What Causes Fatigue And Muscle Aches

When To Be Concerned

Of course, body aches and fatigue are very common, but the severe pain located in joints and muscles is a lot like what you have when you are dealing with the flu.

Some of the other symptoms that accompany chronic body aches and fatigue are:

• Tenderness when pain is most severe
• Lack of sleep
• Fever
• Inflammation

Due to the fact that there are some serious conditions that can manifest with chronic body aches and fatigue, it is critical that you make an appointment with your physician to get checked out.

Following are some of the common conditions that manifest with these symptoms:

Muscle Fatigue: Causes Symptoms And Treatment

Written byBel Marra HealthPublished onJuly 20, 2017

Muscle fatigue is something that we can all experience and while it may be a minor nuisance in many cases, there are situations where a person has difficulty recovering from muscle exhaustion, thus requiring medical attention. Knowing the causes, signs, and symptoms of muscle fatigue can be helpful in determining treatment methods and whether you need to see a doctor.

Physical exertion is good for us, but sometimes we can push it too far and as a result we experience muscle fatigue. What is muscle fatigue? It is generally defined as a decreased ability to perform muscle actions. If you have muscle fatigue, you will likely have a hard time getting a specific muscle to continue working, even if you attempt to change the type of activity you are trying to engage in.

Sympathetic Dysregulation Contributes To Enhanced Sensory Fatigue

The muscle sensory afferents that may encode sensory muscle fatigue have been linked to sympathetic responses caused by muscle contraction for at least 70 years . Thus, sensory fatigue afferents may be the sensory arm of sympathetic reflexes associated with muscle contraction. These reflexes normally serve to increase the blood flow to working muscles partly by diverting blood flow from non-working muscles. This increased blood flow serves to reduce metabolites, terminating the signals underlying sensory muscle fatigue. The sympathetic output signal is mediated by adrenergic 2 receptors on vascular smooth muscle in the working muscle and by adrenergic receptors in non-working muscles, and by adrenergic 1 receptors in heart muscle.

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What Causes Muscle Aches

When you have cancer, the following factors can cause muscle aches:

Cancer. Certain types of cancer are more likely to cause muscle aches, including:

• Tumors that start in a muscle, such as some kinds of soft-tissue sarcoma

• Tumors that press against a muscle

• Cancers that cause the body to make too many white blood cells, such as certain types of leukemia

Cancer treatments. When treatment ends, muscle aches usually go away. In some cases, muscle aches can be a late effect, happening months or years after treatment ends.

Treatments that may cause muscle aches include:

• Some types of chemotherapy, such as docetaxel , ixabepilone , paclitaxel , and vincristine

• Aromatase inhibitors , such as anastrozole , exemestane , and letrozole

• Other hormonal therapies, including fulvestrant , raloxifene , tamoxifen , and toremifene

• Targeted therapy, such as trastuzumab and T-DM1 or ado-trastuzumab emtansine

• Immunotherapy, such as interferons, interleukins, and CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors

• Radiation therapy

Other medications. Medicine for cancer-related symptoms or other conditions can cause muscle aches. Some examples include:

• White blood cell growth factors, which help prevent infection during cancer treatment, including filgrastim , pegfilgrastim , and sargramostim

• Drugs to treat bone loss called bisphosphonates, such as alendronate sodium , ibandronate sodium , pamidronate , risedronate , and zoledronic acid

• Cholesterol drugs, also called statins

Gluten Is Connected To Many Forms Of Autoimmune Arthritis

Can gluten cause muscle and joint pain? For genetically susceptible individuals, the intestinal damage caused by gluten in combination with an overactive immune system and chronic state of inflammation leads to celiac disease.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition that causes your immune system to attack your intestines, which creates even more damage and inflammation. But as I mentioned, the inflammatory effects arent limited to your gut. Which is why celiac disease is associated with many other autoimmune conditions. And several of them cause your immune system to attack your muscles and joints, which causes pain.

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The Controversy Around Vitamin D Needs

Although many health experts are concerned about the widespread low levels of vitamin D, others think it’s more of a problem with the numbers.

The current definition of a vitamin D deficiency is a blood level that falls below 35 ng/mL. Researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine in November 2016 consider that cutoff number is too high and, because of that, people are misdiagnosed as deficient when they’re not. A report published in the Oct-Dec 2015 edition of the Indian Journal of Community Medicine agrees.

However, other practitioners, like functional medicine doctor Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Michael Holick, director of the Bone Health Care Clinic at the Boston University Medical Center, think that the 30 ng/mL cut off is actually too low and that higher levels may be better, reported in June 2018 in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Bacteria called R. rickettsii cause it, and a tick bite is usually how you get it. Most of the symptoms are flu-like — fever, chills, headache, nausea, insomnia, and muscle aches. A rash that doesn’t itch can show up on your wrists and ankles after a few days, then spread. Antibiotics treat it, and the sooner you take them, the better. If not treated, it can lead to inflammation in your lungs, heart, and brain, then kidney failure.

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Are These Molecular Receptors Responsible For Sensory Muscle Fatigue And Muscle Pain

As part of a larger investigative group interested in muscle pain and sensations related to muscle fatigue, we recognized that these are greatly increased in people following exhausting exercise. Muscle pain and sensory muscle fatigue ameliorate quickly once exercise is ended, but increase again in untrained muscles 1224 hours later and can last 48 hours or longer before diminishing. The pain has been studied extensively and is often called delayed-onset muscle soreness , and most of us know that a sense of muscle fatigue is also increased during DOMS. The explanation for DOMS has been that exercise of untrained muscle causes micro-tears that result in inflammation however, this explanation is controversial . Whether or not micro trauma is involved, the sensory receptors encoding muscle pain and fatigue must be sensitized in order for these enhanced sensations to be apparent because the metabolite levels are not increased at rest in DOMS. As increases in ASIC3 have been shown in some models of long-term muscle pain , we hypothesized that one or more of the molecular receptors involved in metabolite signaling of muscle pain would reveal increased mRNA following exercise that produced DOMS.

Mouse DRG mRNA increases caused by exhausting exercise, measured 16 hours after a bout of exercise .

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As fresh flowers emerge in the springtime, so do seasonal allergies. The main culprit is pollen released into the air by the green grass, mold, trees, and colorful flowers in full bloom. Nasal congestion, itchy eyes, sneezing, and a sore throat are common symptoms. But can seasonal allergies cause joint pain? Yes, they can. Lets look at how seasonal allergies affect your joints:

Many people complain of an increase in joint pain around this time of the year. This is because the pollen in the air lands on your skin, eyes, and nose triggering an allergic reaction in the body. The immune system works hard to fight against the foreign allergens. This causes fatigue and inflammation within the body. The inflammatory reaction spreads to the joints and manifests as joint pain.

Steps to prevent seasonal allergies:

If your joint pain continues even after getting allergy symptoms under control, you should visit an orthopedic doctor for an in-depth evaluation and treatment recommendation.

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Can You Get Body Aches With Pollen Allergies

Allergies can produce a variety of symptoms, but one thing everyone affected with allergies experiences is discomfort. People can be allergic to pollen, pet dander, dust, foods and plants. Pollen allergies most commonly cause nasal congestion, a runny nose, sore throat and itchy eyes. Less frequent symptoms include hives, itchy skin, cough, mood changes and body aches.

If you are experiencing serious medical symptoms, seek emergency treatment immediately.

Gluten And Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack connective tissue, including cartilage and the lining of blood vessels. Since it can affect multiple organs and systems in the body, symptoms are widespread and may be unique to each individual. However, fatigue, muscle weakness, and muscle and joint pain are common manifestations.

Similar to rheumatoid arthritis, SLE is associated with celiac disease. Likely caused by inflammation and an overactive immune system.

One hospital 5 cases in a period of 4 years. The onset of SLE and celiac disease occurred at the same time with one patient. Celiac disease occurred before SLE with another patient. And SLE occurred before celiac disease with the remaining 3 cases. Only three of the five patients experienced abdominal symptoms. However, all five patients responded favorably to a gluten-free diet.

This study set out to determine the risk of patients with biopsy-confirmed cases of celiac disease developing SLE. They concluded those with celiac disease were 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with SLE than the general population. However, since celiac disease only affects 1 2% of the population, the chance of someone with celiac disease developing SLE was relatively low .

Interestingly, there have also been that were falsely diagnosed with SLE and later correctly diagnosed with gluten sensitivity.

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Why Does My Body Ache Causes & Treatment

Body aches are an uncomfortable but common symptom of a variety of medical ailments. If youre experiencing body aches, your muscles may feel weak, sore, tired, or hard to move.

For most, body aches are easily treatablea few days of rest and hydration can provide relief from any discomfort. For some, body aches, particularly those that last a long time, can indicate a serious underlying medical condition that may require treatment.

How To Prevent Allergy Fatigue

The best way to prevent allergy fatigue is to find an effective treatment option for your allergies. The first step in managing allergies and preventing symptoms like fatigue is to find out which specific allergens trigger your reactions. After this diagnosis, there are ways to minimize allergies and avoid fatigue. You can minimize allergy fatigue in several ways:

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How Are Food Allergies/sensitivities Diagnosed

People with food allergies know exactly what food causes their allergy. They eat peanuts or a product with peanuts in it and immediately have a reaction. Their food allergy was diagnosed using either blood tests or skin tests.

In an allergy skin test, a very small drop of a liquid food extract, one for each food, is placed on the skin. The skin is then lightly pricked where the food extract was dropped. This is safe and generally not painful. Within 15 to 20 minutes, a raised bump with redness around it, similar to a mosquito bite, may appear. This shows that you are allergic to that food.

There are two accepted methods in determining a food sensitivity:

Laboratory tests

Lab tests for food sensitivities measure IgG or IgA antibodies to particular food proteins. Ideally, a lab will test both, as you can have a reaction to one but not the other. Once a food allergy is ruled out food sensitivity tests are run. For example, if you suspect you react to peanuts, ruling out a peanut allergy should be your first priority. Should the food allergy test show that you are not allergic to peanuts, your doctor may decide to investigate a peanut or legume sensitivity.

Elimination or reset diets

Your fatigue is different than the fatigue of anyone else you know. Youre a unique snowflake and your nutrition should reflect this. Food might not even be the cause of your fatigue. But the only way to find out is to experiment.

Identify When Symptoms Start

So youve decided you probably have seasonal allergies. Great. But also, not great, because while allergies from pollen arent typically serious, they also arent fun.

Some people are like, Oh, its just allergies, but allergies can be debilitating. Quality of life goes down, people miss school and work and theres an economic impact, says Dr. Drew Ayars, an allergist who sees patients at the allergy clinics at UW Medical Center Montlake and UW Medical Center Eastside Specialty Center.

Your first step toward getting relief is figuring out what kind of seasonal allergies you have.

Does your foggy-headed misery set in before the first flowers bloom? Or later in spring when everyone starts mowing their lawns again?

You dont have to be tested to know what youre allergic to. You can correlate symptoms to pollen counts around that time, he explains.

Thats because different types of pollen emerge at different times. In late winter and early spring, the most prevalent pollens are from trees hazelnut, birch, alder, oak, cottonwood, ash and juniper are especially common in the Seattle area, Rampur says. Mid- to late spring is full of grass pollen, and the biggest culprit in late summer to fall is weed pollen.

Once you notice when specifically your allergies flare up, you can put a plan in place for dealing with them .

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You Suffer From Chronic Headaches And/or Migraines

You have headache pain upon awakening in the morning, several hours after a meal, or even a day after eating certain foods. This is often due to food sensitivities which act as migraine triggers, and/or trigger a hypoglycemic response.

Solution: Keep a food diary and write down everything you eat. Notice patterns of how certain foods affect you. Certain foods and additives are known migraine triggers . Sending off a food allergy profile can be helpful in determining which foods may adversely be affecting you.

Six Possible Causes Of Body Aches And Fatigue: What To Know

Are you wondering why you are experiencing body aches and fatigue at the same time? Generally, body aches are common. When a person suffers from this, he or she can also experience other symptoms, such as pain in a particular body area, cold and flu-like symptoms, and fatigue. Hence, body aches and fatigue usually come together. Sometimes, these may also bring some dental pain. If that happens, you can visit Advanced Dental Care Dubbos services.

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Symptoms Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The main feature of ME/CFS is a type of exhaustion known as post-exertional malaise, crash or payback. This means having flu-like symptoms after exercise and not having enough energy for daily activities.

Research shows that people with ME/CFS have a different physiological response to activity or exercise from other people. This includes abnormal exhaustion after any form of exertion, and a worsening of other symptoms. The response may be delayed, perhaps after 24 hours. Depending on the amount and type of exercise, it may result in post-exertional malaise for a few days, or serious relapses lasting weeks, months or even years.

• problems with thinking, concentrating, memory loss, vision, clumsiness, muscle twitching or tingling
• disrupted sleep
• sore throat, tender lymph nodes and a flu-like feeling
• inability to cope with temperature changes.

Molecular Receptors That Are Activated By Metabolites Produced By Muscle Contraction

Major advances have been made in the last 10 years in identifying metabolites produced by muscle contraction. The most likely ion channels to detect pH changes, acid-sensing ion channels , also called amiloride-sensitive ion channels or amiloride-sensitive ion currents, were cloned and sequenced in 1997 . However, initially it appeared that these channels could not play a role in detecting the normal pH values found in humans. They could not gate enough current to activate sensory endings with the small changes in pH observed in conditions known to cause muscle pain in humans, for example, a pH change from 7.4 to 7.0 that can trigger angina in the heart. showed that lactate played a role in enhancing the response of ASICs to pH values between pH 7.4 and 7.0. Thus, lactic acid, at concentrations produced during ischemia and extreme active muscle contractions, was more effective in activating muscle sensory afferents than pH reduction alone, as produced by non-ischemic events .

Later, another critical co-factor was found. ATP in the low concentrations found in muscle interstitium during normal muscle contractions greatly enhanced the sensitivity of ASICs to pH and lactate . Altogether, these combinations enable the ASIC3 receptor to gate sustained current in a range from pH 7.66.6 that is capable of activating sensory endings.

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Inflammatory Bowel Disease As A Cause Of Joint Pain And Fatigue

IBD can include Crohns disease as well as ulcerative colitis . They are both chronic conditions that affect the digestive system.

Ulcerative Colitis leads to inflammation in the large intestine. Crohns results in sores and ulcerations in the gastrointestinal tract.

Some of the common symptoms of IBD include joint pain and fatigue. With the onset of chronic inflammation, the digestive tract can get infected or damaged with ulcerations, abscesses and fistulas. This leads to rectal bleeding and diarrhea.

IBD can also have life-threatening perforations of the intestines. In fact, hemorrhages may require emergency blood transfusions and surgery.

Inflammatory bowel disease may look different in different patients. It can be quite difficult to diagnose because people will confuse IBS with diarrhea or constipation. However, it cannot be called an autoimmune disease.