Chronic muscle pain is a pain disorder that affects the muscles and the tissues surrounding the muscles. It can develop almost anywhere in the body, including the back, lower extremities, and hands. It can involve a group of muscles or just a compact one. Pain usually ranges from mild to excruciating, characterized by tenderness and spasms, which can last six months or more.
Chronic muscle pain is diagnosed only in the body areas of complaints, but its real cause is yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, it normally happens when the muscles are repetitively stressed, over-worked, and contracted.
The complications of chronic muscle pain come from trigger points. These are localized areas of the body in which the muscles and its surrounding connective tissues are highly sensitive to the sensation of pain. They are described as palpable nodules that when compressed and pressured can elicit local tenderness and pain to another area of the body.
Sadly, chronic muscle pain is often misdiagnosed. It is frequently thought of as fibromyalgia. At times, doctors find the symptoms indefinable, as if they cannot find anything wrong with their patients. They do run the tests and simply find a tense musculature, but nothing more. In this case, the diagnosis is fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia is a disorder where the brain has problems processing pain signals. Its real cause is unknown, but it normally happens to women on their 40s to 60s. Chronic muscle pain, on the other hand, is the actual disorder of the muscles themselves. It can be examined and shows detailed results. The brain has no problem with pain receptors, and muscles are actually sore and sensitive to pain.
What Causes Chronic Muscle Pain?
Though, the real cause is yet unknown, there are many underlying conditions that play a big role in promoting chronic muscle pain. For one, depression and anxiety can lead to muscle tension. When someone is overstressed, the brain’s ability to produce the happy hormone known as endorphins is decreased. Endorphins are responsible for regulating the awareness to pain. When they are decreased, a person can be too sensitive to pain and pain control can be depleted. This in turn, causes the muscles to become weary and respond to pain even more.
Poor posture due to emotional stress and poor muscle tone because of a sedentary lifestyle may also trigger chronic pain. For instance, sitting with your head pushed forward and buttocks and abdomen protruded can limit the space between the vertebrae, which leads to compressed nerves. Compressed nerves, on the other hand, delays the process of communication from the brain to the other parts of the body. Here, the muscles can be deprived of proper nutrients and essential hormones like dopamine and endorphins to be less sensitive to aches and pains.
More so, our sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits may also bring forth chronic muscle pain. This idea is supported by our circulatory system, which includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood. The blood is needed to sustain life as it carries nutrients, oxygen and takes away waste products like carbon dioxide away from tissues. However, because of our poor diet, the blood vessels can build up plaque. Plaque can hinder the body to sustain enough oxygen to its parts, including muscle groups. This in turn, makes them deficient of all the nutrition they need to make them healthy and well-functioning.
Poor body mechanics can also cause chronic muscle pain. Body mechanics are the proper body positioning of the things we do regularly every day, such as standing, sitting, lifting, reaching, and many more. Doing such things incorrectly, can misalign bones and joints, promote wear and tear, and cause strain and muscle pain.
Everything becomes a cycle going forward. Poor body mechanics increase muscle tension. Tensed muscles contribute to poor body mechanics. For the cycle to be broken, the pain should be managed and muscles should be strengthened.
What are the Treatments for Chronic Muscle Pain?
Chronic muscle pain is a condition where muscle fiber is overly contracted. This can be due to lack of proper nutrition and oxygen. Nonetheless, there are numerous ways to treat chronic muscle pain, such as physical therapy, massage therapy, and medication.
Physical therapy includes strengthening exercises and stretches, whereas massage therapy uses the hands to loosen tightened muscles and relieve spasms and cramping. Medicine such as ibuprofen and injectable anesthetics, on the other hand, can minimize pain, but may not provide long-term treatment.
Although all these treatments are readily available if one develops this condition, it is not impossible to prevent chronic muscle pain in the first place. By doing regular exercise, having a well-balanced diet, improving posture, and managing stress properly, the chance of acquiring this disorder is decreased.
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