Weakness in the arms and legs: why it bothers you and what could be the reasons

Many people experience this symptom at least once in their lives. Weakness occurs in the arms and legs, muscles become sluggish and unruly, and a feeling of constant fatigue appears.

Such manifestations may be temporary and caused by relatively harmless factors, but sometimes weakness in the arms and legs, as well as chronic fatigue, can be symptoms of quite serious diseases. Therefore, you need to pay attention to this in time and be examined in order to eliminate the root cause.

Main symptoms of myasthenia gravis:

• 1. Decreased muscle strength. The measurement can be made either using a special tool - a dynamometer, or the hands of an examining doctor. To assess muscle strength without an instrument, the doctor simultaneously shakes the patient's two hands while assessing the symmetry of muscle tension.
• 2. Difficulty performing routine tasks (walking, climbing stairs, holding a mug in your hands, writing with a pen, carrying moderately heavy packages);
• 3. In addition to decreased strength in a particular limb, blepharoptosis (drooping of the eyelid), difficulty swallowing, speaking, or chewing may occur.

Why does constant fatigue occur?

If there is a suspicion that weakness is caused by neurological or other pathological problems, then you need to contact a neurologist and have an MRI done.

But constant fatigue is often caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.

Chronic fatigue often manifests itself with the following symptoms:

• weakness in arms and legs;
• muscle pain;
• headache;
• deterioration of concentration and memory;
• immunity decreases, a person gets sick more often;
• intestinal upset, diarrhea;
• loss of appetite;
• chills;
• sweating;
• insomnia;
• there may be increased anxiety.

The body suffers greatly from stress. Therefore, first of all, you need to improve your lifestyle:

1. Minimize stress and nervous tension.
2. Get good sleep (at least 8 hours).
3. Eat a nutritious, healthy diet.
4. Drink plenty of fluids.
5. Exercise.
6. Go for walks and breathe fresh air.
7. Take multivitamin and mineral complexes, as well as Omega-3 and Omega-6 preparations, to restore the lack of nutrients in the body.

Treatment of muscle weakness

Severe flaccidity in the legs and arms causes discomfort to the patient. To the question “How to treat muscle weakness?” experts answer that there are several methods: conservative (medicinal) method, surgery and physiotherapy. If the cause of weakness lies in infection, then antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral drugs are used. Additionally, physiotherapeutic procedures are prescribed that improve blood flow in the area of ​​the necessary muscles.

Treatment depends on the cause that causes it (injuries, infections, genetic, autoimmune processes, consequences of stroke, etc.). If muscle weakness occurs, you should immediately contact a specialist in neuromuscular pathology.

How does weakness in the arms and legs manifest?

Symptoms of weakness in the arms and legs:

1. Feeling that arms and legs are weak. It becomes difficult to walk, carry heavy objects, even just bags of groceries; sometimes it is difficult to simply write with a pen or hold a cup in your hands.
2. There is a feeling of numbness in the limbs - they become disobedient and stiff.
3. Sometimes the weakness is so strong that one eyelid may droop and it becomes difficult to swallow and chew.

A person feels eternally tired, it is difficult for him to move, his limbs do not obey and are unable to perform their usual work.

Always remember that muscle weakness in the arms and legs is a symptom of another disease or condition.

Methods for restoring motor functions of the upper and lower extremities

Restoration of motor functions of the upper and lower extremities, according to specialists at the OSTEOPOLYCLINIC medical center, must begin immediately after the patient’s condition improves. The rehabilitation period may be delayed or may not bring any positive results at all if manipulations are not started immediately after it becomes possible to move the limbs.

Even if the patient has difficulty moving his limbs independently, his closest relatives or a physician invited for this can help him. Massaging immobilized limbs is not as difficult as performing passive gymnastics.

Sometimes depression caused by the very fact of the disease, and the resulting helpless state, lead to patients consciously refusing rehabilitation methods. However, this condition of the patient is often caused by damage to certain areas of the brain.

Restoring the functions of the musculoskeletal system largely depends on the caring attitude of those around the patient and their delicate approach to the problem. An incentive to overcome the consequences of the disease can be not only reminders of a previous healthy life, but also examples from the lives of patients who suffered a similar disease and successfully coped with the restoration of motor functions of the upper and lower extremities.

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Causes of myopathy in children:

• hormonal imbalances;
• heredity;
• genetic defects (deficiency of an enzyme that ensures metabolic processes in muscles; a defect in a cell that plays the most important role in the delivery of energy material to the muscles); Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5575512/ Alessia Nasca, Chiara Scotton, Irina Zaharieva, Marcella Neri, Rita Selvatici, Olafur Thor Magnusson, Aniko Gal, David Weaver, Rachele Rossi, Annarita Armaroli, Marika Pane, Rahul Phadke, Anna Sarkozy, Francesco Muntoni, Imelda Hughes, Antonella Cecconi, György Hajnóczky, Alice Donati, Eugenio Mercuri, Massimo Zeviani Recessive mutations in MSTO1 cause mitochondrial dynamics impairment, leading to myopathy and ataxia Hum Mutat. 2021 Aug; 38(8): 970–977.
• systemic connective tissue lesions.

The difference between primary muscle weakness and asthenia (muscle fatigue, exhaustion)

The difference between primary muscle weakness and asthenia is that asthenia is a feeling of weakness and loss of strength without pathological changes in the muscles. Exhaustion can occur in a number of chronic diseases, sleep disorders, chronic cardiovascular, respiratory, and endocrine diseases.

Asthenia may be limited to certain organs or organ systems. For example, the disease asthenopia. Asthenopia causes visual discomfort or fatigue that quickly sets in during visual work. This feeling appears especially often when the eyes are working at a close distance from the object of attention.

Types of disease

One of the classification features is the cause of the disease . According to it, myopathy is distinguished:

• primary (appears independently at birth, in early childhood or adolescence);
• secondary (develops against the background of other diseases).

According to the location of weakness, the disease is:

• proximal (muscles are weakened closer to the body);
• distal (muscles are weakened in the limbs further from the body);
• mixed.

The following forms of the disease also exist :

• Pseudohypertrophic (Duchenne-Griesinger). Appears at 3-6 years of age, rarely before one year. Mainly affects the muscles of the legs and pelvis. Associated lesions: weakness of the respiratory and cardiac muscles. There is a high probability of death even before adulthood.
• Landouzy-Dejerine. Begins at 10-15 years of age and affects the face. The facial muscles weaken, the lips protrude and thicken, and often the patient cannot close his eyelids. Then the muscles are involved in a descending manner down to the shoulder girdle.
• Erba-Rotta (youth). The onset of the disease is 10-20 years, boys are mainly susceptible to this form. The processes take place from top to bottom or bottom to top, rarely throughout the entire body or in the face area.

Important!

Congenital myopathy is one of the most dangerous forms in children, often resulting in death. Her treatment is limited to improving vitality and begins in the first months after birth. The main thing in therapy is the prevention of respiratory failure, the organization of tube feeding. As the child grows, orthopedic correction techniques are used, physiotherapy and social adaptation are of great importance.

Diagnosis of the disease

If muscle weakness occurs, it is better to contact a general practitioner or pediatrician, who, if necessary, will refer the patient to a neurologist and other specialized specialists. In any case, making a diagnosis is a complex process that includes examination, history taking, laboratory and instrumental examinations.

If hereditary dystrophic diseases are suspected, a genetic study is prescribed. To assess muscle function, electromyography is used to determine the electrical activity of muscle fibers. If necessary, a muscle biopsy is performed. Sometimes an ultrasound, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging is required to clarify the diagnosis. If an inflammatory-infectious lesion is suspected, the doctor prescribes blood and urine tests.

Return of physical activity

Seriously ill patients with COVID-19 lie in bed for a long time. Inactivity weakens muscle tone and can cause neck and shoulder pain. Also, the lack of load reduces the mobility of the joints - the production of synovial fluid in them slows down. We talked about how this works in the article about joint problems. Some patients even find it difficult to maintain balance and walk. Therefore, doctors were puzzled by the issue of a speedy recovery.

“During almost a year of work with patients after coronavirus infection, we developed programs depending on the severity of the disease,” says Professor of the Department of Sports Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation of Sechenov University, Doctor of Medical Sciences. Elizaveta Koneva.

You can restore mobility with the help of physical therapy, which is prescribed in rehabilitation centers. There is no special exercise therapy program for post-Covid syndrome, but the nuances depend on the severity of the disease and complications.

“Motor rehabilitation after COVID-19 has no special features,” confirms neurologist and chiropractor at GMS Clinic Grigory Bashkirtsev. “For all people, the disease progresses individually, which means the approach to rehabilitation should also be as individual as possible, taking into account existing pathologies.”

For motor rehabilitation, for example, gymnastics is used to train balance and simple aerobic exercises in which a person uses the lungs and pulmonary muscles.

“Gymnastic exercises and hardware massage are mainly used,” says Koneva. During the recovery process, we take into account the patient’s complaints, monitor saturation and CT scans and, based on the data obtained, adjust the therapy.”

On the surface, all of these workouts may seem very easy to do, but after a long period of treatment, it can be difficult to even walk. Therefore, the entire process takes place under the supervision of rehabilitation specialists, who continuously monitor the patient and adjust the intensity of exercise therapy.

Removing swelling from arm muscles

• Decreased sensitivity in the fingers, hand, or on the front or back of it.
• Impaired skin sensitivity of the hands and a decrease in the temperature of their skin.
• Tremor.
• Involuntary movements (with central paralysis and brain injuries).
• Partial muscle atrophy.

Neurologists like to give this example: due to compression of the lower cervical spinal nerves, weakness in the arms is felt with osteochondrosis, cervical spondylosis, cervical radiculopathy.

Doctor Nikonov

My opinion : osteochondrosis is caused by swollen neck and back muscles that compress the bone cells of the vertebrae. As a result of this compression, the bone cells are unable to free themselves from their waste products. The bone cell waste remains inside the cell. The bone cell and intervertebral discs become dry. The neck muscles do not allow lymph to pass through, which moves from the fingers. The muscle cells of the arms begin to swell a second time. Result : primary muscle weakness of the arms occurs.

Due to swelling in the cells, primary muscle weakness develops:

1. For Arana-Duchenne muscular atrophy.
2. In the late stages of progressive myopathic Kurshman-Steinert syndrome.
3. Landouzy-Dejerine myopathies (scapulohumeral-facial dystrophy), Emery-Dreyfus dystrophy.
4. Multiple sclerosis.
5. Guillain-Barré syndrome (or Landry-Guillain-Barré polyneuropathy), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Charcot's disease).
6. Rheumatoid arthritis (connective tissue disease affecting small joints).
7. Scleroderma (connective tissue disease affecting the skin, joints, etc.).
8. Systemic erythematosus (lupus or Libman's disease).
9. Periarteritis nodosa - vasculitis of medium and small vessels.
10. Inflammation of the blood vessels of the hands (Buerger's disease).

Weakness and cold hands are characteristic of Raynaud's syndrome, when patients have greatly increased sensitivity of the fingers to cold. Pain and weakness in the hand appear when the joints of the hands are affected - arthritis and arthrosis (with arthritis, the joints hurt at rest, with arthrosis - during movement).

Doctor Nikonov

My opinion: Anterior scalene syndrome occurs due to swelling of this muscle. Neuritis causes swelling of the muscles of the collar area. Swollen forearm muscles cause the disease carpal tunnel syndrome. Swollen forearm muscles compress the medial nerve of the forearm in the carpal tunnel.

Symptoms and treatment of pathology in a child

Clinical signs of myopathy in children:

• change in gait;
• weakness that does not go away with rest;
• delayed motor development;
• flaccid, flabby muscles;
• atrophy (thinning) of muscles;
• curvature of the spine is a manifestation indicating weakness of the muscular corset.

Negative processes manifest themselves in children in early and teenage years, but since myopathy develops slowly, it can go undetected for a long time. In addition, children are able to compensate for muscle deficiency by using other, healthy muscles more actively.

The most common changes are observed in the areas of the shoulders, legs, arms, pelvis, and chest. With this disease they are always bilateral and symmetrical.

As the disease progresses, movement disorders appear:

• it is difficult for a child to sit up from a lying position;
• movements are abnormal, “wrong”;
• when walking and/or running, fatigue quickly sets in;
• the child has difficulty maintaining balance and often falls;
• It is difficult for a child to climb stairs.

Disturbances in appearance may also appear:

• protruding ribs;
• very thin, as if overtightened, waist;
• flattened chest;
• slouch;
• Irregular shape of legs - thick calves and thin thighs.