Author: admin · Published 05/29/2017 · Updated 01/18/2018
Pain in the calves and thigh when touched and flexed can occur for a number of reasons. This includes sciatica, which causes pain along the path of your sciatic nerve, which may be tender to the touch. Muscle cramps, sprains and tears can also cause pain in the thigh and calves. Treatments and prevention options such as cold packs, hot packs and stretching exercises can help relieve and prevent this leg discomfort. Check with your doctor about the specific nature of your pain. Pain in the hip and groin area.
Sciatica occurs due to compression of the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back to the calves. This painful symptom usually occurs due to a tear in the outer covering of a disc in the back and subsequent leakage of its contents, which puts pressure on the nerve root. Sciatica can cause a dull ache in the lower back, hip, buttocks, calves, ankle, foot, or toes. There is also a shooting pain that runs from the lower back down the leg. This nerve pain ranges from mild to severe and can occur after prolonged sitting, physical exertion, or bending the back. Additionally, the affected area may be tender and sore to the touch. Contact your doctor if you experience severe or progressive pain that lasts longer than a week or if your pain is due to numbness or muscle weakness in your legs. Treatment of radiculitis with exercises.
Muscle cramps are forced, involuntary muscle contractions that can cause mild to severe pain in the thigh and calves, lasting 15 minutes or longer. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, muscle cramps most often occur in the gastrocnemius muscles at the back of the calves, the hamstrings at the back of the thigh, and the quadriceps muscle at the front of the thigh. However, cramps can also occur in your arms, legs, and other parts of your body. During a cramp, you may feel a heavy, painful piece of muscle tissue. Cramps may occur during exercise. Such as raising the knee to the chest, as well as during sitting, walking and sleeping. An increased risk of muscle spasms is seen in highly trained athletes, as well as infants, young children, older adults and overweight people. If you experience frequent, severe pain that is not associated with an obvious cause, such as exercise, see your doctor.
Your hamstrings, the muscles that run from your pelvis, through your knees and stop at the top of your calves, help you bend your knees. Pulling, straining, or tearing these muscles can also cause pain in your calves and thighs. Severe injuries usually occur due to overuse or overexertion through participation in activities such as football, basketball, sprinting and running. A hamstring strain can cause sudden, sharp pain in the back of the thigh, accompanied by swelling and tenderness. You may also experience a popping or tearing sensation. A direct blow to the muscle as it contracts can cause a hamstring tear. A severe tear can cause a knot of tissue in the thigh and pain when you bend the knee or touch the affected area. Minor pain may gradually worsen each time you repeat the activity that caused the injury. Depending on the severity of your injury, full recovery may take up to three months. Damage to the medial collateral ligament.
Blood disaster.
Pain in the thigh and calves that occurs when walking or exercising may be the result of a limp or decreased blood supply to the legs. This condition is most often a symptom of peripheral arterial disease, a narrowing of the arteries that carry blood to your extremities, usually caused by the accumulation of plaque or fatty deposits. Smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and obesity are the main risk factors.
Leg pain from peripheral arterial disease tends to occur when you are active. Muscles need more blood. The lack of normal amounts of blood causes pain, which is known as intermittent claudication. When you stop moving, the pain usually goes away.
Deep vein thrombosis.
Deep vein thrombosis can be a very serious cause of calf pain. This is the formation of a blood clot in the deep veins, usually in the calf or thigh. Deep vein thrombosis requires immediate medical attention as it reduces blood flow to the leg and there is a risk that the clot can break off and travel through the bloodstream to the heart or lungs, which can cause a heart attack or pulmonary embolism.
Common signs of deep vein thrombosis are pain, redness, warmth and swelling in the calf area, and the pain often gets worse if you bend your leg backward (pull your toes up towards you). Often thrombosis develops after surgery or a period of inactivity such as air travel, and there may also be a genetic link.
Weakness and tight muscles are a common cause of calf muscle pain. Weak muscles will tire quickly if you are on your feet for long periods of time. Therefore it is important to work on strength and endurance. If your calves are tight, they are prone to damage from increased tension, making stretching exercises vital. What is muscle atrophy?
For some people, hip and calf (and sometimes arm) pain can be the result of neuropathy, a disorder of the peripheral motor system, the sensory and autonomic nerves that connect the spinal cord to our muscles, skin and internal organs. Neuropathy can cause numbness, tingling, and a feeling of heaviness. In some cases, people may lose the ability to feel sensation in their legs, which can put them at risk for injury and infection.
Neuropathy can be caused by many factors, including infection, toxins, and the effects of alcoholism, but diabetes is the most common cause. According to the Neuropathy Association, approximately 60 to 70% of people with diabetes will develop peripheral neuropathy at some point. It may also affect people who have prediabetes and may not experience any other diabetic symptoms.
Healthy muscle function depends on the nerves maintaining a well-balanced mixture of electrolytes—minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium that have an electrical charge. Electrolytes transmit signals that support nerve, heart and muscle function, and also affect the amount of water in your body.
But some medications; dehydration; and conditions such as diarrhea and kidney disease can affect your electrolyte balance. When electrolyte levels become too low, it can cause leg pain. For example, when sodium, which attracts water to cells, is depleted, cells straining to compensate for the lack of fluid can lead to painful cramps. By reducing blood flow, dehydration can cause electrolyte imbalances and seizures. Likewise, if you drink too much water, you may flush out too many electrolytes.
There are many types of arthritis. Osteoarthritis, the most common form, destroys the cartilage in your joints, causing painful bone spurs to develop, cartilage loss, inflammation, or tenderness. Rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease, attacks the lining of joints, also causing inflammation and pain. Treatment of post-traumatic arthritis.
Although arthritis is a joint disease, the pain it causes can be felt in the surrounding leg muscles. Any joint under stress can cause pain. But the muscles around it try to protect it, and may go into spasms and get secondary muscle pain.
Whether your leg pain is due to sciatica, a muscle strain, or other causes, several home remedies can help relieve discomfort and prevent further injury. For example, applying an ice pack for up to 20 minutes several times a day can reduce inflammation. You can also apply a hot compress or alternate hot and cold compress treatments. Additionally, over-the-counter medications, gentle stretching, and massage can help relieve hip and calf pain.
The Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends doing regular stretching exercises before and after exercise. Exercises that stretch the muscles in your calves and thighs can help the muscles contract more efficiently and reduce your chances of muscle injury or cramping. A variation of the calf stretch involves leaning forward with your hands against a wall, one leg in front of the other, and one leg straight. Additionally, riding an exercise bike before bed can also help reduce muscle and nerve pain. Consult your doctor before attempting to treat your feet at home.
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This is such a common phenomenon or sensation - pain in the calf muscles. that every person suffers from it at least once in their life.
There are too many reasons for the occurrence of these painful sensations.
The slightest damage or irritation of the calf muscle - excessive strain or a bad step - causes pain in the calves. At the same time, pain in the calf muscles can be very sudden and occur as a reaction to unusual physical activity - simply while walking, including.
Quite often, doctors associate the first manifestations of painful sensations with vascular disease. This can be caused by an increase in pressure in the vessels due to disturbances in the outflow of venous blood - stagnation occurs, due to which the nerve endings are irritated and then inflamed, causing pain. When the reason is this, the calves of the legs hurt in a special way - it seems that the legs are “heavy”, there is a feeling of “dull” pain. And this symptom is characteristic of varicose veins.
The same sensations of “dull” pain, aching or even stabbing, as well as sharp cramps and “heaviness” of the legs can be considered as a result of sedentary work. After all, when a person stands or sits for a long time, normal blood circulation in the veins and arteries is disrupted. And blood stagnation is accompanied by oxygen starvation, accumulation of harmful substances - toxins - in the vessels and muscles.
— Thrombophlebitis, a vascular disease that is quite common, unfortunately, is accompanied by throbbing pain in the calf muscles. Moreover, the painful sensations change over time: the pain becomes similar to a burning sensation. With thrombophlebitis, the calves of the legs hurt constantly.
- Atherosclerosis is another cause of unpleasant painful sensations. With this disease, the walls of blood vessels thicken and a feeling of muscle “squeezing” occurs, which causes pain in the calves. Pain syndrome in atherosclerosis is characteristic specifically of the lower leg muscles. The pain gets worse when walking. Another symptom of atherosclerosis is that, regardless of the air and body temperature, the feet seem cold.
— Spinal diseases are another group of diseases that provoke pain in the calves. If there are disturbances in the spine itself—displaced discs, for example—radiating pains appear, that is, those that “radiate” to the legs. At the same time, the spine itself does not hurt. An example can be given of sciatica - inflammation of the sciatic nerve.
— Another factor in the appearance of pain in the calves may be diseases of the peripheral nerves. Neuralgia pain is not constant, it is characterized by attacks, the duration of which is short - a few minutes or even seconds.
- Myositis - inflammation of the skeletal and calf muscles - causes the most severe pain in the leg muscles. This disease is extremely serious and requires mandatory and long-term treatment under strict medical supervision. Most often, myositis occurs as a complication after a certain number of diseases, including influenza. Sometimes myositis can be caused by muscle strain, unusually heavy workload, or injury to the calf muscle.
With this disease, aching pain in the calves intensifies with the slightest movement, and cords or dense nodules can be felt in the muscles themselves. If the injury is open, then, as a consequence of its infection, purulent myositis may occur - with a characteristic increase in body temperature, increased pain, chills, redness of the skin over the tense and thickened muscle.
One of the types of myositis is parasitic myositis, which occurs as a result of muscle damage by cysticerci, trichinella (trichinosis), and toxoplasma parasites. Parasitic myositis is characterized by fever, pain in the muscles of the limbs, masticatory muscles, muscles of the tongue and chest.
— Another disease is osteomyelitis. infectious disease of bone tissue. Osteomyelitis is accompanied by acute and prolonged pain, the cause of which is the bone itself.
— A common cause of pain in the calves can be cramps - involuntary contractions of muscle groups or individual muscles. Cramps can result from prolonged tension and overwork of the calf muscle. To stop this unpleasant painful sensation, sometimes it is enough to simply relax the muscles. That is, lie down or sit down, change the position of your legs and rub the cramped muscle harder, apply a cold compress or stand on the cold ground with your bare feet.
- Fibromyalgia is pain that occurs in the back of the head, in the lower back (lumbago), as well as in the neck, shoulder joints, chest and near the knee joint - in the hip area. This pain is more familiar to women, as it occurs more often among them. Fibromyalgia intensifies with mental and physical overload, sleep disturbances, and staying in a damp or cold room for a long time. These pains can become systemic when rheumatic diseases occur.
— Neurogenic myopathy or idiopathic inflammatory myopathies can also cause pain in the calf muscles.
If a person does not have neurological abnormalities, then painful muscle syndrome is caused by inflammatory or metabolic myopathies. Myopathies are of three types, according to the international classification:
95% of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are polymyositis, myositis, dermatomyositis, which arise as a consequence of systemic connective tissue diseases. As well as myositis with intracellular inclusions and paraneoplastic myositis. In all these cases, consultation with a rheumatologist is necessary to prevent or identify a systemic disease, which resulted in pain in the calves.
This type of myopathy, such as drug-induced, is most often associated with taking fibrates and statins.
The main thing to remember is that if you experience pain in your leg muscles, you should consult your doctor. Necessarily. This could be a phlebologist or neurologist, infectious diseases specialist, traumatologist or angiosurgeon. But consultation is mandatory if we are concerned about our health.
Comments on this post: 10
There was a feeling of heaviness in my legs. Sometimes it felt like my legs were cramping. This was especially true for the calves and just above the knees. It was very difficult to walk even a hundred meters. I went to the hospital, they did an ultrasound, they said everything was normal. How so? They recommended Detrolex. I won’t say that there was an effect that I was expecting, but it was still slightly better. I don’t know what the reason is, maybe the lumbar region. Everything was fine before.
Yes! This happens to me after exercise, but then it goes away after a couple of days.
My wife has regular pain on the outside of her lower leg, I had this when I was physically overloaded. We went to a traumatologist, he recommended reducing physical stress on the legs, changing shoes so that the heel was smaller and controlling the weight. As a result, we continue to suffer, but we don’t think about ourselves; I am sometimes amazed by people’s negligent attitude towards their health
Thanks for the really helpful comments??
Currently I am in the hospital in the Vascular Surgery Department. My legs (especially the right one) hurt very badly, it hurts to walk, my calves hurt, and I have frequent cramps. But the doctor says that the reason is in the spine and they are now examining the back. But nevertheless, blood clots are treated. I went to different doctors for 2 months and no one could make a diagnosis. And the other day I did an ultrasound of my veins and they discovered a blood clot in my leg, so I’m lying here. Take your health more seriously.
Hello, please help! I have very severe pain in my calf muscles. The pain is dull and aching.
But the pain lasts only a couple of hours after running (I run from 5 to 9 km). If the next day or the day after I do any exercise on my legs, the pain immediately returns (it goes away after a couple of hours before the next run or exercise). When I stop working out for 3-4 weeks, everything goes away. As soon as I start running again, the pain returns at the 3rd or 4th training session (running) and everything starts again. Moreover, the pain gets worse after each run.
I used to run 5 times a week, but I cut it down to 3 times. It didn't give any results. I live in Spain. I saw a doctor, he said that it was all due to stress. I asked how to treat, he told me don’t run!
I’ll describe more precisely what kind of pain it is. The pain is aching and my calves seem to be twisting. Severe pain only when running. When I lift my foot off the ground, it’s as if my calf muscle is being squeezed in a vice. Not, as it seems to me, pain in the lower calf (closer to the heel).
Can you recommend anything? Thank you in advance!
Hello, Oleg. Most likely you have a complex of symptoms called Chronic compartment syndrome, or rather even Chronic exercise compartment syndrome. This concept is relatively new, so it most likely does not yet have a more human name in Russian medicine.
Regular physical activity on the same muscles led to a deterioration in blood circulation in them during muscle growth. The fact is that during training, any muscles increase in volume, filling with blood (well, you, as an athlete, know this better than me). Bundles of muscle fibers are covered with a special sheath - fascia. During running, the pressure inside these muscle cases increases. In your case, this leads to excessive compression of the blood vessels. Why this pain occurs is not even known exactly. According to one theory, due to a deterioration in blood circulation itself, and according to another (more popular) due to a disruption in the flow of oxygen during this period.
Why did this start? This may be due to the fact that your muscles have already reached good volumes thanks to sports, and during blood filling the pressure on the vessels becomes even greater. Or maybe it’s due to microtrauma as a result of constant impacts on the ground. But there is most likely only one treatment in your case – surgery (fasciotomy). Otherwise, this condition usually lasts for months or years. Or listen to the advice of a doctor, who will also relieve pain, but running will most likely return the problem. Surgery will allow you to quickly return to sports. There are also various physical therapy methods, but it is best to discuss this with your doctor.
Of course, this is not a diagnosis, but only an assumption. To put it definitively, you need to conduct a study measuring the pressure inside the muscle sheaths (most likely immediately after exercise).
Good afternoon Oleg! A very familiar situation, I’ve been doing boxing and for the last few months there has been pain in my legs after jogging, a strong feeling of burning and squeezing of the muscles in my calves, the pain lasts 10 minutes after the end of the jog and my legs hurt for a week, with a light jog during the day the symptoms also worsen! Please, if you clarify the diagnosis of this problem (disease), write to me.
Sorry for the spelling
Hello. Varicose veins are a lousy disease. I haven’t gotten sick yet, it seems to me, but the veins in my legs are enlarged (especially on the left) and I periodically feel pain and heaviness in my calves. It started about 10 years ago when I had to ride to work standing in a crowded trolleybus for 35-40 minutes and in order to somehow get away from the crush I tried to stand at the rear window. I don’t know what was the main cause of the pain in my legs, either standing for a long time without moving or the bouncing of the rear of the trolleybus, but the sensations were unpleasant. I started putting an elastic bandage on my calves and had to change to minibuses - it’s a little expensive, but health is more expensive. The pain is gone. Now I try to swim more and practice moderate walking. My legs sometimes ache, but it's tolerable.
I have normal weight, age 55, I don’t abuse alcohol, I don’t smoke, please advise how to protect myself from possible exacerbations. Thank you in advance! Good luck and health!
And these sensations are not alien to me, in the spring I started to twist my calves, I thought they were joints, but it turned out to be veins. I began to take a closer look and it’s true - during the heat in the middle of the working day, the wreaths began to grow, there was a small red mesh under the knee. The girls at work advised me to apply Venolgon-911 cream as soon as I feel heaviness during the day and at night. It contains extracts of horse chestnut and hazel; it smells fresh and fresh after application. I want to say that it’s a completely different matter. It’s good that I didn’t start my varicose veins, but sounded the alarm in the meantime
Almost every person has felt painful sensations in the calves. But not all people know why they can appear and how to get rid of them.
It is a mistake to assume that the cause of pain lies in a banal sprain, because this is not always the case. Pain in the calves may appear in tandem with prolonged cramps and even swelling. It is necessary to combat this disease in a comprehensive manner, therefore it is worth paying attention to the causes of calf pain.
Many people experience pain in their calves during spring and summer. This trend can be explained quite logically. In the warm season, people walk and walk more, and some rush to get in good shape after a long winter. Do not forget that physical activity should increase gradually. Out of habit, the legs experience enormous stress, which causes sprains. Training should be increased gradually so that the muscles slowly get used to the load.
Sharp pain in the calf may indicate that the ligaments are torn, but this phenomenon, fortunately, is rare. Most often, you may encounter aching pain under the knee at the back, which will increase at night. This is a typical problem with the blood vessels of the leg - varicose veins. In pursuit of a sculpted body, people do not think about the disruptions that suddenly started training promise to the body. You can develop not only serious problems with your legs, but also ailments in other body systems. The muscles of the legs and heart will be affected first.
Let us dwell in more detail on the disease, which was already mentioned above. Varicose veins are one of the most common leg diseases. It is worth saying that it is perfectly treatable, since it is only necessary to strengthen the walls of the blood vessels so that the convex wreaths return to their original size. Veins swell due to high pressure in the vessels, which, in turn, increases due to inadequate blood flow. And the pain appears due to venous stagnation, which greatly irritates the nerve endings. This pain is not acute, but can significantly unbalance the usual rhythm of life. In addition, the legs feel heavy all the time.
Blood stagnation causing pain can be caused by sedentary work. While in a sitting position, the veins experience enormous stress, as they are forced to “push” blood up the body with greater force, overcoming the laws of physics. Veins are able to withstand such a load, but only if the walls of the vessels have the proper elasticity and strength.
One of the most serious vascular diseases, thrombophlebitis, requires immediate treatment. The essence of the disease is the formation of a blood clot - a thrombus, which, for the time being, exists on the wall of the vessel. At any moment it can come off and set off on a journey throughout the body. Although the clot is not large, it can easily clog a vein. Delay can cost lives, since blockage of an important artery can be fatal.
This disease occurs mainly in older people. It consists in a significant compaction of the walls of blood vessels. Patients with atherosclerosis often complain to the doctor that there is pain in the calf of the left leg, or the right one. This suggests that the disease can be expressed by pain in only one limb. Treatment is expected to be comprehensive, sometimes even in a hospital setting. The pain intensifies with movement, and there is a persistent feeling that the feet are cool all the time. This sign is one of the first to indicate this disease.
Older people may experience ailments such as sciatica. It consists of severe inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This is one of the most common spinal diseases. The nerve located in the seat gives a persistent feeling of pain in the calves. And the seat itself, at the same time, may not bother you at all.
Neurological diseases are not easy to detect. This complexity is explained by the paroxysmal nature of the pain. The source of the disease may be, for example, in the lower back, and the pain may be in the calf of the right leg. This is because the pinched nerve ending “sends” to the calf muscle, and only of one leg. Therefore, the diagnosis of neurological diseases involves x-rays, ultrasound of blood vessels, and even tomography.
All of the above diseases are common and difficult to diagnose, or myositis is an inflammatory process in the calves. This disease can be diagnosed even by palpation. With this disease, you can feel characteristic nodules in the calf muscle. Treatment does not require hospitalization. This disease can appear due to injury.
Despite the ease of diagnosis, treatment cannot be called simple. The disease is severe and difficult to treat. Along with conservative treatment with medications, specialists prescribe courses of physiotherapeutic procedures. Moreover, it will be necessary to reduce physical activity and be treated under constant medical supervision.
Painful sensations can knock absolutely anyone out of their usual rut. In order to reduce pain, you can resort to the following exercises:
These simple steps will allow the pain to subside, but if there is a serious illness, the pain will return periodically. Only a doctor can correctly diagnose the disease and prescribe effective treatment, so do not delay visiting a specialist. This is especially true for situations where pain is accompanied by frequent cramps and swelling of the legs.
Pain in the buttocks, calves and feet, of course, is not dangerous for a person, but the quality of life with these pains is significantly reduced. After all, pain limits movement and constantly reminds you of itself. It is difficult for a person suffering from pain to move, and there is no talk of playing sports or walking in the fresh air at all. What causes this suffering? Most often, a pinched nerve or muscle strain occurs. Let's say the treatment of pain in the buttock is associated with the problem of pinching the piriformis muscle. Pinching of this muscle occurs due to deformation in the lumbosacral region. The experience of specialists suggests that the causes of pain in the foot often lie precisely in lumbar osteochondrosis. This disease, which occurs due to displacement of intervertebral discs and pinched nerve roots, can provoke pain in the buttocks and legs. Treatment of spinal osteochondrosis is extremely important, since ignoring the disease can lead to disability. Pain in the buttock, radiating to the leg, the treatment of which may seem unnecessary to some, signals that there is a problem in the spine. To determine the disease for sure, a diagnosis is needed. X-ray studies, radioisotope scanning, as well as injection of an anesthetic into the piriformis muscle make it possible to make an accurate diagnosis. Treatment is carried out with anti-inflammatory drugs, anesthetics, muscle relaxants and angioprotectors. Physiotherapy, therapeutic exercises, drugs with hyaluronic acid and Botox give a good effect against the background of the treatment used. This set of measures will restore mobility and health to the joints, which will play a beneficial role in releasing the piriformis gluteus muscle.
As mentioned above, pinching of one single muscle can provoke not only pain in the buttocks, but also pain in the feet. Treatment of such pain should begin with identifying the root cause that caused its occurrence. The cause of foot pain is often osteoporosis or osteopathy. Both of these diseases occur due to calcium deficiency. Rehabilitation therapy takes a long time. What to do, because with osteoporosis, in particular, very severe pain occurs in the foot? Treatment prescribed by a rheumatologist must be followed strictly. Acute unbearable pain can be relieved by using analgesics. But if pinching of the sciatic nerve causes pain in the foot when walking, completely different treatment is needed. In particular, foot pain often causes inflammation or pinching of this nerve. The most advanced, effective and fast pain treatment allows you to relieve pain caused by pinched nerves or inflammation in 1-2 sessions.
The same fast and effective treatment for pain in the calves, which is usually caused by inflammation of the nerve trunks or muscle disease (myositis). Pain in the calves when walking, the treatment of which is the primary task for vein thrombosis, causes not just discomfort, but real agony. Of course, if we are simply talking about excessive stress on the calf muscles, then pain in the calves should not bother a person. But calves also hurt if you have diabetes or tumors in the joints of the spine. Relieving pain of the most diverse etymologies is the primary task of the doctors at our clinic. If you are in pain and you are tired of living with it, it’s time to say stop. A new pain treatment technique has proven its effectiveness. Call and make an appointment with our specialist, who has helped thousands of other people overcome pain, which means he will help you too!
Pain in the legs is a pressing problem for modern people who stand, walk, or, conversely, constantly sit. In addition to those mentioned, there are many more reasons why leg pain occurs and many ways to relieve them with folk remedies.
Pain and heaviness in the legs are familiar to many. This could be pain in the muscles, in the feet, etc. The pain can occur at night and when walking. The pain can be acute and aching, accompanied by heaviness, swelling, irritation of the skin, etc. Different symptoms indicate different diseases.
Wearing the wrong shoes can cause pain
The main causes of pain in the legs include diseases of the joints, muscles, blood vessels of the legs and even the spine. Vascular diseases occur most often and are a consequence of increased pressure in the vessels due to improper outflow of venous blood. Venous congestion irritates the nerve endings, dull pain and heaviness in the legs appear, with the gradual development of varicose veins.
Another vascular disease is thrombophlebitis, in which the pain is pulsating in nature, with a burning sensation under the skin. This pain is constant, especially in the calves.
With atherosclerosis of the arteries, the walls of the blood vessels harden, resulting in squeezing pain in the calf muscles, which intensifies when walking. A distinctive symptom of atherosclerosis is the feeling of cold feet.
Many leg diseases manifest themselves in diseases of the spine, for example, due to disorders in the intervertebral discs, leading to radiating pain that is localized in the lower back and radiates to the leg. A common example is inflammation of the sciatic nerve, in which back pain travels along the sciatic nerve to the leg. Unpleasant pulling sensations spread along the back of the entire leg, or just the thighs. There is a feeling of a tense, painful cord.
Pain in the joints of the legs is often observed, worsening when the weather changes. In more serious stages of joint disease, the aching pain can be constant and painful. This especially applies to attacks of pain due to gout. Pain in the knee joint may indicate cartilage destruction, but only a specialist can make an accurate diagnosis.
Flat feet can also cause constant pain. Symptoms of this disease are fatigue when walking and a feeling of great heaviness.
Often this phenomenon can be provoked by diseases of the peripheral nerves. With neuralgia, the pain is paroxysmal in nature and occurs along the nerve fibers. The attacks last from a few seconds to several minutes.
The most severe pain is in the legs, which occurs due to muscle inflammation. Myositis is a rather serious disease that requires constant medical supervision.
Pain in the lower extremities can be caused by an infectious bone disease such as osteomyelitis. In this case, there is a prolonged sharp pain.
Sharp pain in the leg below the knee, combined with sudden redness of the skin and high temperature, indicates erysipelas.
Dense swelling, pulsating and bursting pain are accompanied by thrombosis, lymphedema, purulent inflammatory processes (phlegmon). As a rule, they intensify when palpating and when working the muscles.
Pain in the legs in children (less often in adults) may indicate acute tuberculous coxitis, joint pain in which is detected by palpation (tapping on the heel) while simultaneously putting pressure on the leg. A sign of “thickened skin fold” may be observed in the hip joint area.
If throbbing pain appears in the big toe, regardless of the time of day or load, we can talk about suspicion of gout.
Only a specialist can determine the cause of pain
If you experience any signs of pain that last for several days, you should seek medical attention. Diagnosis is carried out using ultrasound, MRI, x-rays of joints, arthroscopy, blood tests, angioscanning, etc. There are many reasons for pain in the legs, and only a specialist can make an accurate diagnosis. Treatment can be carried out on an outpatient basis, or in a hospital, using therapy or surgery.
Sea salt baths are very beneficial
Traditional methods can be used to treat pain, they include both physical exercise and prescription medications.
Contrast shower is a good way to prevent pain
To prevent pain in the legs, it is necessary to limit the intake of fatty foods, control your own weight, and avoid prolonged sitting and standing. Timely treatment of diseases affecting the legs and massage are necessary. Shoes that are loose and have a low platform are recommended. To strengthen the walls of blood vessels, it is advisable to consume vitamin C and take a contrast shower in the morning and evening.
At the same time, excessive stress on the legs should be avoided.