My leg hurts in the calf area, what is it?

My calves hurt - what to do?

Almost every person has experienced pain in the calf muscles. However, not everyone understands the reasons that caused such discomfort and how to eliminate this trouble.

Pain is often associated with a typical sprain, but this is not always the case. The feeling of pain can be very strong, accompanied by periodic cramps and swelling. You can get rid of the problem only with an integrated approach. Therefore, it is worth understanding how and with what to treat calves.

Why can your calf muscles hurt?

Calf pain is often considered a collective symptom and may indicate the presence of certain diseases.

In women, this problem is usually associated with the physiological characteristics of the body. The reasons may be:

changes in hormonal levels during menstruation;

pregnancy;

menopause;

use of hormonal contraceptives.

In men, pain is usually caused by external circumstances.

In a child, painful discomfort may be caused by growth. In this case, the pain will appear at night. This phenomenon is due to the active development of most internal organs and systems of the body. First of all, bone tissue develops intensively, then muscles and tendon ligaments are formed. This physiological process can cause severe pain in the calf muscles.

Reasons why your leg hurts in the calf area

• A large amount of physical activity. Pain can occur after training due to muscle soreness and a large accumulation of under-oxidized metabolic products inside the muscle fibers.
• Sometimes after running, pain occurs due to muscle strain.
• Often pain is a direct consequence of large body weight. In addition to high pressure on the lower extremities, extra pounds disrupt the venous outflow of blood, which also causes pain when walking.
• The calf muscles can ache due to diseases of the vascular system: atherosclerosis, varicose veins, thrombophlebitis. Such pain is usually dull and accompanied by swelling of the legs.
• A sedentary lifestyle leads to stagnation of blood circulation in the legs and poor nutrition of the calf muscles. This causes pain in the calves.
• Diseases of the nervous system - lumbar disc herniation, damage to the sciatic nerve can manifest as pain in the lower back, radiating to the calf muscles.
• Myositis (inflammation of the muscles) causes severe muscle pain that can occur after suffering from the flu.
• Cramps are a most unpleasant phenomenon, after which pain in the calves persists for several days. Convulsions can be caused by a basic lack of magnesium or calcium in the body, or anemia.

If the calves of your legs hurt badly, and the reason is simple fatigue, such a nuisance will disappear on its own without special treatment. In other situations, a doctor's help may be required. If the pain does not go away for a long time, you should definitely consult a therapist or surgeon.

How does a doctor determine the problem?

It is the person’s complaints that help significantly – how severe the pain is, how often the pain syndrome manifests itself. Based on the information collected, an experienced doctor prescribes the necessary examination and then treatment appropriate to the diagnosis.

Timely help with calf pain at home

Intense pain can cause a lot of trouble, including the inability to carry out usual household chores. To completely eliminate or slightly reduce pain, it is recommended to do the following:

• It is strongly recommended to change your body position: it is better to take a horizontal position, or sit on a comfortable chair;
• the muscle must be relaxed and thus reduce the painful syndrome (for this purpose, it is necessary to thoroughly stretch the muscles below the knee);
• when these activities have been completed, you should stand up again, after exposing your legs;
• temporarily cover problem areas of the legs with a wet towel (hold for no more than 15-25 minutes).

These simple exercises will effectively soothe the aching pain in your legs. But when the pain is caused by an illness, the unpleasant sensation will return again after a while. Only an experienced doctor is able to conduct a competent examination, make a correct diagnosis of calf pain, and prescribe the necessary treatment. Therefore, it is not recommended to postpone visiting doctors until later. Especially in cases where the feeling of pain is complemented by swelling and cramps.

How to improve your foot health

• As a preventive measure, you should try to prevent the formation of a blood clot and varicose veins . For this purpose, it is necessary to carry out systematic physical activity within a reasonable limit, avoiding muscle overstrain. Bad habits should be completely eliminated and fluids should be consumed sufficiently.
• It is recommended to reduce the amount of food consumed by creating a balanced menu of foods for every day. Such nutrition will contribute to the long-term preservation of the vascular system. To do this, it is recommended not to eat fatty foods, mainly eat seafood, fruits, and vegetables. Abundantly salted food affects the retention of fluid inside the body, causing severe swelling of the limbs and salt deposition.
• Don't ignore the signs of a problem. Heaviness, discomfort, mild pain in the calf muscles, swelling - a reason to pay attention to your health. Exercises performed in water have beneficial properties for the lower extremities.
• When choosing clothes or shoes, you should pay attention to how convenient and comfortable they are.
• If the pain is caused by a certain disease, you need to be extremely attentive to the doctor’s recommendations, carefully following the instructions given to them.
• You need to seriously think about your weight. Excess body weight significantly impairs blood circulation, increases pressure on the body's musculoskeletal system, and serves as the basis for most stress.

In veterinary medicine, bloating in a rabbit is called gastrointestinal stasis (GIS). This disease bothers animals quite often, since their digestive system has its own characteristics.

The rose is often called the queen of flowers for its beautiful delicate buds and persistent tart aroma. There are garden and indoor varieties of this plant, but all of them are distinguished by lush green foliage and a long flowering period.

It is very difficult to immediately determine why the leg hurts under the knee. This is because a large number of important structural elements are concentrated in this “strategic” location. These include periarticular muscles, bones, patella, lymph nodes, nerve fibers, blood vessels. Therefore, without an examination by a qualified doctor and laboratory and instrumental examination, it will be difficult to diagnose the cause of the pain. It is also important to understand that the cause of pain in the popliteal fossa may be a signal of the presence of some complex diseases, so a visit to a doctor is inevitable.

At the first symptoms, it is best to consult a doctor

Causes of pain behind the knee

There are several diseases that cause pain in the back of the knee.

• Baker's cyst. This disease is the most common cause of pain behind the knee. Most often it appears after the age of 40, due to inflammation of the inner synovial membrane. Due to inflammation, an excess amount of fluid accumulates, under the influence of which the periarticular bursa is pressed in the weakest place. First of all, it hurts behind the knee, after which other symptoms appear - tingling and numbness in the foot area, difficulty bending the toes, the appearance of a tumor in the popliteal fossa Baker's cyst can be treated using conservative and surgical methods.
• Pain under the knee can be caused by a torn meniscus. It is also a very common condition that causes painful symptoms. A meniscus cyst is a cavity formation filled with fluid and located directly in the meniscal cavity. Small cysts may not be noticeable upon examination. The risk group includes athletes and people involved in heavy physical work, since in this case the maximum load is placed on the legs, on the knee joint, in particular. If the cysts are small, they can be cured with medications and reducing physical activity, but if this treatment does not help, proceed to surgery (endoscopic arthroscopy).
• Meniscus tear. Such pain under the knee is not aching, but sharp. It is understood that as a result of injury or concomitant diseases of the joint of a degenerative and inflammatory nature, the posterior horn of the meniscus is torn off. If it hurts when standing under your knee, this may also indicate a meniscus tear.
• Inflammation of soft tissues. Pain can be caused by diseases of the tendons, ligaments, tendon bursae and muscles. With physical overstrain, when a person remains in a forced position for a long time, edema and swelling may occur. In this case, the ligaments and muscles literally swell and there is not enough room for them in their membranes, and a nagging pain occurs behind the knees. Unlike a Baker's cyst, when pressed, the swelling does not go away.

First of all, the patient needs to be given rest, to limit any movements regarding extension and flexion of the knee joint. If the pain behind the knee is intense, then the use of a patella or splint or even the application of a plaster splint is prescribed. Additionally, anti-inflammatory treatment and physiotherapeutic procedures are carried out.

Infectious diseases. If your leg hurts under the knee and there are purulent, infected wounds on the foot or lower leg, this means that a purulent abscess may develop in the popliteal joint. There are lymph nodes in the knee area, which are aimed at eliminating internal infection, but sometimes they fail.

If an infection enters from the side of the leg or foot, purulent lymphadenitis may develop, which also causes aching pain under the knee. The lymph nodes are located quite deep, so redness or swelling is often not visible. Usually, if an abscess does occur, it only needs to be removed surgically.

Diseases of blood vessels and nerves of the popliteal fossa. This category includes a tumor of the tibial nerve, aneurysm of the popliteal artery, and thrombosis of the popliteal vein. These pathologies can be eliminated exclusively by surgery. Often pain is caused by developing varicose veins.

In the initial stages, varicose veins can be “taken under control”

Lower back pain that radiates to the leg

Pain under the knee and in the lower back often occurs in people over 35 years of age. The modern rhythm forces a person to constantly move and take little care of his body; the legs and spine suffer the most. The back muscles are constantly tense if a person is in a sitting or standing position. And figuring out why your back hurts can be quite difficult, since there can be a huge number of reasons.

Location of pain

If the lower back hurts and at the same time radiates to the upper region of the leg - protrusion of a hernia or prolapse syndrome. If the pain is localized in the sacral region, then tumors of the spinal cord or sacral plexus are usually diagnosed.

Dull pain in the back, lower back and back of the leg most likely indicates the presence of neuropathy, when the sciatic nerve is pinched or inflamed.

Back pain that radiates to the leg on the left side. This pain is called stripe-like pain and is a consequence of a herniated disc. Pain on the left side of the hip may be due to femoral nerve tunnel syndrome.

Pain radiating to the inner thigh. This phenomenon may occur after removal of a hernia or surgery in the lower abdomen. It may also be a symptom of thigh muscle atrophy, which occurs during treatment with anticoagulants or diabetes.

Simultaneous low back and knee pain can be caused by orthopedic disorders of the hip joint. They also occur in the case of prostate cancer in men and tumors of the reproductive system in women.

Often a dull pain occurs after a compression fracture of the spine, which remains for the rest of your life as a periodic reminder of the injury that occurred.

Diseases that cause pain associated with the spine

There can be several reasons for pain in the lower back and legs at the same time:

Also, back pain can be caused by diseases of the internal organs, often this can be a disease of the heart, lungs, digestive tract and gynecology.

The presence of pain in the back and leg should alert you and be a reason to consult a doctor

Pain in the groin that radiates to the leg

Pain in the groin can occur for a number of reasons, as this area connects the lower and upper parts of the body. Often pain in this area is associated with damage to the muscles on the inner thigh - the adductors.

When playing sports, you can pull the adductors, hamstrings, and quadriceps muscles. Typically, professional athletes (due to poor warm-up), older dancers, people who often sit cross-legged, cyclists, and horse riders suffer from pain in the groin and legs at the same time. Also, the leg often hurts under the knee when squatting.

In order for pain in the groin to manifest itself minimally, it is necessary to do special exercises so that the muscles relax.

There are also a number of diseases that cause similar discomfort: coxarthrosis, osteochondrosis, inguinal hernia, as well as diseases of the female and male reproductive system.

The feeling of heaviness and pain in the calves is a dangerous syndrome

Discomfort in the calves often occurs as a result of fatigue, overuse, and injuries to the muscles and tendons. Often this is also associated with pathology of the nervous and skeletal systems, blood vessels, and water-salt imbalance.

With varicose veins, the pain usually appears at the back of the leg (usually the calf and lower leg), is aching in nature, but when standing up suddenly it can cause more severe sensations. For any manifestations of varicose veins, you must consult a doctor, since in the early stages it is possible to treat it a little, that is, to prevent the veins from growing. If there is pain behind the knee when squatting, this may also indicate the development of varicose veins.

If you have flat feet, a person will also often experience pain in the calves and shins; in such cases, it is necessary to buy high-quality shoes, since they will quickly wear out on the inside and reduce physical stress on the legs.

When water-salt metabolism is disrupted, the level of potassium concentration in the blood decreases, due to which the transmission of neuromuscular impulses decreases. As a result, pain in the calves, cramps, decreased blood pressure, and impaired motor function appear. A critical decrease in potassium can even lead to death due to cardiac arrest.

Knee pain during pregnancy

Pregnancy is undoubtedly the most beautiful period in a woman’s life, but it is also very difficult for her body. Knee pain is common for a number of reasons:

• Lack of vitamin D3 and calcium.
• Increased load on the musculoskeletal system.
• Increased production of the hormone relaxin.

If pain in the knee joints and tendons during pregnancy is associated with physiology, then there is no need for treatment, you just need to follow a number of recommendations from your personal doctor.

Gymnastics and light massage will help reduce knee discomfort

Poor quality treatment leads to the progressive development of the disease, which becomes chronic, which is difficult or impossible to cure. If your leg hurts under the knee or you have back pain (no matter on the left or right side), self-medication is not allowed, since professional and competent treatment is necessary.