever get better for you?
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
Did you ever find out what it was?
Avatar universal
Yes! I have this WITH the twitching! Did it ever get better for you?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I get all over body cracks once in awhile, to me it is usually accompanied with spasms and aches and pains. I get nerve problems, and symptoms similar to MS and have times where it feels like I'm having some kind of absent seizure or stroke, and nerve pills have helped those symptoms. Could be lack of nutrients, usually spasms and nerve issues are due to lack of electrolytes. My shoulder has always had issues so it often gets very sore whenever this happens. I get pains in my ribs and back. In general I get very fatigued when this happens, but for example today I didn't eat properly, I didn't sleep properly, plus I did heavy weight lifting a couple days ago and if I don't rest and eat properly afterward a big workout like that it does give me major issues like this. On top of that, I get major anal bleeding and terrible stomach pain when I eat starchy carbs for more than a couple days, and unfortunately I ate some popcorn every day for many days because I didn't think it was classified as a starchy carb, but my body disagrees and I also ate a crap load of yams last night, and I'm guessing my body doesn't like those either because I felt terrible afterwards, and today I've been having rectal bleeding very heavily. It doesn't worry me as much as you think it would because I have eliminated starchy carbs from my diet and the bleeding stopped completely many times before. Obviously, there is something wrong with the part of my intestine that digests carbs and doctors are too stupid to do anything about it, I believe it is similar to an ulcer and just needs time to heal but I keep making it worse by eating starchy carbs when I shouldn't. (I honestly didn't think popcorn or yams would hurt me but now I know they are big no no foods for me). My point is with a combination of all of the above, today all my joints started cracking and my entire body feels like crap and that is usually a sign I'm just completely worn out. I think that if all your joints are cracking, it's a huge sign that something is amiss. For me, it's usually a combination of things but rest, eating lots of protein and fixing my posture always helps. I've noticed that my posture is out of whack, probably due to  muscle imbalances from heavy weight lifting, this greatly effects my spine and ribs, in general that also effects my digestion, I think it is all connected. When I eat spicy foods lately, the heartburn I get in return actually sets of trigger points in my abdominal muscles which make my ribs and shoulders and upper back hurt. They say that abdominal trigger points can be triggered by internal issues. I actually think I've developed some sort of allergic reaction to harsh spices, it almost closed my throat up too. Obviously, something not right is going on with me, but rest, eating lots of protien and animal products and dairy products, cutting out all starchy carbs and not eating any spicey foods (eating minimal vegetables) and doing yoga and making sure to work out to correct my posture makes me feel a lot better. At first it was just gluten that made me bleed internally, but over time it became all starchy carbs.
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Avatar universal
The same thing is happening to me now too.. did you ever find out what it was/is?

Thanks
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Avatar universal
I get all this less the muscle twitching. Had it over 2 years now
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