Muscle Pain Causes

Muscle pain causes are many and varied. In fact, the soreness and stiffness that many people routinely describe as muscle pain can be caused by other parts of the anatomy like tendons, ligaments, and even nerves.  

Pain that originates in the joints, like arthritis and gout, is sometimes described as muscle pain because people don't understand the exact cause of their discomfort.

Generally speaking, there are two types of muscle pain, and they have different medical names. Myalgia simply put, is generic pain in a muscle or group of muscles. Myolitis, on the other hand, is muscle pain caused by inflammation.

Muscle pain can be a symptom of a variety of diseases and disorders. In this article, we'll list and describe the most common.

Causes

Very often, muscle pain results from using the muscle improperly. We assign our muscles a task they're not capable of doing: we lift, push, or pull something that's too heavy for us. When this happens, the stands of fibrous tissue that make up our muscles stretch or break.

Sprinters, for instance, sometimes get a "groin pull" in the adductor muscles of the upper thigh when they extend themselves to hard straining for the finish line.

Something similar happens when we use the muscle over and over again for an extended period of time. Such repetitive use, or overuse, is exemplified by a condition like "tennis elbow."

Sometimes we ask our muscles to do too much too soon. In other words, if you try to exercise or play competitive sports without stretching or warming up, you can hurt muscles. Baseball players who don't warm up but then immediately try to throw hard are said to risk "throwing their arm out." Of course, their arm doesn't physically leave their body. But the pain can make it feel as if it has.

Accidents and sports-related injuries occur too. Very often this type of muscle pain is caused by a collision or some other kind of trauma.

Tension and anxiety can cause muscle pain. We say we "tense up." That means many of our muscles are contracting at once due to stress or fear. If we do this often enough, or intensely enough, muscles will start to hurt.

A muscle spasm is an example of a muscle tensing up - painfully - on it's own.

Muscle pain caused by other disorders

There are also diseases, infections and illnesses that cause muscle pain. Anyone who has ever had the flu or pneumonia knows about body aches caused by sore muscles.

Other specific conditions that cause muscle pain include the following.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that affects the connective tissues. It feels like aching muscles. Pain may be mild or it may be quite intense.

Fibromyalgia is a condition which is still largely not understood. Fibromyalgia is probably caused by something going on in the brain, but you feel the pain in the muscles and soft tissues.

Lyme disease - transmitted by a tick bite, symptoms include a rash that sometimes looks like a bull's eye, followed by fever, headaches and pain in the muscles and joints. See Lyme disease.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever - also caused by a tick bite. Muscle pain is one of its classic symptoms. See tick diseases.

Malaria - humans get malaria from a mosquito bite. It is more common in tropical and sub-tropical regions. It causes fever, chills and shivering, joint and muscle pain, vomiting, anemia, and convulsions.

Trichinosis - also known as roundworm, it makes muscles hurt.

Muscle abscess - often caused by a bacterial infection in the muscle itself. Sometimes the infection "migrates" to the muscle from some other tissue or bone.

Miscellaneous muscle pain causes

You can experience muscle pain caused by chemical and mineral imbalances in the body. These imbalances, which often involve calcium or potassium, often come naturally as part of the aging process.

Certain kinds of medications may trigger these imbalances too, notably ACE inhibitors for lowering high blood pressure and statins for lowering cholesterol.

Cocaine and some other types of illegal drugs can cause muscle pain.

Summary

Muscular pain is usually not serious, but as noted above, it can sometimes be a symptom of many other illnesses and diseases that may be dangerous.

If muscle pain persists for more than a few days and doesn't seem to be improving with rest, and you're not sure of the cause, it's a good idea to talk to your doctor about it.