A common complaint seen in the medical world is hip pain. Individuals of any age can develop hip pain from a number of conditions, but the largest demographic would be those aged 60 and up. In a study conducted by John Hopkins Medical School, 14.3-percent of adults 60 years old and up reported significant chronic hip pain that oftentimes lasted 6 weeks or more. As you can see, hip pain affects many people, every day, but the reason why you have hip pain isn’t always obvious.
In order to understand where the hip pain is coming from, you should visit a doctor for an examination and imaging tests. Once you’ve been properly diagnosed, you and your doctor can come up with a treatment plan. However, understanding symptoms of common causes of hip pain can help you communicate with medical professionals better.
Let’s have a look at the 10 common causes of hip pain:
Things To Know About Hip Pain
Before getting into the causes, we need to discuss some anatomy. The hip is comprised of a ball-and-socket joint. The “socket” is the pelvic bone, called the acetabulum, and the “ball” is the femoral head. The ball-and-socket joint is covered in cartilage, a white tissue that cushions bones and allows for easy movement.
Because of the joint shape, pain can be spread in several directions. Problems with the joint itself will cause pain inside the hip (anterior hip pain). Meanwhile, pain that develops on the side of the hip (lateral hip pain) or behind the hip, near the buttocks (posterior hip pain), is usually rooted in muscle, ligament, tendon, and nerve problems around the hip joint. Being able to differentiate where the pain is coming from is the first step to understanding what could be wrong.
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