Clicking joints, ribs and vertebrae out of place

[sip1]

I'm just wondering if this could be connected in some way to the hypothyroidism? I've clicked and cluncked for several years, but the past few years it's become worse.

Everything clicks! My shoulders, hips, knees (they crunch quite badly), chest, neck and my back. Back at Christmas one of my dogs pulled quite badly towards a cat, and since that point I've had extra pain in my ribs under my chest. I've seen the doctor about this - the first one I saw thought it was a pulled muscle, but the second doctor actually pushed my first rib back into place. However, it didn't make any difference and the pain continued. I went back, and he pushed another couple of ribs back into place whilst I lay face down on the couch. He also re-aligned my spine - this was done before years ago too. It may have helped slightly with the rib pain, but it's still there. Now the clicks are returning, and it just seems whatever the doctor does, it just comes back again!

Yesterday, I lifted my head off the pillow to get out of bed, and my neck clicked so badly, that I had a painful neck all day along with a headache and inability to turn my head sideways of lift it up straight!

I'm 38 - but sometimes feel like a pensioner. Could this have something to do with the thyroid or am I barking up the wrong tree??

[Hidden]

Have you checked your Vitamin D level?

Rib cage pain was the clincher for me, my osteopath asked if I realised I taking short breaths - worth checking out anyway. (My neck & other joints no longer crunch) Jane

[Marz]

Yep - I agree with spareribs - VitD needs to be optimal.

[sip1]

I've taken vitamin D3 for a couple of years on and off (most days) - 5000 iu, so I'm fairly sure it can't be that?

[Hennerton]

Maybe your dose is not optimum. Have you latest blood tests with reference ranges post here for advice.

I fully believe that most aches and pains are thyroid related. I have a weird groin/hip problem that only started after thyroidectomy. GP says it is not my hip but has no idea what causes it. My dose should be fine and I have recently started NDT, so am hoping all those extras contained in it will help. What dose are you on and are you hypo through Hashis or TT?

[sip1 in reply to Hennerton]

I've just started NDT, so if it is related I might not know for a while. I've tried to remember when all this clicking started, but it's difficult as it's been a gradual thing - bit like the thyroid! So it could well tie in. I know I haven't always been like it - only for the past few years. Started with the knees and shoulders, now everything else is joining in!

Sorry meant to say I don't have hashis - what's TT (sorry if I'm being thick!)

[Hennerton in reply to sip1]

TT is thyroidectomy. I hope it will improve as NDT germs into your system.

[Clutter]

Sip,

I suspect it may be thyroid related. 10+ years ago my neck used to lock and I was seeing a cranial osteopath 3 times a week sometimes to relieve the pain. Sometimes relief would last several weeks and sometimes only a couple of hours. I assumed at the time it was stress related. My thyroid diagnosis wasn't made until June 2011. I also had clicky joints but these are no longer troublesome now I'm optimally medicated.

[sip1 in reply to Clutter]

That's interesting to know Clutter. It's similar in that the dr will put stuff back in place, but it's just misaligning again. It's not just the one area, or I might believe that one thing is being pulled by another being out of place. It really is quite unpleasant to move my head from side to side, as it all clicks and I can hear grinding inside my head from my upper neck!

I wish I could remember where I read it, but I seem to remember seeing something about the cartilage erosion and thyroid?

[Clutter]

I still get some crunching, but not pain and stiffness. In fact just doing head rotations now and it sounds like everything needs oiling

[wombatty]

The repeated misalignment suggests the problem might be with the joint cartilage. I take a supplement containing glucosamine 500 mg, chondroitin 400 mg, MSM 300 mg plus an additional 500 mg MSM, all 3X daily. The clicking/instability and pain in my knees and hips (I haven't had problems with my back or ribs, etc.) have improved greatly. It took a long time for the body to repair damage that had occurred over years, and I find if I stop taking the supplements the symptoms begin to reassert themselves.

[sip1 in reply to wombatty]

Thanks Wombatty. Can I ask what MSM is? Might be definitely worth trying what you've suggested! x

[wombatty in reply to sip1]

MSM is methylsufonylmethane; it's a source of sulfur, which is essential to formation of the cross-links between collagen molecules that gives cartilage its supporting strength. In the US, the supplements are found in the joint support section of pharmacies and health-food stores.

Best wishes.

[Silver_Fairy in reply to wombatty]

Can I ask which supplement you take please?

[wombatty in reply to Silver_Fairy]

I live in the US, and I usually take the Rite Aid pharmacy's brand of glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM. The separate MSM is whatever brand I find in the right dosage (1500 mg, which I take 3X daily).

I forgot to mention that I also take 500 mg vitamin C 3X daily along with the other joint supplements. Vitamin C has an important role in collagen formation; I learned recently that scurvy is a disease of collagen, which is not only present in joints but essentially holds our bodies together.

My dosages are based on those used in the clinical trials that produced positive results. It may not actually be necessary to take that much. I know there are other brands of these supplements that are popular, so presumably they are effective. My husband uses OsteoBiFlex, which is available online if you can't find it in your pharmacy. (He refuses to take as many pills as I do!)

[mandy-white]

I have just started getting neck pain and crunching and clicking in my neck. I have had 3 sessions with a physio now and he just says that it is wear and tear. I am 52 and have never had it before and then all of a sudden it just happened.