Causes of Muscle Spasms

This article will discuss the various types and causes of muscle spasms, back pain symptoms, lower back pain remedies, treatment and prevention, and touch on back pain medicine and some of the best back pain relief products available today.

To understand the causes of muscle spasms, you need to understand how muscles work.  Whenever you move, various muscles in your body will contract or expand.  When muscles involuntarily contract, this is called spasms or involuntary muscle spasms.

Involuntary Muscle Spasms

Though it’s more common to have muscle spasms in our back, neck, calves or feet, every muscle in our body is subject to muscle spasms.   Muscle spasms are the most common reason for back pain cause.  These muscle spasms usually happen from muscle fatigue, sudden or continued over-exertion such as exercise or sports activities; using the muscles for things they’re not conditioned for, including lifting heavy or bulky items, or simply moving your body at an awkward angle.  It can be a side effect of certain medications, and sometimes an electrolyte imbalance or neurological disorder such as a stroke, trauma, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis can trigger it. Some symptoms of muscle spasms may be a burning back pain or sudden back pain.  Generally, to help relieve the causes of muscle spasms, the best thing to do is to gradually and slowly stretch, such as muscle stretching exercises.

I’ll outline some of the back pain symptoms and remedies below.

Back Pain Symptom

  1. Muscle trauma is an extreme stress on the muscles that causes mild to severe spasms or cramps. The area can become inflamed, red or swollen.  You might feel a sudden “pull” or hear a snapping sound when this happens.  Slow muscle stretching exercises, moving and walking around will help this.

   2. Dehydration is a major contributor to lower back muscle spasms.  Loss of sodium due to dehydration causes limb and abdominal cramps or spasms.  If you drink a good deal of water and increase salts, it will reduce the spasms quite a bit.

   3. A poor supply of oxygen to the muscles is one of the main reasons behind spasms or cramps.  You can treat it by breathing slowly and deeply.  A gentle massage and slow stretching can also be effective.  Poor blood circulation is an example of a poor supply of oxygen to the muscles, and you need to get the blood circulating, getting the oxygen to the muscles.

   4. Night spasms or “Charley Horses” usually occur in your legs, calves or feet at night or when you’re resting.  They can be fairly painful if you’re also dehydrated.  It’s usually caused by sitting too long, or low potassium, magnesium, calcium or sodium.  Bananas and some other fruits are a great source of potassium, and help my Charley Horses.

   5. Menstruation is another cause of muscle spasms in the abdomen, sometimes referred to as stomach back pain.  The best treatment for menstrual cramps or spasms is using heat, an appropriate pain reliever/anti-inflammatory such as ibuprophen or Motrin if approved by your doctor, and doing slow stretches.  Pregnancy and back pain are also a very common combination.

   6. Tension causes your entire body to tense up.  Try to stay calm and relaxed with slow breathing, meditation, visualization, or doing something you enjoy that will relax you.

   7. An electrolyte deficiency is another big cause of muscle spasms, which is a deficiency of potassium (Hypokalemia) or calcium (Hypocalemia).  If you supplement your diet with calcium and potassium, this will relieve it.

   8. A deficiency of vitamins like Thiamine (B1), Pantothenic Acid (B5) and Pyridoxine (B6) will cause muscle spasms.  Vitamin and mineral supplements will help your overall health as well as reducing the causes of muscle spasms.

Lower Back Pain Remedy or General Muscle Remedy

    * If you stretch and condition properly before any strenuous activity or activity your body’s not accustomed to, and warm up and cool down, you’ll greatly reduce the chances of muscle spasms

    * Stay hydrated with plenty of water.  Water helps ‘lubricate’ your muscles and organs, and is vital for proper functioning of your entire system.  Also be sure to replace electrolytes lost during strenuous activity or sports

    * Avoid excessive fatigue.  This not only helps your muscles, but your emotional, mental and physical health

    * Take vitamin and mineral supplements to not only reduce muscle spasms, but to maintain overall health

    * Take breaks during increased activity, stretch and relax your muscles

    * Observe ergonomics such as table height, chair position, foot support, etc. (see more details at the Stop Back Pain Cause Now page)

    * Avoid high heeled footwear.  This puts a tremendous strain on your back and entire body.  Your body’s not in its proper position with high heels.  They push your weight forward, throwing your posture, spine and hips out of whack, and are very bad for your feet

These are some of the main things you can do to relieve muscle spasms as well as help sciatic nerve relief, and there’s more helpful information about this in this blog.  There are also several types of back pain medicine you can take, which I’ve included in other posts.  There are a few high quality back pain relief products I can highly recommend including Back Soothe Wellness Oil (Wonderful), a TENS system that you no longer need a prescription for (I have one and it’s really helped me over the years), as well as different supports and exercisers, inversion table, the best back supplements, and Back Relax and Pain Free HP back pain products.

I hope this article’s been helpful.  Let me know if you have a specific question or issue.  I’d be happy to respond or find the answer for you.  Good luck, and let me know how you do!

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Causes of Muscle Spasms

The causes of muscle spasms vary, but the results are the same.  Muscles spasms or muscle cramps is the stiffening shortening feeling you get with a sudden contraction of the muscles.  This can be cured easily and effectively with simple treatments you can do with little to no cost, and can help right away.

Your muscles are responsible for your body movements.  They contract and lengthen when your brain sends a signal to the muscles when moving.  Things like moving suddenly, at a bad angle, lifting awkwardly or bulky, heavy items, or strenous activity like sports are big causes of muscle spasms.  A lot of times, muscle spasms are caused by simple muscle fatigue or non-use.  Sometimes, nerve damage can result in “contracture”, which is a permanent shortening of the muscle. 

I’ll review some of the causes of muscle spasms, and treatments you can do easily and quickly to get rid of your back pain symptom and involuntary muscle spasms, such as muscle stretching exercises, low back pain exercises, back pain medications, and back pain relief products to help you get on your way to recovery immediately.

Some of the main causes of muscle spasms are:

1.  Dehydration is probably the biggest cause of muscle cramps, which can also cause a loss of sodium.  If you drink plenty of water, it will elasticize your muscles and reduce cramping.  Increasing salts can also help.

2.  A poor supply of oxygen to the muscles is also a big cause of muscle spasms or cramps.  This can be treated with deep and slow breathing, and a gentle massage or slow stretching can also be very effective.

3. An electrolyte depletion is a lack of potassium and calcium.  You can overcome this by taking calcium and potassium supplements.

4. Menstruation is one of the big causes of muscle cramps in varying degress.  You can relieve this by using heat such as heating pads, stretching, and pain relievers or anti-inflammatories such as Motrin, Aleve, Ibuprophen, etc., as well as some other back pain relief products.

5. Nocturnal Spasms are muscle cramps that you get at night, such as a “Charley Horse” in your calves or feet.  They can be very painful if you’re also dehydrated and/or you have low levels of things like calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, or sit too long.  Bananas are a great source of potassium.  When I eat more bananas, my muscle cramps go away.

6.  Muscle trauma is an excessive strain on the muscles, which can cause mild to several muscle cramps.  It becomes inflamed, swollen, or red.  Sometimes you’ll hear a ’snapping’ sound when this happens.  Slow muscle stretching exercises and low back pain exercises are very useful for relieving this right away. 

Whatever your causes of muscle spasms are, it’s important that you take all the preventive measures you can to alleviate them, including:  slow, deep breaths, drinking more water, taking supplements, applying heat, muscle stretching exercises or massage, taking anti-inflammatories / back pain medications, and recommended back pain relief products you may need to help reduce or remove your back pain cause.  As always, I encourage you to see your physician for any chronic back pain symptoms.

There are some very helpful back pain relief products and providers I can recommend that have great results, guarantees, and customer service.  Some of these are:

Nature’s Inventory

Core Health Home Solutions

Fitness Equipment for a Healthy Life

Healthier You

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