Pain is your body’s way of telling you something is not right. You can ignore it, mask it with pain killers or listen to it. Listening to your body is one of the first steps in disease and injury prevention as well as healing.
One of the contributing causes to joint pain is chronic inflammation and its five cardinal signs of with the acronym “PRISH.” PRISH stands for pain, redness, immobility (loss of function), swelling and heat.
Redness, swelling and heat are direct results of increased blood flow to the irritated area. With this increased blood flow, scavenging white blood cells along with inflammatory substances enter the area. Inflammatory substances by definition will maintain or increase the blood flow to the area, and they cause additional irritation and wear down joint cartilage that cushions your joints and prevent bone-on-bone contact.
As long as the source of irritation stays, inflammation and pain remains.