Thursday, March 7, 2024

Extreme Fatigue Weakness In Arms And Legs

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Why Is My Leg Weakness Worse In One Leg

Dr. Antoine explains numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain in arms and legs

When leg weakness is worse in one leg compared to the other it is asymmetric. Some causes of asymmetric leg weakness include spinal cord damage that is worse on one side of the spine, abnormal growths that affect one side of the spine or one half of the brain more than the other, and injury to the leg nerves that is more pronounced in one leg.

How Can I Ease Or Relieve Fatigue

If a medical condition isnât causing your fatigue, lifestyle changes may improve your symptoms. To reduce fatigue, you can:

  • Practice good sleep habits: Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep every night. Donât drink caffeine, use electronics, or exercise right before bed. Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
  • Avoid toxins: Donât use illegal drugs, and drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.
  • Eat a healthy diet: A balanced diet and plenty of water will keep your body nourished and hydrated.
  • Manage stress: Yoga, mindfulness, meditation and regular exercise can help you relieve stress and gain more energy.
  • See your healthcare provider: Make an appointment to rule out infections, disease, illness, vitamin deficiencies and other health conditions. You should also talk to your provider about medications youâre taking to see if they are causing your symptoms.
  • Exercise often: Regular exercise is crucial for a healthy lifestyle. Though it might seem counter-intuitive, vigorous exercise can help you feel more energetic once you get used to it. But exercising too much can cause fatigue, so talk to your provider about whatâs best for you.
  • Maintain a healthy weight: Talk to your healthcare provider about your ideal weight, and try to stay within that range.

Questions Your Doctor May Ask About Weakness Of Both Legs

  • Are you allergic to anything?
  • Do your symptoms improve with Ibuprofen/Advil/Motrin, known as NSAIDs?
  • Have a friend stand across from you and hold out a finger. Touch that finger and then touch your nose. Move the target finger around and start going faster. Are you having trouble?
  • Do you find yourself getting weaker and weaker?

Self-diagnose with our free Buoy Assistant if you answer yes on any of these questions.

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I Have Muscle Weakness

If you have muscle weakness and visit your doctor, they will first need to know the following:

  • How it began and how long you have had it for.
  • Whether it is getting worse, getting better or staying the same.
  • Whether you are otherwise well, are losing weight or have travelled abroad recently.
  • What medicines or other drugs you have been taking and whether there are any muscle problems in your family.

Your doctor will need to examine you to see which muscles are affected and whether you have true or perceived muscle weakness. They will check to see whether your muscles are tender to touch or unusually ‘fatigable’. They may want to watch you walk.

They will then need to test your nerves to see whether the muscles are getting the right signals to act. Your doctor may need to test your central nervous system, including your balance and co-ordination. They may need to perform blood tests to look for abnormalities of hormones, salts and blood cells.

Depending on the results of these tests your doctor may also order the following:

  • Nerve studies to make sure the nerves are conducting properly.
  • A muscle biopsy to see whether the muscles themselves show signs of inflammation or damage. A biopsy is a procedure where a small sample is taken to look at under the microscope.
  • Body scans such as CT or MRI to look for conditions elsewhere in the body which may affect muscle power and function.

Is Pots More Common In Certain People

Weakness in legs: Causes, treatments, and more

There are no established risk factors for POTS. However, it is known to run in families, so it could have a genetic component. Researchers have also established a link between POTS and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome . So if you have one of these conditions, you might also have the other.

A big group of those diagnosed with POTS is young women and teens. However, this doesnt mean they are more likely to develop this condition.

Read Also: How Do I Know If I Have Fatigue

What Medical Conditions Cause Fatigue

Hundreds of conditions and disorders lead to fatigue. Some of the most common causes of fatigue include:

Who Gets Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome can affect people of all ethnicities and ages, but is most common in people in their forties or fifties. It’s very rare in kids. A few teens do get CFS, and it affects more girls than guys.

Sometimes different people in the same family get CFS. This may be because the tendency to develop CFS is genetic.

Read Also: High Blood Pressure Dizziness Fatigue

Understanding Muscle Weakness Symptoms

Lets talk about the role that muscles play in your legs and throughout your body. Your body has around 600 or so muscles consisting of three types of muscles: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth. Muscles comprise 40% of your body weight.

Smooth muscles help aid in digestion, while cardiac muscles enable your heart to beat correctly. The muscles responsible for movement are skeletal muscles. When your body works right, you should be able to move your skeletal muscles at will, that is, whenever you want to.

While each muscle type has a specific purpose, the different muscle types work together to help your body function at its best. So, its possible that when theres a problem with one type of muscle, it can affect other areas of your body.

Skeletal muscles give your body the power and strength it needs to move. When the skeletal muscles in your legs contract, they allow motion in your legs. The smaller muscles in your legs help you to rotate the joints in your legs and promote stability.

When your leg muscles dont contract as they should, you may feel as though the muscles in your legs are weak. Some people say their legs feel like rubber or jelly when their leg strength is diminished. Weak leg muscles can make it difficult to walk or stand. Because you may not feel as stable, you may experience a fall.

Coping With Leg Weakness

Rare Condition Causes Weakness in the Arms and Legs

Theyre so tired it is painful, and I have to sit down for a second to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling it brings. For lack of better words, I hate it. In most of these cases, I have to just rest until the feeling subsides, but sometimes even when I try to continue walking it lingers. I dont have a lot of tips when stuff like this hits, but I wanted to share a few of the things that help me.

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What Causes ‘your’ Fatigue

Many physical and mental illnesses, as well as lifestyle factors, can cause your fatigue, and that can make it hard to diagnose. In some cases, it might be something simple and easy to fix, like having caffeine at bedtime. But other causes, like heart disease or COPD, are serious, and you may need to start long-term treatment right away.

Your doctor can help you sift through your health issues, as well as diet, exercise, and other lifestyle habits, in order to zero in on the cause and help you on the road to recovery.

Diagnosis And Treatment For Muscle Weakness

Your doctor will ask you questions about your medical history, medications you are taking, and any unusual symptoms you are experiencing.

Diagnostic tests that may be ordered to help determine a diagnosis include:

  • Bloodwork to assess levels of enzymes, electrolytes, hormones, and inflammatory markers
  • Genetic testing to assess for genetic risk
  • Magnetic resonance imaging of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves to assess for damage
  • Electromyography to assess the electrical activity of your muscles
  • Nerve conduction tests to assess how signals travel from your nerves to your muscles
  • Muscle biopsies to examine the quality of your muscle tissue
  • Lumbar puncture, also called a spinal tap, to assess the quality of your cerebrospinal fluid within your spinal canal

Only a licensed healthcare provider can determine proper treatment depending on the cause of your muscle weakness. Treatment options include medication, dietary changes, physical and occupational therapy, and in certain cases, surgery.

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Can Anxiety Cause Muscle Weakness And Twitching

Yes! Just as anxiety can cause weak feeling muscles, it can also cause muscle twitching. Consequently, anxiety can cause both muscle weakness and twitching at the same time. For more information, you can read more about the anxiety muscle twitching symptom.

There are also some medical conditions and medications that can cause muscle weakness and twitching. We recommend discussing this symptom with your doctor to rule out a medical cause.

Pots: A Little Known Cause Of Extreme Fatigue

What Causes Leg Weakness &  How is it Treated?

Everyone knows what being tired feels like at the end of a long day. But some people experience fatigue so severe and so seemingly random that its hard to describe. If that sounds familiar, there could be more going on than daily stress.

While there are many causes of fatigue, one of them is frequently missed and misdiagnosed: postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome . Physical medicine and neuromuscular specialist Tae Chung, M.D., answers questions about POTS and extreme fatigue as one of its symptoms.

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Muscle Damage Through Injury

There are many ways in which your muscles can be directly damaged. The most obvious is injury or trauma such as sporting injuries, pulls and sprains. In any muscle injury, bleeding from damaged muscle fibres occurs inside the muscle, followed by swelling and inflammation. This makes the muscle less strong and also painful to use. Localised pain is the primary symptom but weakness also results.

Why Is My Leg Weakness Spreading

Some causes of leg weakness can lead to weakness that spreads up or down the body. Some viruses can lead to damage to nerves in the body, leading to weakness, and depending on the virus, the weakness may begin in the head and neck and spread downward toward the legs and feet or may start in the feet and spread upward.

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Using The Brain To Move A Muscle

Also, the amount of muscle tissue must be normal, and the tissue must be able to contract in response to the signal from the nerves. Therefore, true weakness results only when one or more part of this pathwaybrain, spinal cord, nerves, muscles, or the connections between themis damaged or diseased.

Weakness may develop suddenly or gradually. Weakness may affect all of the muscles in the body or only one part of the body. For example, depending on where the spinal cord is damaged, spinal cord disorders may cause weakness only of the legs.

Symptoms depend on which muscles are affected. For example, when weakness affects muscles of the chest, people may have difficulty breathing. When weakness affects muscles that control the eyes, people may have double vision.

Complete muscle weakness causes paralysis. People may have other symptoms depending on what is causing the weakness. Weakness is often accompanied by abnormalities in sensation, such as tingling, a pins-and-needles sensation, and numbness.

Problems With Thinking Learning And Planning

Numbness in legs and severe fatigue

Some people with MS have problems with thinking, learning and planning, known as cognitive dysfunction.

This can include:

  • getting stuck on words
  • problems with understanding and processing visual information, such as reading a map
  • difficulty with planning and problem solving people often report that they know what they want to do, but can’t grasp how to do it
  • problems with reasoning, such as mathematical laws or solving puzzles

But many of these problems aren’t specific to MS and can be caused by a wide range of other conditions, including depression and anxiety, or even some medicines.

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Fatigued & Muscle Weakness In Arms And Legs No Idea Where To Start

chris6403

I don’t even know where to start other than saying I’m glad I found this site. The level of support from fellow members is very reassuring.

I’m a 37yr old male, not in the best shape but far from out of shape. I’m active, I go to the gym, I race dirt bikes, hike, and you normal every day guy. Since my 20’s I’ve had a left knee that has steadily been getting worse. Last year diagnosed as Patella Pain Syndrome. In 2014 I had a bad skydiving landing and the instructor made us land on our butts, needless to say my tailbone took the weight of both of us and I spent a year going to a chiropractor for lower pack pain and neck pain. I stopped going in fall ’15. In Oct 2015 I did a very rough dirt bike race which left me beat up, my hands were buzzing, sore back and wrists. This wasn’t abnormal and I know I’m getting older so I didn’t think anything of it however over a month later my right wrist was still sore and then at night I started waking up with my hands and feet feeling numbish . I never had the pins and needles feeling, just the numbing type feeling. It extended to my mid forearms and upper calves. I saw my PCP who told me it was probably stress related and gave me some xanax. I hate taking pills so I never took them and instead followed up with a neurologist.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

1 like, 13 replies

  • I have to ask a really simple question, have you had an MRI?

    IM surprised your neurologist hasn’t referred you for a scan?

  • Is It Possible That I Have Pots And Was Incorrectly Diagnosed

    This is entirely possible. Given how common POTS symptoms are and how unfamiliar many doctors are with this condition, diagnostic mishaps happen. POTS is frequently misidentified as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain syndrome, anxiety disorder, ADHD, irritable bowel syndrome, myositis, etc. It is also possible that you have both POTS and one of these conditions, which may complicate the diagnosis. Sometimes people with POTS are told that its all in your head, implying that the cause of their symptoms is psychological. If you feel like something is physically wrong, dont hesitate to seek a second, and even a third or fourth opinion.

    COVID-19 and POTS: Is There a Link?

    Although many people recover quickly from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, others who recover may continue to experience symptoms for months. Researchers are still determining the cause of these extended symptoms, but some COVID-19 “long-haulers” may actually be dealing with POTS.

    Also Check: How To Heal Chronic Fatigue

    What Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

    Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complicated disease for doctors to diagnose and even fully understand.

    CFS is a physical condition, but it can also affect a person psychologically. This means that someone with CFS may feel physical symptoms, such as being very tired and weak , headaches, or dizziness. But the person may also notice emotional symptoms, such as a loss of interest in favorite activities.

    To make it even more complicated, different people with CFS can have different symptoms. And the symptoms of CFS often are similar those of other health conditions, like mono, Lyme disease, or depression. And the symptoms can vary over time, even in the same person.

    This makes treating the illness complicated because no single medicine or treatment can address all the possible symptoms.

    What Causes Weakness In Arms And Legs

    Pin on EXERCISES

    Anxiety and chronic stress can cause weakness in the arms and legs. For more information, you can read why anxiety can cause weakness in the arms and legs. You can also read how to get rid of anxiety-caused weakness in the arms and legs.

    Since some medical conditions and medications can cause weakness in the arms and legs, we recommend discussing this symptom with your doctor to rule out a medical cause.

    Read Also: Lower Back Pain Headache Nausea Fatigue

    Nerve Conditions Which Damage Muscles

    Conditions affecting nerves tend to lead to true muscle weakness. This is because if the nerve to a muscle fibre stops working, the muscle fibre can’t work either and it will become floppy and eventually shrivel.

    Neurological conditions: muscle weakness can be caused by cerebrovascular disease such as stroke and brain haemorrhage and spinal injury. Tumours in the brain can also lead to muscle weakness. Muscles which become partially or completely paralysed lose their normal strength and will eventually waste. Some recovery is possible but it will be slow and may not be complete.

    Spine-related conditions: when nerves are damaged as they emerge from the spine , weakness can result. When the discs slip out, they press on nerves headed lower down in the body. The weakness affects only the muscles served by the irritated or compressed nerve.

    Other uncommon nerve conditions:Multiple sclerosis : this is caused by damage to nerves in the brain and spinal cord and can cause sudden paralysis. This can recover partially but does not always do so.

    : this is a post-viral paralysing disease which causes weakness and loss of muscle function from the fingers and toes upwards. It may last many months, although complete recovery is usual.

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