Potential Causes of Muscle Pain
Muscle pain, also known as myalgia or myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), is the result of inflammation in the body’s soft tissues. Muscle pain can be brought on by a broad number of issues, injuries or conditions, and experienced as a random sharp pain or a steady, deep ache. Individuals may have localized pain in a specific area, or pain may be felt systemically all over the body. Soreness in the muscles may be short-term or chronic.
Here are a number of potential causes of muscle pain:
Strains, Overexertion & Injuries
These are the most common causes of muscle pain. In these instances, soreness in muscles is typically limited to a few muscles or a small area of the body.
Strains happen when tendons are stretched beyond their normal capacity, such as during a fall or a sudden twisting motion, and induce pain that may last a few days or longer. Overexertion, where the body is pushed too hard, such as long periods of standing or a heavy gym session, may cause soreness in the muscles for a day or two. Injuries or hard blows may induce bruising, swelling and muscle pain. Other types of injuries resulting in muscle pain include abdominal or back strains, broken bones, overuse through repetitive motion and tendinitis.
Stress & Tension
Psychological or physical stress may take its toll on the body in the form of myalgia. This muscle pain is caused because the body tenses in response to stress as a protective measure against potential injury. Longer lasting or chronic stress can create a continuous state of muscle tension, often inducing soreness in the muscles. This type of pain is typically felt most in the shoulders, neck and jaw.
Poor Posture Can Cause Muscle Pain
Standing, sitting or exercising with poor posture can strain certain muscles, inducing muscle pain. This soreness in the muscles is often felt most in the upper and lower back.
Infection
Myalgia that is experienced throughout the whole body is most often caused by an infection, such as the flu. Other infections include pneumonia, malaria, polio, Lyme’s disease or other bacterial or viral infections. Soreness in muscles may be accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea, fever and swollen lymph nodes.
Medication
Muscle pain may also be a side effect of certain medicines, treatments or drugs. These could include statins, ACE inhibitors, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or cocaine. In some cases, this is because muscle pain receptors are activated, or inflammation around the cells of the muscles is induced.
Dehydration
Not drinking enough water in general can result in muscle pain or cramping. Dehydration post-exercise can also increase soreness in muscles.
Lack of Sleep
Poor sleep robs the body of important recuperation it needs to function optimally. Lack of sleep can therefore lead to the body feeling run down, where myalgia is often experienced.
Nutritional Deficiencies
Muscle pain or aches may be the result of nutritional deficiencies in the diet. Lack of vitamin D is known to cause muscle pain, and anemia may result in cramping and soreness in the muscles.
Autoimmune Diseases
The body’s immune system may mistakenly perceive threats in the body and attack healthy cells; this is known as autoimmune disease. Many of these conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and polymyositis, may induce muscle pain.
Neuromuscular Disorders
These type of disorders, such as muscular dystrophy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), specifically affect muscles and the accompanying nerves that control them, often causing muscle pain and weakness. Many incidences of muscle pain are not serious and a straight forward treatment plan is usually successful. However, you should seek medical assistance when soreness in the muscles is accompanied by chest pain, fever, bladder control issues, muscle weakness, pain that is new or gets worse, or numbing/tingling in the limbs.
What To Do When You Need Muscle Pain Relief
Muscle pain is a broad and varied issue that can appear anywhere in the body. It is usually the result of blunt trauma to the muscle, overexertion, strain, or systemic issues within the body. In addition to muscle pain, you may experience symptoms such as muscle cramps and spasms or joint pain. Many conditions may cause muscle pain in addition to injury, such as medication, autoimmune conditions, infections or neuromuscular disorders.
Options for muscle pain relief will depend on the cause of your symptoms. If you’re looking for solutions to help recover sore muscles, here are a number of options that may help.
Muscle Pain Relief relating to DOMS
When you switch up your exercise regime or engage in new physical activities, you may experience delayed-onset muscle soreness, known as DOMS. Muscle aches and pains from DOMS may appear six to 12 hours after your workout, lasting as long as 48 hours. If you are seeking muscle pain relief from DOMS, you could: hydrate during and after your workout, warm up properly before exercise, stretch thoroughly after activity, use a foam roller or massage gun post-workout, and eat within half an hour of an intense workout to help recover sore muscles.
Movement
While you may be less inclined to move when in pain, keeping mildly sore muscles active may promote muscle pain relief. Move at a slower pace than usual, opting for less force or resistance.
Massage
Massaging can help provide muscle pain relief by repairing muscle fibres and decreasing inflammation. If paid massage from a professional is not an option, there are a number of ways to massage sore muscles on your own. Foam rollers, vibrating massage sticks and even tennis balls can be used to apply pressure to muscle tissues, serving as helpful muscle relaxers to help provide muscle pain relief.
Heat
Applying a heating pad to affected areas can help increase blood flow to recover sore muscles. Heat therapy is most helpful at providing muscle pain relief when symptoms have persisted beyond three days.
Epsom Salt
Muscle pain relief – especially if you are experiencing aches and cramping – may be supported with Epsom salt baths. Epsom salt is thought to be one of the best natural muscle relaxers when combined with warm water thanks to its high magnesium content. Epsom salt baths for muscle pain relief should only be undertaken if you have no open wounds or chronic skin conditions.
Over-The-Counter Medication
Certain medications can provide effective muscle pain relief, depending on the cause of the pain. Muscle soreness from strains, sprains or tears can be treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Topical gels, creams, medicated plasters or Super Patch technology can also help recover sore muscles. Muscle relaxers will reduce pain in incidences of acute muscle injury, and symptoms brought on by fever can be treated with paracetamol. In some instances, muscle pain is the result of a nutritional deficiency, such as a lack of vitamin D. A doctor may advise you on taking the appropriate nutritional supplement to help provide muscle pain relief.
RICE
If your pain is the result of an injury but you don’t consider it serious enough to seek medical attention, the first strategy for muscle pain relief is RICE. This stands for rest, ice, compression and elevation. Rest ensures you don’t continue bearing weight on the affected area and further aggravate the muscle, while ice helps reduce inflammation the first few days after an injury. Compression helps to limit swelling, as does elevating the limb above your heart. You may need to see your doctor if your muscle pain relief strategies at home aren’t helping to reduce symptoms within a few days. Muscle pain that: appears alongside a rash or tick bite, is accompanied by redness or swelling, occurs after a change in medication or is present with a temperature also requires medical attention. Consider your muscle pain a medical emergency if it presents alongside the following symptoms: sudden water retention or reduced urine volume, vomiting, stiffness or weakness in the muscles, particularly the neck, trouble catching your breath, or an inability to move the affected area.
What Causes Chest Bone Pain?
The chest bone, known as the sternum or breastbone, connects the two sides of your rib cage together. It protects the many major organs in the chest and gut that sit behind it, including the hearts, lungs and stomach. This proximity to vital organs means that chest bone pain may be the result of many conditions that have little to do with the sternum itself. For this reason, the cause of a sore sternum may be hard to pinpoint.
Is My Chest Bone Pain a Heart Attack?
The first reaction to chest bone pain – especially acute or persistent pain – is to think it is a heart attack. But in many instances, chest bone pain has nothing to do with the heart, and is more likely caused by issues with the bones, muscles or digestive tract. This is particularly true in those who are under 40 and don’t have any underlying health conditions.
Conditions that May Cause Chest Bone Pain
Costochondritis
Costochondritis is a condition that is often responsible for a sore sternum and regularly mistaken for a heart attack or other heart condition. It is not, however, a serious condition, and occurs when the cartilage connecting the ribs to the sternum becomes inflamed. Symptoms may include sharp pains or aches to the side of the sternum, or pain or discomfort in one or more of the ribs. Pain may intensify when coughing, breathing deeply or moving the upper body. Costochondritis, also referred to as chest wall pain syndrome, costosternal syndrome or costosternal chondrodynia, cannot always be linked to a specific cause, but it is most likely the result of strain from physical activity, a chest injury, or joint conditions such as osteoarthritis.
Sternoclavicular Arthritis
Osteoarthritis involves the breaking down of joint cartilage over time due to wear and tear. The sternoclavicular joint (SC joint) connects the top of the sternum to the clavicle, and this hardworking joint may become painful if affected by osteoarthritis. Chest bone pain may be experienced at the top of the sternum, pain may worsen with activity or radiate into the arms, and swelling and tenderness may be present as well.
Traumatic Injury
Fracturing the sternum can induce intense pain and is usually the result of blunt force injury to the chest. It may be painful to breathe in or cough, swelling, pops and grinding noises may be experienced with arm movement, and there may be stiffness in the joint and shoulder. A sore sternum caused by injury to the SC joint or clavicle (collarbone) trauma will likely be accompanied by similar symptoms.
Muscle Strain
Pulling or straining a muscle in the chest wall through repetitive movement, increased activity level or a sudden, improper movement can result in chest bone pain. This may also occur during an illness that induces severe coughing or vomiting. Pain may be sharp or achy, worsen with movement, or be accompanied by muscle spasms or bruising and tenderness.
Hernia
Hernias occur when an organ pushes or pulls from the area where it normally sits. The most common form is a hiatal hernia, where the stomach moves into the chest cavity, past the diaphragm. In addition to a sore sternum, symptoms of a hiatal hernia may include heartburn, gas, trouble swallowing and fullness, amongst others.
Heartburn and Acid Reflux
Conditions that affect the esophagus, stomach and intestines may contribute to chest bone pain. Heart burn is a passing burning sensation in the throat, chest or abdomen caused by stomach acid. When this happens frequently, it can be a sign of acid reflux, where the lining of the esophagus begins to wear away from ongoing stomach acid. Both heart burn and acid reflux are common gastrointestinal causes for chest bone pain.
Stomach Ulcer
A stomach ulcer (peptic ulcer) refers to an open sore on the lining of the stomach or bottom of the esophagus. In addition to stomach pain on an empty stomach and other symptoms, chest bone pain may be experienced.
Respiratory Issues
Conditions affecting the respiratory system such as pleurisy (inflamed tissue around the lungs), pneumonia (lung infection) and bronchitis (inflamed bronchial tubes) may also contribute to a sore sternum and accompanying symptoms in the chest area.
Panic Attack
A sudden onset of irrational fear or panic is referred to as a panic attack. Often a result of stress or a symptom of mental health conditions, panic attacks may be accompanied by chest bone pain that may be mistaken for a heart attack.
Heart Attack
A heart attack refers to a blockage in an artery of the heart, preventing blood and oxygen from reaching that area. Chest bone pain is a common symptom of a heart attack, specifically chest pain in the middle or left side of the chest. Accompanying symptoms may include pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body, including arms, shoulders and jaw, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, trouble breathing, sweating and nausea. A heart attack is life-threatening and requires emergency medical attention. In some instances of chest bone pain, over-the-counter medication or a change in diet may be enough to ease symptoms. But long-term treatment may be needed if there is a more serious underlying condition. Seeking out a doctor’s diagnosis for your chest bone pain will better help you to address your symptoms.
9 Causes of Bone Pain in Legs
Bone pain, achiness or tenderness is fairly common, although less so than joint or muscle pain. It typically occurs more frequently in those who are middle-aged or older. This is usually due to lower activity levels and reduced bone density, which increases the risk of overuse and bone fractures.
Bone pain – including bone pain in legs – can, however, be a sign of a more serious underlying medical condition. These causes are often less obvious and it is important to seek out a doctor’s diagnosis to understand more about your symptoms.
Causes of Bone Pain in Legs
Bone pain is often described as a deep or penetrating pain. Below are a number of potential causes if your leg bones hurt.
Shin Splints
Inflammation of the muscle, tendons and thin layer tissue covering the shin bones is referred to as shin splints. This presents as pain and tenderness running along or just behind the tibia (large bone in the lower leg) and happens most often after intense exercise, sports or other repetitive activity.
Bone Bruise
Another reason your leg bones hurt may be a bone bruise. Also known as a bone contusion, this occurs when a traumatic injury to a bone, such as the exposed shin bone, causes micro-fractures. Damage to blood vessels and fluid build-up can cause skin discoloration as in normal bruising, although the injury runs deeper than the surface. Bone bruises usually appear within 48 hours of injury and can take as long as six months to heal.
Traumatic Injury
Breaks and fractures in the leg bones as a result of injury can lead to severe pain and discomfort that needs urgent medical attention.
Osteoporosis
This degenerative disease causes bone density to gradually reduce. Osteoporosis leads to weaker bones that can result in bone pain in legs and increase the risk of both regular and compression fractures.
Arthritis
Different types of arthritis cause degenerative joint changes that can cause inflammation and make leg bones hurt. Osteoarthritis is asymmetrical, so symptoms may appear only on the one side, whereas rheumatoid arthritis is a symmetrical disease and is likely to affect both legs.
Paget’s Disease
This bone disease disrupts the normal cycle of bone renewal, resulting in bones that become weakened and even deformed over time. It is rare in individuals under the age of 50.
Cancer
Pain brought on by bone cancer usually starts with tenderness in the affected bone, progressing to a persistent or fluctuating ache. The most common form of bone cancer is called osteosarcoma and it commonly starts in the long bones – the legs or arms.
Osteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis is an infection that typically causes pain in the long bones of the legs. Other bones such as those in the arms or back may also be infected.
Osteomalacia
This condition causes bones to become soft and weak, putting them at a higher risk of bending and breaking. Vitamin D deficiency is the most common cause, and the most typical symptom is bone pain in legs, groin, upper thighs and knees. Pain may also sometimes be felt in the feet when standing, walking or running; sitting or lying down may ease symptoms.
More Bone Pain in Legs at Night?
Often times, bone pain in legs feels more intense in the evenings. This can be due to:
Daytime activity: Busy and active daily lifestyles can distract from pain, causing bone pain in legs to be more noticeable in the evenings when movement reduces.
Hormonal changes: Hormone levels fluctuate during the day and night and can influence pain perception, causing you to notice more bone pain in legs at night.
Limited blood flow: Increased blood flow correlates with relaxed, flexible muscles and less stiffness. Blood flow to the legs decreases when lying down, which can therefore result in more pain being felt.
Infection: Healing processes in the body take place when we sleep. As the body addresses infection, inflammation levels may rise, leading to increased bone pain in legs.
Tumour: Tumours press down on surrounding structures and may therefore apply more pressure when lying down, resulting in more bone pain in legs at night. Poor nutrition and a deficiency in nutrients like calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus may contribute to bone disorders mentioned above and their resulting bone pain in legs. If your leg bones hurt and the pain worsens over time, is accompanied by intense swelling and inflammation, or continues as a constant dull throbbing, you should consult a doctor immediately.