Hip pain can be treated with conventional medical therapies, but if it does not pass, there are many natural healing methods based on exercises, manipulations and a healthy diet that have helped many people solve their problem.
Doctors focus on relieving symptoms, while natural treatments are based on science and eliminating the causes of pain.
The good news is that many of my patients have been cured through exercise and dietary changes.
These therapies are simple and free, but the patient must actively cooperate to achieve a good result.
Contents
Causes of pain in the right or left hip
The possible causes of pain in the hip, groin, or right or left thigh are the same.
Diseases of the hip joint are:
- Arthritis
- Demolition of the labrum acetabuli,
- femoral head necrosis,
- inguinal hernia,
- pubalgia,
- pubic inflammation,
- osteoarthritis of the hip joint,
- Tumour
- muscle strains,
- infection of a prosthesis,
- Fracture
- Dislocation
- Congenital hip dysplasia.
1) Osteoarthritis of the hip joint
Osteoarthritis is an aging process that begins with the wear of the articular cartilage.
The healthy cartilage is a cushion between the bones of a joint.
If osteoarthritis develops, the cartilage decreases and bone spurs develop around the joint area.
Symptoms
Osteoarthritis is often overestimated, because in fact most people with this disease have no symptoms.
According to conventional medicine, the symptoms are:
- Mild to severe pain in the joint, especially after overuse or prolonged inactivity, for example after prolonged sitting.
- The pain can radiate to the knee along the course of the saphenous nerve (Khan – 2004).
- Stiffness and restriction of movement, especially in the morning.
- Muscle weakness around the joint.
- Malposition of the joint.
Therapy
There is no treatment that stops cartilage loss or repairs the damaged cartilage.
The goal of treatment is to reduce inflammation and joint pain to improve joint function.
Self-treatment includes: foot insoles, sticks, crutches, weight loss, physical exercise and ice packs.
The most suitable drugs are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (for example, ibuprofen) and paracetamol (Hochberg – 2012)
Medical therapy includes:
- exercise-based physiotherapy (Bennel – 2013),
- infiltrations of cortisone or hyaluronic acid (Rivera – 2016),
- Regular and gentle training (for example, walking, stretching, swimming, yoga),
- In more severe cases, surgical intervention.
Prevention
2) Hip pain due to bone cancer
Bone tumors, or those that spread throughout the bone, can cause pain in the hips and other bones of the body.
Symptoms
Symptoms of osteosarcoma vary depending on the location and size of the tumor.
The main symptoms are:
- pain in the tumor area,
- Swelling
- Bone fractures (rare).
3) Femoral head necrosis
Aseptic necrosis of the hip refers to the death of bone tissue in the femoral head due to insufficient blood flow.
When the arteries supplying the femoral head are damaged, the risk of avascular femoral head necrosis increases.
Events that cause necrosis include fractures of the upper femur and hip dislocations.
Symptoms
Groin pain is the most common symptom and occurs mainly when standing.
Pain in the buttocks and lameness are other common symptoms.
Therapy
Possible treatments include:
- painkillers or anti-inflammatory drugs,
- use of crutches,
- shock waves (Wang et al – 2015),
- Hyperbaric chamber therapy (Camporesi et al. – 2010),
- Surgery.
There are several surgical procedures used in the treatment of avascular femoral head necrosis.
Bone grafts, decompression of the inside of the bone, osteotomy and implantation of a hip prosthesis are all available options.
4) Muscle strains
Sports activities can lead to lesions of the hip muscles.
The most commonly affected muscles are the quadriceps and adductors (inside of the thigh).
Symptoms
Typical symptoms are:
- Ache
- restriction of movement,
- muscle contracture,
- Weakness of hip muscles.
Therapy
The home remedies are:
- Be quiet
- ice packs,
- raising the affected leg,
- Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs.
Painkillers prescribed by the doctor are usually aspirin or ibuprofen.
Physiotherapy is an excellent care for muscle strain, especially Tecartherapy, laser therapy and ultrasound help to absorb hematomas, restore injured muscle fibers and prevent scarring in the rigid fibrous tissue.
5) Violation of the labrum acetabuli of the hip
A tear of the labrum acetabuli (or acetabulum) is cartilage damage inside the joint.
On the outer edge of the acetabular there is a cartilage fiber structure, which has the shape of a ring.
Causes
Some traumas, in addition to gradual wear and tear, can cause a tear of the pan lip, for example:
- A violent turn,
- A car accident,
- A femoroacetabular impingement (the acetabulum or femoral head have an abnormal shape and do not match.
Signs and symptoms of strain of the labrum acetabuli
- The pain is noticeable in the front side of the hip joint,
- The pain may radiate to the buttocks or to the outer hip areas,
- A clicking sound during movements,
- Stiffness or reduction of motion amplitude.
Therapy
The choice of treatment depends on the severity of symptoms.
Some people recover in a few weeks with the help of physiotherapy (Liem – 2014), while others require surgical arthroscopy to remove the torn part of the labrum.
6) Infection of the hip prosthesis
Infection of the new joint is a serious complication that may require removal of the implant and re-insertion of the prosthesis.
The infections can occur:
- In the days and weeks following surgery (early infection),
- Years after surgery (late infection).
In order to reduce the risk of infection, the doctor may advise taking antibiotics before further interventions (for example, a dental implant or colonoscopy).
7) Hip dislocation
A hip dislocation occurs when the femoral head protrudes from its anatomical seat inside the pelvic cavity (acetabulum).
These two structures form the hip joint.
Hip dislocation occurs relatively rarely and is associated with serious injuries.
The injury often occurs along with pelvic fractures.
Symptoms.
Symptoms include:
- flank pain,
- inability to move the hip,
- Visible hip deformation.
Therapy
First, the dislocation must be corrected, the orthopedist must manipulate the hip so that it returns to its anatomical seat.
If the reposition does not succeed, surgery may be required. Open reposition (by surgical intervention) is required if the femur or pelvic bone is broken.
8) Hip fracture
A femoral neck fracture is a bone fracture of the thigh immediately below the hip joint.
The hip joint consists of the femoral head and the acetabulum.
Hip fractures usually occur at the femoral neck.
Symptoms
Symptoms include:
- pain in the hip area,
- Difficulty or inability to stand, walk, or move the hip.
The leg looks unusual (it appears shortened and turned outwards).
Therapy
The goal is to walk again as soon as possible while the broken bone heals.
For the elderly, prolonged bed rest can lead to serious complications.
The treatment therefore often includes an operation to align and join the bone fragments.
9) Congenital hip dysplasia
Congenital hip dysplasia is a condition that refers to the development of the hip joint.
If congenital hip dysplasia is diagnosed and treated early in the infant, the result is usually excellent.
If treatment is delayed, it is more complex and less likely to succeed.
Congenital hip dysplasia, before and after surgical prosthesis implantation
symptoms
- pain in the groin and side of the hip,
- Restriction of movement of the thigh.
The first clinical signs of congenital hip dysplasia are detected during the examination of the newborn.
Therapy for congenital hip dysplasia
The goal is a correct position of the hip joint.
The correct position of the hip can be achieved by an orthosis that spreads the child’s legs.
10) Inguinal hernia
This is a disease of the abdominal wall that can cause pain in the front hip area.
An inguinal hernia occurs when there is weakness or lesion in the area where the muscles end at the abdominal wall.
Other causes of pain in the right or left hip:
- Legg-Calve-Perthes disease (in young children),
- Pubalgia: inflammation of the pubic bone at the point where the abdominal muscles or adductors attach to the bone,
- Osteomyelitis (bone infection).
Pain in the hip and leg
Various ailments can provoke pain in the hip and legs:
- osteoarthritis, joint degeneration,
- arthritis, an inflammation of the hip joint,
- muscle lesions,
- pregnancy (the uterus presses against the nerves and causes pain),
- piriformis syndrome, may cause inflammation of the sciatic nerve,
- Sciatica, an inflammation of the sciatic nerve caused by bruising
- Inguinal tunnel syndrome, the pressure on the lateral cutaneous femoral nerve causes burning and loss of sensitivity in the lateral area of the hip and thigh.
Hip pain and naturopathy
A deficiency in conventional medicine is the excessive use of instrumental examinations when the patient has not had trauma.
Often the findings from magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray examination seem to be more important than the physical examination.
In reality, a thorough medical examination should be the most important thing, as joint injuries or degenerations often cause no symptoms and the cause of pain is different.
For example, scientific studies show that a strengthening program of some muscles relieves symptoms in patients with plea injuries (Cashman et al. – 2014).
These muscles are:
- hip abductors (especially the middle gluteal muscle),
- tensor fasciae latae muscle,
- External rotators (for example, the Piriformis).
Even if the patient has an injury, the source of pain is different, otherwise the pain would persist even when doing exercises.
Nutrition is another fundamental chapter.
We all know that there are food allergies and intolerances, yet many believe that joint diseases are not related to the foods we eat.
In fact, according to the blood type diet, colitis can cause hip pain.
The foods that are often responsible for this disease are milk and dairy products, but any person can have an intolerance to other foods.
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