Leg relief. Leg Pain: Causes, Treatments, and Remedies for Relief

11.02.202316.07.2023 by alexxlab

What are the common causes of leg pain? How can you treat and find relief for leg cramps, muscle strain, and other leg pains? Get the answers to your questions about leg pain.

Understanding the Causes of Leg Pain

Leg pain is a common problem that can arise due to a variety of causes. Some of the most common reasons for leg pain include:

Muscle Cramps

Muscle cramps, also known as “charley horses,” are painful contractions of the muscles in the leg. They can be caused by dehydration, low levels of electrolytes like potassium or sodium, overuse of the muscles, or certain medications.

Muscle Strain or Injury

A torn or overstretched muscle, known as a muscle strain, can cause leg pain. This is often the result of overuse, excessive exercise, or sudden movements that put too much stress on the leg muscles.

Stress Fractures

A hairline crack in the bone, or stress fracture, can also lead to leg pain, especially in the shins or lower legs. This is typically caused by repetitive stress or overuse of the leg muscles and bones.

Tendinitis

Inflammation of the tendons, known as tendinitis, can cause pain in the leg, particularly around the knee or ankle. This is often associated with overuse or overexertion of the affected tendon.

Shin Splints

Shin splints, or pain in the front of the lower leg, is a common condition caused by overuse or overexertion of the muscles and connective tissues in the shin area.

Diagnosing the Cause of Leg Pain

To determine the underlying cause of leg pain, your healthcare provider will perform a physical examination and may order additional tests, such as:

Blood tests to check for electrolyte imbalances
Imaging tests like X-rays, MRI, or CT scans to look for fractures, tumors, or other structural issues
Nerve conduction studies or electromyography to evaluate nerve function

It’s important to report any additional symptoms, such as swelling, redness, fever, or numbness, as these can provide important clues to the cause of the leg pain.

Treating Leg Pain

The treatment for leg pain will depend on the underlying cause. In many cases, self-care measures can help alleviate the pain, such as:

Rest and elevation of the affected leg
Application of ice packs for up to 15 minutes, several times a day
Gentle stretching and massage of the affected muscles
Over-the-counter pain medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen

For more severe or persistent leg pain, your healthcare provider may recommend:

Physical therapy to help strengthen and rehabilitate the affected area
Prescription medications to address underlying conditions like nerve damage or arthritis
In some cases, surgery may be necessary to treat structural issues or severe injuries

Preventing Leg Pain

To help prevent leg pain, it’s important to:

Maintain a healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise and a balanced diet
Stay hydrated and replenish electrolytes, especially during physical activity
Warm up and cool down properly before and after exercise
Wear supportive, well-fitting shoes and replace them as needed
Avoid overexertion or sudden increases in physical activity

When to Seek Medical Attention

If you experience any of the following, it’s important to seek medical attention:

Severe, persistent, or worsening leg pain
Swelling, redness, or warmth in the affected leg
Numbness, tingling, or weakness in the leg
Fever or other signs of infection
Leg pain that occurs with exercise and improves with rest (a sign of peripheral artery disease)

Your healthcare provider can help determine the underlying cause of your leg pain and provide the appropriate treatment to help you find relief.

Key Takeaways

Leg pain can have a variety of causes, ranging from muscle cramps and strains to more serious conditions like peripheral artery disease or bone fractures. By understanding the common causes of leg pain and seeking appropriate treatment, you can find relief and prevent further complications. Remember to report any concerning symptoms to your healthcare provider and follow their recommendations for managing your leg pain.

Leg pain: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

Leg pain is a common problem. It can be due to a cramp, injury, or other cause.

Leg pain can be due to a muscle cramp (also called a charley horse). Common causes of cramps include:

Dehydration or low amounts of potassium, sodium, calcium, or magnesium in the blood
Medicines (such as diuretics and statins)
Muscle fatigue or strain from overuse, too much exercise, or holding a muscle in the same position for a long time

An injury can also cause leg pain from:

A torn or overstretched muscle (strain)
Hairline crack in the bone (stress fracture)
Inflamed tendon (tendinitis)
Shin splints (pain in the front of the leg from overuse)

Other common causes of leg pain include:

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), which causes a problem with blood flow in the legs (this type of pain, called claudication, is generally felt when exercising or walking and is relieved by rest)
Blood clot (deep vein thrombosis) from long-term bed rest
Infection of the bone (osteomyelitis) or skin and soft tissue (cellulitis)
Inflammation of the leg joints caused by arthritis or gout
Nerve damage common to people with diabetes, smokers, and alcoholics
Varicose veins

Less common causes include:

Cancerous bone tumors (osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma)
Legg-Calve-Perthes disease — poor blood flow to the hip that may stop or slow the normal growth of the leg
Noncancerous (benign) tumors or cysts of the femur or tibia (osteoid osteoma)
Sciatic nerve pain (radiating pain down the leg) caused by a slipped disk in the back
Slipped capital femoral epiphysis — most often seen in boys and overweight children between ages 11 and 15

If you have leg pain from cramps or overuse, take these steps first:

Rest as much as possible.
Elevate your leg.
Apply ice for up to 15 minutes. Do this 4 times per day, more often for the first few days.
Gently stretch and massage cramping muscles.
Take over-the-counter pain medicines such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen.

Other homecare will depend on the cause of your leg pain.

Contact your health care provider if:

The painful leg is swollen or red.
You have a fever.
Your pain gets worse when you walk or exercise and improves with rest.
The leg is black and blue.
The leg is cold and pale.
You are taking medicines that may be causing leg pain. DO NOT stop taking or change any of your medicines without talking to your provider.
Self-care steps do not help.

Your provider will perform a physical exam and look at your legs, feet, thighs, hips, back, knees, and ankles.

Your provider may ask questions such as:

Where on the leg is the pain? Is the pain in one or both legs?
Is the pain dull and aching or sharp and stabbing? Is the pain severe? Is the pain worse at any time of day?
What makes the pain feel worse? Does anything make your pain feel better?
Do you have any other symptoms such as numbness, tingling, back pain, or fever?

Your provider may recommend physical therapy for some causes of leg pain.

Pain – leg; Aches – leg; Cramps – leg

Lower leg muscles

Leg pain (Osgood-Schlatter)

Shin splints

Varicose veins

Retrocalcaneal bursitis

Lower leg muscles

Anthony KK, Schanberg LE. Musculoskeletal pain syndromes. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, Shah SS, Tasker RC, Wilson KM, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 21st ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 193.

Hogrefe C, Terry M. Leg pain and exertional compartment syndromes. In: Miller MD, Thompson SR. eds. DeLee, Drez, & Miller’s Orthopaedic Sports Medicine. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 113.

Silverstein JA, Moeller JL, Hutchinson MR. Common issues in orthopedics. In: Rakel RE, Rakel DP, eds. Textbook of Family Medicine. 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2016:chap 30.

Smith G, Shy ME. Peripheral neuropathies. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 26th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 392.

Weitz JI, Ginsberg JS. Venous thrombosis and embolism. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 26th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 74.

White CJ. Atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 26th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 71.

Updated by: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

Treatment and Remedies for Relief

How to Stop Leg Cramps: Treatment and Remedies for Relief

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Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. D., MSN — By Elea Carey — Updated on March 8, 2019

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Garrison SR, et al. (2012). Magnesium for skeletal muscle cramps. DOI:
10.1002/14651858.CD009402.pub2
Magnesium. (2017).
mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/magnes/proper-use/drg-20088513
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2016). Sports drinks: Better than water?
mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/health-tip/art-20049113
Reichel G. (2009). Muscle cramps – differential diagnosis and therapy [Abstract].
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19402333

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Current Version

Mar 8, 2019

Written By

Elea Carey

Edited By

Nizam Khan (TechSpace)

Feb 7, 2018

Medically Reviewed By

Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. D., MSN

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Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph.D., MSN — By Elea Carey — Updated on March 8, 2019

Episode 242: Foot and Ankle Pain Relief – Nerve Flow Part 1

Today we will be doing lower body and nerve flow combined with the sensory work from last week’s blog.

In last week’s blog we talked about the concept of sensory before motor, how the brain works, and how sometimes we can help people improve brain advancement, increase strength and get rid of pain just by looking at sensory input from local area to the brain. We talked about using vibration, light touch, sharp/blunt, because there are several different ways. If you need to know more, come back and check out the blog.

So today we want to consider if I have problems in my lower body, knee, ankle, foot, if I have pain. Let’s say I have limited spinal flexion, squat, lunge, whatever, we want to consider if I can use sensory input to improve that.

You should already have information on how to check this.

In our program, we are primarily looking at input at the receptor level, basically how sensory input occurs from a given area.

Next we want to look at the peripheral nerves.

In previous blogs we have looked at some of the so-called neuromechanical exercises, exercises for the nervous system of the upper body.

Today I want to take you through a fast flow for a specific set of nerves, for the lower body. It’s very easy to do.

First, we will take a sitting position with one leg extended in front of us. Here you see what I still have – this massager.

We’ll start thinking about, let’s say I have some problems with my knee.

Then I check, based on a previous blog, maybe 30-45 seconds of vibration really improved my knee pain. Cool.

We’re going to do this: we’re going to make a nerve thread for some of the nerves that feed the knee and the back of the leg. Then we’ll match that with the massager, okay?

So I’ll start with our main nerve current.

Very simple. I’m going to sit up straight and high. Extend your working leg out in front of you and lock your knee.

Our first exercise is called “tibial nerve glide”.

For the tibia, what we’re going to do is pull the toes towards the ceiling. We’ll direct them to the wall to the side. This is called twisting. Then we will pull the toes into extension, which means I will pull the toes back towards the knee.

When you do this, you will get quite a strong sensation all along the course of the sciatic nerve and then through the stomach. Mostly at the bottom of the foot, exactly where we’re trying to do it.

Now, in this position, I will slowly move my body forward, then start a small sliding motion. When I feel, again, tension at 3 of 10, which is what we always teach in the early stages of these neuromechanical exercises, I will freeze in this position and then begin a small sliding movement.

The easiest way to do this in this position is to simply bend and extend the knee.

So I again hold dorsal flexion, eversion, toe extension, slight dip, three out of 10 tensions, and again 5 to 10 slight flexions, knee extensions to skip the nerve.

Next, I will continue in the same vein and just take the leg out of the starting position, and then return to it. So now I’m piercing the nerve with my ankle.

I can do the same with my toes.

Remember that we make it very, very easy.

If you have had problems with the sciatic nerve, with discs, then you need to be very careful with this. Consult with your physician. This is always the most important because I don’t know what your body is capable of, but again, I’m going to make them very, very light.

Now that you’ve done that, our second nerve pad is called the sural nerve pad.

We’ll start again with the outstretched leg position, fixing the knee. Pull your toes up. Now, what we’re going to do at this point, we’re just going to flip the ankle, okay?

This is actually for the sensory nerve, for the sural nerve. It has no motor component. This is only for the outside of the foot and Achilles tendon.

If you have chronic Achilles problems this is a great option to work with.

Again, pull your toes up to the ceiling, turn your foot inward. Now try to relax your toes. Lean forward again, you will feel it more laterally in the leg, so it will feel more around the outer ankle and possibly the outer side of the knee.

Again, in small movements, 5 to 10 reps. Once you do that, relax for a second, recover. Now keep your knee still and just rotate your foot in and out, okay?

So you can tighten and untension, okay? So that’s number two.

Exercise number three is for the peroneal nerve.

This will go through the top of the foot, the lateral side of the leg. I’ll start from here. This one is a little different.

In this position I will point my toes. I’m going to do a plantar curl, turn my toes in, and then I’m going to actually grab, I’m going to bend my toes down. The hardest thing to remember is to keep your toes bent in this position, and the foot may cramp. If the leg cramps, you can first remove the flexion of the fingers.

So again, good and high, point your toes, turn your foot inward, now bend your toes, lean forward. Here you will probably have a bit more range of motion. Once again, five to ten small knee swings and five to ten small ankle swings. Pretty simple.

After that, if you responded well to one of the previous sensory exercises… Again, I’m just using the massager as an example, it could be light touches or harsh/blunt touches.

You may have to ask someone to help you, depending on your flexibility, but what we want to do now is called “stacking” when we are going to actually use the sensory stimulus at the same time that I am doing my exercises .

Again, let’s say I responded well to the vibration in my knee, now I’m going to keep it here while I’m working on the various nerve slips.

Often, if you do this, you will find that adding a sensory input actually makes the neuromechanical drill a little less sensitive, which means it will actually be a little easier to perform. This will improve your range of motion and often the overall results of combining sensory work with peripheral nerve work are very, very powerful.

Try it.

If you have any questions, please let us know. Otherwise, proceed very carefully.

Remember that three out of 10 are tense, and listen to your body.

Good luck.

what is it and how to deal with it

01/23/2020

Restless legs syndrome was first discussed in 1685. It was then that Dr. Thomas Willis recorded the first case of RLS (Restless Legs Syndrom). However, the diagnosis received its name only at the end of the Second World War during the research of Karl-Axel Ekbom (it is also often called Ekbom’s syndrome).

To date, scientists have made a lot of progress in the study of the syndrome, but the exact causes of the disease have not yet been established and are always considered individually. How to recognize RLS and what steps should be taken if this diagnosis has become your medical case? Together with Vladimir Anatolyevich Parfenov, Head of the Department of Nervous Diseases and Neurosurgery of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov figured out all the details of the issue.

What is Restless Leg Syndrome?

Restless legs syndrome is a disease that can actually be caused by a variety of reasons. For example, primary restless leg syndrome often appears at a young age and persists throughout life. Secondary restless leg syndrome can be the result of various conditions and diseases, in particular: iron deficiency, pregnancy (due to iron deficiency, folic acid and other causes), kidney failure, peripheral nerve damage, systemic connective tissue diseases, complications from taking certain drugs.

RLS most often manifests itself in the need to move the legs due to constant discomfort. It is characteristic that they occur or intensify at night, leading to sleep disturbance. Quite often, people suffering from restless legs syndrome turn to specialists with just such a complaint, and during the examination it turns out that the real cause of insomnia is RLS. At the same time, situations are quite common when a person is forced to get up at night due to discomfort in the legs and walk around the room. This eases the discomfort and often helps to fall asleep after only a few attempts.

In Western Europe and North America, the prevalence of the disease averages 5-10%, and in Asian countries it is much lower. At the same time, the prevalence of the syndrome increases from the age of 20, reaching a peak at 70-79 years. Women are twice as likely to suffer from RLS than men.

How to calculate the syndrome?

According to specialists and symptomatic patients, RLS sensations can sometimes be quite strange and defy precise description, or they can be quite specific: aching, itching, pulling or throbbing sensations, as well as a feeling as if you are being lightly shocked by an electric current in your legs. Other symptoms of restless legs syndrome include:0101

A strong desire to move your legs, especially if you have been sitting or lying down for a long time;
Temporary relief with the onset of movement;
Increased symptoms in the late afternoon or at night (or afternoon and evening).
You can find these symptoms at any age, but RLS is becoming more common in older people. If you observe them for yourself and you are under 40 years old, it is quite possible that the factor of heredity played a role here. With restless leg syndrome, you may also experience discomfort at different intervals, such as several times a night, a week, or even less frequently. But, as already mentioned, with age, the frequency of symptoms increases.

How to treat the disease?

Secondary Restless Leg Syndrome can be treated effectively by treating the conditions and diseases that cause the syndrome, such as normalizing iron levels in case of iron deficiency (see also: 7 Foods Rich in Iron) or stopping the drug.

However, in any case, self-medication with RLS is unacceptable, since a large number of diseases with similar symptoms are known to medicine. If you suspect that you have restless legs syndrome, then the first thing to do is to consult a specialist who will identify the cause of the syndrome and prescribe therapy based on the examination.

Treatment for secondary cases of restless leg syndrome is largely based on addressing the underlying cause. Until they are clarified, sleep hygiene, refusal to take alcohol, smoking, and foot baths are recommended. Among the drugs often used are the same drugs as in Parkinson’s disease. Their dose is determined by the doctor.

Source: MC.RU

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