Are my bowel and joint symptoms related?

Patient's Query

Hi doctor,

I am 36 years old with a weight of 79 kilograms and I am five feet in height. Due to stomach disturbance, I had yellowish urine with pain, popup, and cracker sound in my legs and knee joints before three years. I consulted the doctor and he suggested to examine liver function test and all the report was normal except sugar and it was 138 mg/dL at that time. He gave me medicines and referred me to an orthopedic doctor for joint pain. I visited the orthopedic specialist and he took X-rays on both the knees.

He told me that it is an early stage of osteoarthritis of the knee. After that, he gave me medicines for ten days and referred me to a physiotherapist for exercise and weight loss. I visited him and I reduced my weight. Now, there is a little pain in my left knee with hip joints, left-hand thumb finger, and hand knees showing a popup sound when I move. I also have mild cracking and popping sounds in my neck and jaws. I do not have pain and I need to take care of it for a few years. So I prefer consulting a specialist related to stomach as my stomach becomes bloated even when it is empty and there is a pain sometimes. I have yellowish urine with lower abdominal pain. I have a positive result for H.pylori infection. Please diagnose my problem and suggest a treatment.

Answered by Dr. Sandeep V Nair

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I have gone through the reports (attachment removed to protect patient identity). You have ANA (antinuclear antibody) positivity and H.pylori (helicobacter) antibody positivity. In view of your multiple joint pains with negative ENA (extractable nuclear antigen antibodies) report and positive ANA, you require a detailed evaluation by a rheumatologist. Your stomach pain with burping and frequent farting can occur due to H.pylori infection. It is better to undergo an upper GI endoscopy and colonoscopy for further evaluation.

It is possible to have bowel symptoms and joint symptoms at the same time. But it can be proved only after doing endoscopic procedures. There is a disease called inflammatory bowel disease in which bowel symptoms and joint symptoms occur at the same time. Please consult a gastroenterologist first for doing endoscopy and if it is normal, then you can go for rheumatological evaluation because medicines can aggravate your bowel problems.

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