Myalgia or muscle pain is a common problem experienced by everyone, especially when exercising or excessive physical activity. What are the causes of muscle pain and the risk factors?
Even though it is relatively mild, muscle pain can be felt throughout the body, making it uncomfortable for sufferers to do activities. Then, what causes muscle pain and how to treat it? Here’s more information.
Table of Contents
Causes of Muscle Pain
Muscle pain is triggered by using muscles without stopping for various reasons, such as continuous physical activity, stress, or tight muscles. Apart from the muscles, pain can also be felt in other systems, namely the joints, tendons, ligaments and bones. Here are a number of causes of muscle pain due to certain activities:
- Do not warm up or cool down when exercising.
- fell.
- Wrong posture.
- Continuous physical activity using only one specific muscle.
- Lifting weights beyond your capacity.
- Incorrect sitting position.
In addition, serious medical conditions can be a risk factor for muscle pain, such as:
- Infection, for example polio, flu, or bacteria.
- Fibromyalgia disease.
- Use of drugs, such as ACE inhibitors, statins, or cocaine.
- Autoimmune diseases, such as polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and lupus.
- Thyroid disorders, eg hypothyroidism and hypokalemia (low potassium).
Symptoms of Muscle Pain
Muscle pain generally occurs after exercising or physical activity without stopping. Symptoms include excruciating pain when standing still and lying down or moving. This condition is also characterized by a sensation of muscle spasms. However, muscle pain may decrease after resting.
Muscle pain can occur in one muscle (local myalgia) or move from one muscle to another (diffuse myalgia). Here are other characteristics of muscle pain that you need to know:
- Rash and redness.
- Dizzy.
- Swelling in the area of the body affected by muscle pain.
- Discomfort in certain areas of the body.
- Stiffness or weakness in certain areas of the body.
- Fever.
Treatment of Muscle Pain
To relieve muscle pain due to non-stop physical activity or exercise, self-care at home can be applied. For example, resting certain body muscles that are frequently used, taking pain relievers, such as ibuprofen, or ice packs on the affected muscles to help reduce pain and inflammation. In addition, there are various other ways you can apply to reduce muscle pain, such as:
- Gently stretch the muscles.
- Resting the muscles from constant physical activity.
- Applying relaxation techniques, such as yoga or meditation to increase body flexibility, thereby preventing muscle injuries.
- Massage, to optimize the cells in the muscles and accelerate the recovery of muscle pain.
- Cold water compress.
- Do not do physical activity until the muscle pain has healed.
- Do not lift heavy weights until the sore muscles have healed.
- Adequate body fluids by drinking plenty of water.
Muscle Pain Prevention
To prevent muscle pain, it is recommended that you stretch your muscles before and after physical activity or exercise. Make sure your body fluids are sufficient by drinking lots of water, so you avoid dehydration and applying muscle stretches if you are in one position for a long time.
However, if muscle pain is triggered by other causes and not constant physical activity or exercise, you should discuss with your doctor to examine the cause, so that the doctor can provide the right treatment.
