Muscle aches are a common health disorder. Almost everyone has experienced muscle aches and pains sometime during his or her lifetime. Muscle aches can occur almost anywhere on the body because every part of our bodies has muscle tissue.
Common Causes of Muscle Aches
The most common causes of muscle aches are muscular tension in certain areas of the body, overusing muscles during physical activity or injuring a muscle while exercising or when engaging in physically demanding work. In addition, there are also medical conditions that can cause muscle pain such as fibromyalgia, flu, medications or drugs, and lupus. There are things you and I can do at home that will ease our aching muscles such as resting areas of our bodies where aches and pains occur, taking a pain reliever like ibuprofen or applying ice to the affected area. Other steps we can take is gently stretching the muscles, doing stress-relieving activities such as yoga and meditation.
When should your doctor know about Muscle pain?
It is important to note that your doctor should know about muscle aches if the pain doesn’t go away after a few days of home treatment, if a rash occurs with the muscle pain, if there is muscle pain that happens after a tick bite, if redness or swelling occurs or if pain occurs after a change in medication. If you notice the following symptoms along with aching muscles, you need to get to the hospital quickly. Here are the signs: difficulty swallowing, trouble catching your breath, stiffness in your neck, muscles feeling weak or if you are unable to move the affected muscle area.
Medications that can help
There are muscle ache relief products that can alleviate muscle pain such as external analgesics like benzocaine, internal analgesics like Aleve and Advil. Internal analgesics such as Advil, Aleve and Tylenol can also relieve muscular aches and pains. External products such as ointments and creams, even though they have not proven to be effective, are used by many. External analgesics such as hydrocortisone are not listed as easing muscle soreness but some use them when they have muscle pain.
When an a muscle injury is sharp, traditional treatment is often applied which consists of protection, rest, ice, compression and elevation. Both cold therapy and thermotherapy help for awhile but then medication is often needed to help with the pain and discomfort.
To conclude, muscle aches are a common health disorder; however, there are several muscle ache relief products that can lower the pain and discomfort.