Muscles or muscles (from the Latin. Musculus - mouse, small mouse)- organs of the body of animals and humans, consisting of elastic, elastic muscle tissue, able to contract under the influence of nerve impulses. Designed to perform various actions: body movement, reduction of the vocal cords, breathing. Muscles are 86.3% water.

Muscle aches (myalgia)  - pain syndrome that occurs during inflammation.

Myalgias are typical of pain that occurs in the muscles when moving or when pressed on them. At the same time, one or several muscles may be affected. Pain can also spread to nearby ligaments, tendons, and fascia.

Possible causes of muscle pain:

Muscle pain is most often associated with their stretching, overloading, or injury, which occurs during exercise. At the same time, certain muscle groups suffer more and pain occurs some time after the load.

In addition, pain can be a symptom common diseases, including infectious (for example, flu) and rheumatic (myositis, lupus). The list of causes of muscle pain can be summarized as follows.

What diseases cause muscle pain

1. Damage, stretching or muscle injury during exercise.
  Stretching is caused by a sudden strong contraction or excessive muscle stretching.
  With a slight stretching injury causes a feeling of rigidity and muscle pain, which lasts for several days.
When stretching moderate severity, muscle stiffness and already more severe pain are accompanied by swelling and hematomas. Pain in the muscles lasts from 1 to 3 weeks.
  With severe pain, muscle rupture occurs, and internal hemorrhages occur, with the result that surgical intervention is recommended.
  2. Overload.
  3. Excessive stretching.

Other possible reasons  muscle pain:

1. Taking certain medications (statins - drugs that lower cholesterol; inhibitors of angiotensin-converting enzyme - drugs that lower high blood pressure);
  2. Inflammatory diseases of the muscles of the autoimmune nature (dermatomyositis, polymyositis);
  3. Inflammatory diseases of the muscles of the infectious nature (myositis viral, bacterial, parasitic etiology).



  Myositis is an inflammation of the skeletal muscles. May occur as a complication various diseasesFor example, flu. Common cause  Myositis is an overuse of the muscles due to unusual physical exertion or muscle injury.
  When myositis appear aching muscle pain of the arms, legs, torso, aggravated by movements. Often, dense nodules or strands are felt in the muscles. In open injury, due to infection, purulent myositis may develop, which is manifested by fever, chills, a gradual increase in pain, swelling, induration and muscle tension, and redness of the skin over it.
  A peculiar form is parasitic myositis, which occurs when muscle is damaged by parasites (trichinella, cysticercus) and is characterized by fever, pain in the muscles of the limbs, chest, tongue, and masticatory muscles.
  4. Electrolyte disorders (lack of potassium and calcium);
  5. Fibromyalgia. Pains that occur in fibrous structures - muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc., are referred to as fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is the most common form of chronic myalgic syndromes. It is revealed that fibromyalgia often accompanies a sleep disorder. Note that the combination of pain, morning stiffness, asthenia and sleep disorders is noted in more than 75% of patients.
Fibromyalgia can be of different localization, but the region of the occiput, lower back (lumbago), neck, shoulder, chest and thigh near the knee joint are most often affected. Such pain occurs mainly in women. It can be caused or exacerbated by physical or mental overload, sleep disturbances, trauma, dampness or cold, and sometimes systemic, usually rheumatic diseases.
  The syndrome of primary fibromyalgia especially often develops in young healthy women, which are characterized by anxiety, susceptibility to stress and depression, as well as in adolescents, especially girls. Men are more susceptible to local fibromyalgia during work or sports overload.
  Primary fibromyalgia is a form of lesions of extra-articular soft tissue characterized by diffuse musculoskeletal pain and the presence of specific painful points or points hypersensitivitydetermined by palpation. Numerous studies have shown that 1-2% of the population of developed countries suffer from fibromyalgia, and there is a tendency to increase the proportion of this pathology among other rheumatic diseases. A characteristic feature of the syndrome of primary fibromyalgia is the abundance and variety of complaints of the patient with a small amount  objective signs of disease. The main symptom of primary fibromyalgia is chronic diffuse musculoskeletal pain, which is usually combined with unpleasant sensations  in the muscles.
  6. Infectious diseases (influenza, Lyme disease, malaria, muscle abscess, polymyelitis, trichinosis, etc.);
  7. Systemic lupus erythematosus;
  8. Rheumatic polymyalgia.

Which doctors to contact if muscle pain occurs

“Why do my muscles hurt, if I don’t do sports and I don’t feel any physical activity at all?”

Yana, Minsk.

According to statistics, about 2% of people in economically prosperous countries are constantly suffering from muscle pain. In most cases, this is due to the formation of persistent muscle spasm. It is provoked by injuries, where muscle tension is a response of the body, a long non-physiological body position (for example, sitting at an uncomfortable table or carrying a bag on one shoulder), emotional stress.
The very origin of pain may be different. The most common form of myalgia is fibromyalgia, which occurs in ligaments, tendons, and fibrous muscles. It is often also awakened by insomnia. Nearly two-thirds of patients who come to see a neurologist, muscular pain combined with stiffness in the morning, asthenic syndrome. Fibromyalgia usually affects the neck, neck, shoulders, muscles near the knee joints and rib cage. More prone to this disease women. Emotional or physical overload, prolonged sleep deprivation, hypothermia, and chronic diseases exacerbate pain. Another common cause of muscle pain is inflammation of the muscle fibers - myositis. It is often a complication of severe infections. In addition, muscle pain can be the first sign of diseases such as polymyositis, rheumatic polymyalgia, brucellosis, influenza, toxoplasmosis, cysticercosis, trichinosis, and also occur during alcohol and other intoxications. diabetes, primary amyloidosis, rheumatism, osteomyelitis.

As for the legs, then it’s probably a flatfoot, which the patient may not even be aware of. The bottom line: the arches of the foot become flat, it is more difficult to walk - the legs become “heavy”. The pain may cover their entire lower part. Still very often the legs hurt in violation of the state of the vessels, when the blood moves away poorly and enters the tissues, the nerve receptors are irritated. The case may be associated with thrombophlebitis (then the pain is jerky, there is a burning sensation along the affected vein, stronger in the calf). With atherosclerosis, there is also a feeling that the legs are squeezed by a vice. Lead to pain syndrome and spinal diseases, including osteochondrosis. Not to mention the fact that muscles are able to hurt, when due to overweight increases the load on the lower limbs. Particularly affected are those with a large weight combined with a small foot or lower leg. Muscle aches, on the other hand, can be a complication of fasting. Kyphosis, gastric ulcer, systemic autoimmune diseases, influenza, tonsillitis also often occur with muscle pain. He sometimes accompanies and pregnancy. Changes in the body of a woman necessarily affect the muscles. And more involved in the process of smooth muscles (uterine wall, intestines, blood vessels, hair follicles, abdominal muscles). The skeletal muscles also have a load, because the woman's weight is constantly increasing. It is hard to back, because the center of gravity in the body shifts. What can we say about the legs! And they respond with muscle spasms, pains in the evenings. To prevent and alleviate all these unpleasant phenomena, you should take vitamins with microelements, do special gymnastics. And it is better to physically prepare the body for pregnancy in advance.

If the pain in the muscles does not go away or is very strong, you need to sign up for a consultation with a rheumatologist, a traumatologist or a neurologist. There are certain patterns that give the doctor food for thought. Say, muscle pain at night is most often associated with cramps. They are especially frequent in caviar. Causes: muscle overload during the day, lack of magnesium, calcium and potassium in the diet, the primary phase of diabetes. Before a visit to the doctor, you can try to diversify your diet with greens, radishes, carrots. Very useful exercise for the legs, which is done right in bed. Before going to bed, it is worth warming up the sore spot with a hot water bottle, but not very hot.

For each disease - its own treatment, it must appoint a doctor. But in any case, ointment for pain and anesthetic fluid containing novocaine, menthol, alcohol and anesthesin help. Extract from mountain arnica - effective remedy  for compresses and grindings. Bee and snake venom used for myositis, radiculitis, muscle and ligament injuries. May facilitate the state of competent massage. Non-hormonal anti-inflammatory drugs not only dull the pain, but also relieve inflammation, although it is impossible to take such drugs for a long time because of side effects.

Olga PERESADA, Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, BelMAPO, MD

Not always our body works perfectly. And what is there to be surprised if it is constantly attacked by viruses, microbes, if the person himself does not try to take care of him? It is not so easy to name the causes of muscle pain throughout the body.

Anyone who has felt muscle pain all over his body at least once in his life will continue to be very caring about his body - sometimes it is just unbearable, but it is not always clear what to do about it. So, you need to know the very specific and rather limited reasons for which it can begin.

Body temperature

It is worth starting with increasing body temperature. Many are accustomed to the fact that it is necessarily given by fever, chills, or increased sweating, but this is not the whole list of the consequences of an increase in body temperature, because one of the main problems is just muscle pain. Even now, scrolling through the memory of how you could get cold in childhood, you can easily recall that a very strange sensation in the muscles throughout the body has always been unpleasant.

Chronic pain

Worst of all, medical evidence confirms that it’s not only the recurrent pain in the muscles, which has a completely understandable and avoidable cause, but it’s also the chronic nature of this pain, which affects more than 10,000,000 people around the world.

Of course, constant pain requires special treatment and care. Chronic pain  in the muscles require skilled care, constant observation and as soon as possible ambulance, which will relieve from the disease. In addition, to identify the real cause of muscle pain can determine its nature. For example, it can be a pain of varying intensity: from painful to tolerable or episodic.

Usually, when the cause of chronic painful manifestations is detected and eliminated, the patient's condition improves significantly. Manifestations pass and the person returns to a normal full life. But there are cases when a person “gets lost” with this pain and his belief that pain will come leads to the appearance of a symptom on the psychosomatic level.

Pain after exercise

Chronic episodes of pain can disable a person for many months, doing so both day and night, preventing sleep, disrupting the person’s emotional balance.

In some cases, if we talk about the results of a good workout, it is also pain, but it can be quite pleasant - this time it shows that you really surprised your body and it began the process of supercompensation, and the muscles after that will become more that is used in bodybuilding.

If you pay attention to the statistics of requests for professional medical care, the fact that you are most often asked for help after receiving very specific injuries, when muscle pain does not cause any surprise, is striking. This can be either an excessive load, or an awkward movement, or prolonged overstrain, in which the muscles, feeling the importance of performing a particular task, begin to work at the limit.

This is due to the fact that millions of years before the appearance of normal civilizations, where a person is in relative safety, the whole fate was one continuous survival, therefore the organism had no choice - either give it all to the end or die.

About microbes

Often the logical cause of muscle pain are microbes that enter the body. Then muscle pain will be a logical consequence of the activation. immune systemwhich collects all the forces in the body in order to cope with the illness as quickly as possible.

If the pain begins after a tick bite that has been infected by an infection, then the situation becomes especially dangerous, because in the absence of timely treatment, encephalitis becomes a fatal disease.

Terrible causes of muscle pain all over the body enough, and one of them - blood disorders than lymphoma or leukemia. In turn, this may be due to another malignant tumor in the body and there will not be a reason to relax.

Sometimes muscle discomfort is directly related to negative processes that begin in the joints. These pathogenic processes begin in the event of the onset of autoimmune diseases that can affect connective tissue. In this case, the pain varies from moderate to very severe and is extremely rarely easy and tolerable.

Degenerative disorders

If we are talking about degenerative disorders that are associated with arthritis, then muscle pain occurs at the beginning and at the end of the day, which is precisely what causes this pain.

There are muscle pains and no fever. On the contrary, sometimes muscle pain occurs when this temperature drops, which is very characteristic of food.

poisoning.

Patients in this case often complain of headaches, that muscles ache all over the body, and sleep is often disturbed. One of the most serious causes that is straightened with great difficulty is the formation of persistent muscle spasms. This leads to chronic and usually very painful sensations.

Here there are enough reasons: from a physiologically abnormal body position, which is fixed for a long time every day, it can be a bad posture. This happens if you carry a bag on one shoulder, without throwing it diagonally, to at least somehow minimize the curvature.

This may be due to an uncomfortable table, due to the inability to straighten the legs under the table and for other reasons. Remember that modern treatment  really useful, medical opportunities would have struck anyone even ten years ago, not to mention the past centuries.

The fact that the flu could be the cause of such pain was known for a long time, but now it is much easier to fight the flu. No modern disease that may be associated with the appearance of pain in the muscles, is not unexplored, you will not be helpless.

Stress

Doctors now are so neat about this issue that they try to pay attention, first of all, not even to the disease, but to simple stressful situations.

If you knew how many problems there were in those times when stress was not paid so much attention, when no one could have imagined that stress could cause illness or cause individual symptoms.

In addition, they simply amaze the evidence that painful manifestations can begin from stress not only in an adult person, who gradually looses his nerves and has reason to remember the bad from the accumulated life experience, but also in children.

Not the most pleasant reason may be myalgia. In addition to the fact that it can and certainly will cause painful manifestations throughout the body, it also provokes insomnia, affects shoulder joints, affects the neck, knee joints, neck and even the chest.

If we talk about related feelings, then patients describe in some detail the feeling of stiffness, especially in the morning. In addition, a striking indicator of this particular disease is its increase in proportion to the load imposed on the body. These are the main causes of muscle pain throughout the body.

Explained to the doctor about muscle pain and disease

Periodically, pain in the muscles appear in all people. They may be associated with increased physical exertion, prolonged maintenance of an uncomfortable body position, or certain diseases. Myalgia or muscle pain is not dangerous in itself, but can cause serious discomfort and suffering. In addition, sometimes it is a signal of a serious illness. Therefore, it is important to know why muscle pains appear, how to cope with them independently, in what cases it is necessary to consult a doctor.

What is myalgia

Muscle pain, which periodically occurs in people during exercise or at rest, is called myalgia. It can be caused by various causes and be accompanied by other symptoms. Usually, such pain is observed throughout the muscle and is aggravated by movement or pressure on the muscle tissue.

In most cases, myalgia requires special treatment only if it causes severe pain  or restricts movement. But most often all the symptoms go away after a rest. The treatment of muscle pain, which is a symptom of more serious diseases, must begin with the elimination of their cause.

A variation of this morbid condition  is fibromyalgia. This syndrome has recently become more common, especially among the urban population. It is accompanied by pain and weakness in the muscles, sleep disturbance, headaches, decreased performance.

Myalgia associated with physical work and sports, often affects men. Women and children may suffer muscle spasms due to emotional overload or various diseases. Localized pain mainly in the muscles of the legs or arms, as well as the back. Often, because of this, a person cannot move normally. Therefore, it is important to know why myalgia occurs and how to cope with it.

So that after training the muscles do not hurt, you need to warm them before exercise, and gradually increase the load

Muscle pain after exercise

Most often, these feelings are experienced after severe physical work  or sports training. This may be due to the accumulation of lactic acid - a product of metabolic processes in the muscles. This pain quickly passes and brings the body only benefit. Lactic acid acts as an antioxidant. It accelerates tissue regeneration. Because of this, increasing muscle volume.

Sometimes during intense training, microtraumas of muscle fibers occur. Because of this, pain also appears. If the body does not have time to recover, the muscle is depleted. The pain becomes permanent. Therefore, in this case, you need to reduce the load, pay more attention to stretching exercises. So that training does not lead to muscle pain, it is necessary to warm up well before classes, gradually increase the load and drink more fluids.

Women often have sore muscles in high heels.

Why else there is pain in the muscles

Myalgia is not always associated with increased physical activity. Muscles work properly only with normal blood circulation and metabolism. If this process is disrupted, a spasm occurs, causing pain sensations. There are various causes of muscle pain, so measures taken for treatment should take them into account.

If muscle pain does not pass for a long time, you need to consult a doctor for examination.

When to see a doctor

In most cases, muscle pain does not require serious treatment, as it usually goes away after a rest. But there are situations when myalgia indicates a serious impairment in health. It is advisable to consult a doctor for diagnosis in such cases:

• if muscle pain is constant or occurs periodically;
• if painful sensations become jerky;
• if the pain has appeared after training, but does not pass after rest;
• soft tissue redness or swelling appeared;
• the pain is accompanied by alarming symptoms: urinary retention, rash, shortness of breath, or high fever.

What to do with muscle pain

If pain occurs infrequently, the treatment can be carried out independently. Relieve the condition will help such means:

• in any case, for pain in the muscles, it is necessary to provide them peace
• if after an injury a cold compress is immediately applied to the affected area, this will stop the inflammatory process;
• with myalgias, warming compresses, a heating pad, or a warm bath are effective;
• various ointments also help relieve pain;
• you can take medicine, for example, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug: Ibuprofen, Diclofenac, Nimesulide, Nise, or Ketorol, but you can not do this often without a doctor's prescription;
• safer action than tablets, have kinesioplasty with a warming effect, for example, pepper, Ketonal Thermo, Nanoplast Forte and others;
• if your arm or leg hurts, you can apply a tight bandage with an elastic bandage;
• massage helps well, it improves blood circulation in the muscles and promotes their relaxation;
• effective exercises, best stretching, performed at a slow pace.

Massage helps to improve blood circulation in the muscles and relieve pain

Drug treatment of myalgia

To relieve muscle pain, apply various compresses, grinding and ointment. They usually contain anti-inflammatory or analgesic components. But for the treatment of myalgia often used drugs with a warming or distracting effect. These are those that contain bee or snake venom, camphor, turpentine, capsaicin, menthol or essential oils.

There are many medications that are effective for myalgia.

1. Ointment "Apizartron" based on bee venom and mustard oil is used for inflammatory diseasesas well as after injuries. It is well suited for muscle massage.
2. Very effective drug "Vipratoks" containing camphor and bee venom.
3. Quickly relieves muscle pain after exercise "Gymnastogal."
4. Help with myalgia ointment based on extracts medicinal herbs  and essential oils. These are Sanitas, Myoton and others.
5. Ointment "Naftalgin" is very effective due to the complex action of the analgesic and Naftalan oil.
6. Well helps rubbing painful places pepper tincture or Menovazinom.
7. Often used and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory ointment: "Voltaren", "Fastum", "Ketonal", "Diclofenac", "Indometacin" and others.

If the pain is severe and makes it difficult to move, you can lubricate the affected muscle with anesthetic ointment

Folk remedies

Many people help to get rid of muscle pain various tinctures and decoctions of herbs, as well as self-prepared rubbing and compresses. Such tools can be used only if myalgia occurs infrequently, but it is still better to consult with your doctor first. These folk recipes help to remove the pain:

• take inside broths of clover, naked gryzhnika, thyme, adonis, physalis berries, willow buds;
• for compresses, baths and chafing, mountain arnica tincture, a decoction of willow twigs, and mint leaves are used;
• an effective ointment based on vegetable oil or vaseline from dried bay leaf and juniper twigs or horsetail powder;
• you can make a compress from cabbage leaves, smeared with soap and sprinkled with soda;
• if you are not allergic to honey, you can rub them in a sore spot, for greater effect, mix it with grated horseradish or black radish;
• take warm baths with pine extract or sea salt.

How else can you help yourself

If myalgia is associated with intoxication of the body, impaired blood circulation, or with other diseases, treatment should be directed to that. But you can further alleviate muscle pain.

A warm sea salt bath can help reduce pain.

• With infectious diseases  or other intoxication myalgia occurs due to the accumulation of toxins in the tissues and metabolic products. Therefore, it can be removed by removing them from the body. You need to drink more herbal decoctions, fruit drinks and compotes, you can visit the steam room.
• To eliminate muscle pain after illness or injury, it would be good to take a course of massage or physiotherapy. Especially effective are UV and electrophoresis with novocaine, as well as mud and paraffin baths. In addition to the usual massage, you can try reflexology or acupuncture.
• To restore the normal work of the muscles, physical exercises are useful. Best of all - walking, cycling, swimming. Stretching exercises are also effective.

Muscle pain at least once in my life was experienced by everyone. Sometimes they are not noticed, in other cases they cause serious trouble. To effectively get rid of painful sensations, you need to know what reasons they are caused. After all, sometimes there are such conditions when only special treatment prescribed by a doctor can help.

Sometimes you can feel pulling pain  in the muscles. This article will discuss the causes of such pain, as well as its elimination. It is clear that if a person goes to the gym, then it will be his hard work on his body that will cause the pain. Well, if a person has never been to the gym, he woke up in the morning and wondered why his leg muscles hurt, and he still hurts so much that getting out of bed is a whole problem! What it is?

The answer is our memory. Remember, maybe you rode a bike, walked around the city for an unusual time, or ran away from someone? Muscle pain may also occur due to muscle strain. In this case, you should buy any ointment from sprains in the nearest pharmacy.

However, to my deep regret, muscle pain is not always associated with physical exertion. Sometimes it can be a symptom of a disease.

Diseases causing muscle pain

Most often, the symptoms of certain diseases are precisely the pain in the muscles of the legs. This may be due to diseases of the blood vessels of the legs, the muscles themselves, the spine or joints. Often the whole thing is in the vessels, in the disturbed outflow of venous blood. A man, after all, cannot distinguish between him, muscles or specifically the vessels that hurt him. These pains are more “dull” in nature, there is a feeling of heaviness in the legs. In consequence of all this, a disease such as varicose veins can develop.

Also, leg muscles can hurt because of constantly sedentary or standing work. After all, under such conditions, normal blood circulation does not occur, oxygen starvation occurs, very harmful toxins accumulate in the legs, after which the muscles begin to ache.

The most severe pain in the muscles of the legs a person can feel because of such an unpleasant disease as myositis - muscle inflammation. Myositis is treated only under the constant supervision of a physician. The cause of this disease may be injury or unusual overstressing of the muscles. In addition, this disease may occur as a complication, for example, after the flu.

If you are not involved in sports, and your muscles are constantly sore - be sure to consult a doctor. Why muscles hurt and how to deal with it, only a specialist can tell you.

Why do muscles hurt after training

About training, and muscle pain after them, it is worth talking separately. It is believed that the pain after training is an indicator of the quality of yesterday's training, its effectiveness.

So, what causes such pain in the muscles? All this is due to the receiving of an unusual load by the human body. Due to the stress micro-breaks occur in the muscle fibers. This is where the sensation of pain comes from. Such injuries provoke our body to actively recover. A very active release of hormones and protein synthesis begins to occur. And protein, as we know, is a building material for our muscles. As a result of all this, muscles increase their volume.

Such late muscular pain subsides after a while. If you train regularly, of course, it will not pass at all, but after a while it will stop bringing inconvenience to you. Changing your program or taking a break, you will remember it again. Such muscle pain is positive, if you want to "pump up" your muscles, become stronger and more.