BPPV Dizziness vs. Heart Attack Is Coming Dizziness
BPPV dizziness can strike out of the blue, but so can the dizziness of a looming heart attack. Is there a way to tell the difference?
BPPV stands for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. It’s caused by a displacement of “crystals” in the inner ear that are involved with sending signals to the brain. (more…)
Heart Rate Over 100 a Few Hours After Intense Exercise Normal?
If your heart rate is still over 100 even after intense exercise, you need to find out why this is happening, because it shouldn’t be. (more…)
Can Early MS Cause Tingling & Numbness Below the Waist?
“Early MS can often cause numbness and tingling below the waist,” says Mitzi J. Williams, MD, clinical neurologist with Morehouse School of Medicine, an MS specialist and clinical advisor for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
How Hip Pain from MS Feels Different from Other Causes
There are so many causes of hip pain, from bursitis to strained muscles to cancer to multiple sclerosis. (more…)
Can Multiple Sclerosis Cause a Completely Numb Scalp?
Numbness in the scalp has quite a few causes, including some very surprising ones – as well as multiple sclerosis. (more…)
Can You Have ALS Without Weakness in the Early Stage?
Can ALS be in progress before it starts causing weakness?
This question looms before people who are scared that their twitching muscles means the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – an incurable disease that is fatal usually within two to five years of diagnosis.
ALS but no Weakness? Does this describe you:
• You’ve been having twitching muscles lately – perhaps somewhere on your legs, the bottom of your foot, your chest, a finger, maybe a toe or near an eye…
• Out of curiosity or out of annoyance, you decided to “look up” the cause of twitching muscles.
• Whatever you typed into the search engine brought up sites for a disease called ALS.
• You may have already heard of this lethal neurological condition, but never knew that “twitching muscles” is a symptom.
• Or maybe you’ve never heard of it. and your first intro was that of finding out one of its symptoms is muscle twitching – also known as fasciculations.
• You now can’t help but wonder if you have early ALS – even though you don’t feel weak.
• You then read up on this motor neuron disease and see conflicting information about the sequence of symptoms.
You scratch your head. You check your body for signs of atrophy and spot dents or grooves on one side of a body part but not the other. Your heart pounds with fear. Is this early ALS?
• Can atrophy occur before weakness?
• Can weakness occur before atrophy?
• How early must ALS be before the twitching and weakness begin?
• At what point does visible atrophy begin appearing?
• Before or after the weakness?
• Before or after the fasciculations?
The various permutations keep you up all night.
“ALS can start with fasciculations before the weakness occurs,” says Mitzi J. Williams, MD, clinical neurologist with Morehouse School of Medicine and clinical advisor for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
However, if you’ve done your homework, you will have read that the occurrence of ALS is about one or two per 100,000 people. It’s a very rare disease.
Meanwhile, about 163 people per 100,000 die from cancer every year, says the National Cancer Institute. Even more die from heart disease, says the American Heart Association.
ALS isn’t even a top 10 killer. The flu is much more likely to kill you.
Meanwhile, millions of people every day experience harmless twitches of various muscles anywhere in their body – from tiny ones in their eyelid and above a lip, to major ones in their legs.
Dr. Williams explains, “Most fasciculations are not harmful and can occur with a variety of conditions including nutritional deficiencies, anxiety, overexertion and peripheral neuropathy.”
Peripheral neuropathy might have just grabbed your attention, but this condition is strongly associated with diabetes.
But it’s a condition of reduced sensation, not reduced strength. It’s often characterized by numbness or tingling.
ALS without Weakness
“It is more common that people notice the weakness before the fasciculations, but the inverse can occur,” says Dr. Williams.
The weakness is usually a sudden onset of abnormal weakness, not the weakness from overexertion or taking on more than you can handle.
Trying to hold a 30 pound dumbbell over your head for half a minute with one arm (when you haven’t strength trained for years) while standing on one foot hardly qualifies as a fair strength test.
Health anxiety could cause a person to perceive weakness in nearly everything they do – from having to put some effort into unscrewing a stubborn jar lid to deadlifting 10 fewer pounds than last week’s workout.
Pathological weakness would be more like suddenly not being able to lift a plastic pitcher of water.
Stop Checking for Dents
“Also, dents in the muscles are not necessarily the same as atrophy,” says Dr. Williams.
“If this is something new that a person notices without a history of injury, it never hurts to seek an opinion from a neurologist for evaluation.”
However, noticing the so-called dents, indentations or grooves far more likely reflects a new awareness of your body’s natural and harmless asymmetry, rather than ALS.
“ALS is a progressive disease, and people do not normally have the same symptoms for years without worsening or progression to other parts of the body,” says Dr. Williams.
Dr. Williams is author of “MS Made Simple: The Essential Guide to Understanding Your Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis.” She is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Viktoriia Hnatiuk
Causes of Twitching Muscles in the Back
Does the same kind of twitching that occurs in your eyelid ever occur in the muscles of your back? (more…)
Would ALS or MS Foot Drop Make Driving Difficult?
Would any degree of foot drop from ALS or MS be detected when driving and using the gas and brake pedals? (more…)
Can MS Cause Excruciating Back Pain?
Multiple sclerosis is known for causing pain, but can it cause excruciating or severe pain – in one’s back?
If back pain isn’t the No. 1 non-fatal health problem in the U.S., then it certainly comes in as the No. 2.
Back pain can range from mild to agonizing and everything in between.
And there are just so many causes of pain in the back.
Common Causes of Back Pain
The most common cause is a combination of poor biomechanics (e.g., using one’s lower back instead of their legs to lift a heavy item from the floor) and poorly trained low back apparatus due to lack of weight-bearing exercise.
Vehicular accidents are also a leading cause.
One might also say that vertebral degeneration is an unavoidable natural part of aging that begins around 40, though very physically fit middle-agers with strong backs would beg to differ.
Back pain can even be caused by not just cancerous tumors on the spine, but metastatic cancer from primary tumor sites such as the ovary and prostate.
Multiple sclerosis, too, can cause back pain.
MS As a Cause of Back Pain
Freepik/stefamerpik
So where does multiple sclerosis fit into the arena of back pain, particularly of an excruciating or very severe nature?
“MS can cause back pain which is often related to spasticity,” says Mitzi J. Williams, MD, clinical neurologist with Morehouse School of Medicine, an MS specialist and clinical advisor for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
Spasticity is the ongoing contraction of muscle, which leads to tightness and stiffness.
“It usually does not cause excruciating back pain to the point where someone has difficulty moving,” says Dr. Williams.
“People with MS can also have back pain from other common causes such as muscle strain from an injury or degenerative disease such as a slipped disc in the spine.”
Excruciating Back Pain with MS
Dr. Williams explains that “MS symptoms can pile on top of each other, so if someone has back pain from spasticity with MS and they overdo it or strain a muscle, or have degenerative disease as well, the combination of the symptoms can result in excruciating pain.
“But the pain may not be due only to the MS component — and that with multiple sclerosis it is hard to separate out the components of pain from spasticity, degeneration, etc.
“People often have to see a neurologist and orthopedic doctor to help sort out these issues and treat the pain appropriately.”
MRI Scans
An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a crucial diagnostic tool for identifying the source of back pain.
This imaging technique offers detailed pictures of the spine and surrounding tissues, which helps in pinpointing various potential issues.
Since MRI is a non-invasive procedure and does not involve radiation, it’s a safe option for obtaining detailed images of the spine.
Dr. Williams is author of “MS Made Simple: The Essential Guide to Understanding Your Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis.” She is a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images
Can Multiple Sclerosis Cause Toe Pain? What Really Is MS Pain?
