Category: Health

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a movement condition that causes a strong urge to move your legs when you’re resting. You may also feel sensations like itching, pulling, crawling or throbbing. There isn’t a cure for RLS, but treatment is available.

What is restless legs syndrome?

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a brain, nerve and sleep condition that causes a strong, nearly irresistible urge to move your legs that’s at least partially relieved by movement. Symptoms are more common when your body is at rest in the evening. It usually occurs in addition to uncomfortable sensations in your legs like throbbing or aching. The urge to constantly move can interfere with your ability to relax or fall asleep.

You may hear your healthcare provider call RLS restless leg syndrome or Willis-Ekbom disease.

What are the types of restless legs syndrome?

There are two types of RLS:

• Early onset: A diagnosis happens before age 45, it usually runs in your biological family history and the condition progresses slowly.
• Late onset: RLS progresses more quickly and a diagnosis happens after age 45.

How common is restless legs syndrome?

Between 7% and 10% of the United States population has restless legs syndrome. It’s more common among white people and females. Your risk of developing it increases as you get older.

What are the symptoms of restless legs syndrome?

Symptoms of restless legs syndrome include:

• Uncomfortable sensations in your legs that make you want to move them.
• Sensations get worse when you’re resting.
• Relief of discomfort (at least temporarily) when you move your legs.
• Twitchy legs or leg jerks in the evening and during sleep.

Symptoms of restless legs syndrome can affect your sleep. This can cause:

• Sleep disruptions, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.
• The urge to get out of bed to stretch or move your legs.
• Fatigue or daytime sleepiness.
• Behavior or mood changes.
• Difficulty paying attention, remembering things or concentrating.
• Depression or anxiety.

What does restless legs syndrome feel like?

Restless legs syndrome causes sensations that make you want to move your legs. These sensations most often happen in your legs, but they can also affect your arms or your entire body. You may experience the following feelings:

• Crawling.
• Itching.
• Aching.
• Burning.
• Throbbing.
• Pulling.
• Tugging.

Sensations can happen on one side of your body, but more commonly affect both sides equally, like both legs.

What causes restless legs syndrome?

The cause of restless legs syndrome isn’t well understood. It may relate to how the part of your brain that causes movement (basal ganglia) functions. The basal ganglia use dopamine to regulate how your body moves. If this part of your brain doesn’t get enough dopamine, it isn’t able to regulate your movement as efficiently as it should. This can lead to RLS symptoms.

Research suggests the following may contribute to RLS:

• Genetics: You can inherit RLS. During conception, one of your biological parents passes a genetic trait (autosomal dominant) that leads to an RLS diagnosis.
• Iron deficiency: Iron can be low in your brain despite normal blood levels.
• Underlying medical condition: Some conditions can cause secondary RLS, which is when RLS occurs with another medical condition.
• Medications: Certain medications, like antihistamines, antidepressants or antinausea medications, can cause RLS or make symptoms worse.

What conditions cause restless legs syndrome?

Some medical conditions can happen in addition to RLS, including:

• Low levels of iron (iron deficiency).
• Anemia.
• Pregnancy.
• Diabetes.
• Kidney disease.
• Peripheral neuropathy.
• Substance use disorder.

What triggers restless legs syndrome?

Triggers are things that make your RLS symptoms worse. Possible triggers can vary but could include:

• Alcohol.
• Caffeine.
• Nicotine.
• Certain medications.
• Stress.

If you experience these triggers or use/take them before you rest or go to bed, they’re more likely to set off your symptoms. In addition, a lack of sleep can lead to worsening symptoms. This means that your symptoms can trigger worsening symptoms. If you need help identifying what triggers your symptoms, talk to a healthcare provider.

What age group does restless legs syndrome affect?

Restless legs syndrome can affect anyone, including children, adolescents and adults. It’s more common to affect people after age 50. Symptoms tend to get worse as you age.

How is restless legs syndrome diagnosed?

A healthcare provider will diagnose RLS after a physical exam to review your symptoms. During the exam, they’ll take a complete medical history and family medical history.

As there isn’t a test to diagnose RLS, a healthcare provider may offer a neurological exam and blood tests to rule out other conditions or determine the cause of your symptoms. Your provider may recommend an overnight sleep study to evaluate other possible sleep conditions. However, RLS is a clinical diagnosis that doesn’t require sleep testing.

To confirm a diagnosis of RLS, a healthcare provider will look for the following criteria:

• You have the urge to move your legs, usually occurring with uncomfortable sensations like aching or pulling.
• Symptoms begin or worsen during periods of rest or inactivity.
• You have partial or total relief when stretching, walking or exercising the affected muscles.
• Your symptoms are worse or only occur in the evening or at night.
• Another medical condition didn’t cause your symptoms.

Is restless legs syndrome hard to diagnose in children?

Yes, it’s sometimes difficult for healthcare providers to diagnose RLS in children. This is because a child may not be able to describe their symptoms or what they feel. It’s common for RLS in children to look like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or growing pains.

How is restless legs syndrome treated?

Treatment for RLS may include taking medications or changing your routine at home to help relieve your symptoms. Some people may reduce their symptoms if they work with their healthcare provider to manage other underlying health conditions. You and your healthcare provider will discuss the treatment options that might be best for you, as well as any side effects to look out for.

Restless legs syndrome medication

Certain medications can help relieve your symptoms of RLS. Your healthcare provider may recommend or prescribe the following:

• Iron supplements, taken with vitamin C.
• Antiseizure medications (gabapentin, pregabalin).
• Dopamine agonists (pramipexole, ropinirole).
• Dopamine precursors or medications that turn into dopamine (levodopa).

Certain medications like benzodiazepines (clonazepam), hypnotics (zolpidem) or opioids (methadone, buprenorphine) may help with severe cases if all other forms of treatment are ineffective. The side effects of these medications may be harmful and can lead to dependence on the medication.

There are many types of iron supplements. Blood tests can help to identify the best type for you. When levels of iron in your brain are suspected to be very low and RLS symptoms are severe, an iron infusion may help.

Medications that increase dopamine can worsen RLS symptoms over time (augmentation). Close monitoring is required.

At-home restless legs syndrome therapies

If you have mild RLS symptoms, a healthcare provider may recommend the following at-home therapies to help you feel more comfortable and fall asleep with restless legs. These may include:

• Getting regular exercise, such as aerobics, riding a bike/stationary bike or walking. Avoid heavy or intense exercise within a few hours of bedtime.
• Following good sleep habits like avoiding reading, watching television or being on a computer or phone while lying in bed. Not getting enough sleep can make RLS symptoms worse.
• Soaking your legs in a warm tub, and applying a heating pad or cold compress to your legs. These may provide temporary relief for your discomfort.
• Reducing your overall stress. A mental health professional can help you with this.
• Avoiding caffeine, like drinking coffee, before bedtime.

What relieves restless legs fast?

Moving your legs can temporarily relieve restless legs immediately, but your symptoms often return when you stop moving. You can also try massaging your legs, walking around or stretching.

Is restless legs syndrome serious?

Restless legs syndrome doesn’t affect your life expectancy, but it can affect your overall wellness. Symptoms may be mild to severe. Even mild symptoms can have a major impact on your life. Depending on what your definition of a “serious” medical condition is, your symptoms may fall into this category.

Is there a cure for restless legs syndrome?

There’s no cure available for RLS, but treatment can help manage your symptoms.

Can restless legs syndrome be prevented?

There’s no known way to prevent restless legs syndrome. You can reduce your risk of experiencing worsening symptoms by treating any underlying health conditions or avoiding triggers like caffeine and alcohol.

When should I see a healthcare provider?

Visit a healthcare provider if you have symptoms of RLS that:

• Don’t improve with at-home therapies.
• Get worse.
• Affect your ability to sleep.

What questions should I ask my healthcare provider?

• What caused my symptoms?
• What type of treatment do you recommend?
• Are there side effects of the treatment?
• How do I get better sleep with RLS?
• How can I improve my nighttime routine to decrease RLS symptoms?

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Living with restless legs syndrome (RLS) can be a constant annoyance. It interferes with your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. When your alarm goes off in the morning, you may wish you could hit the snooze button a few more times. Drinking coffee (caffeine) to cope in the morning may make your symptoms worse at night. While there isn’t a cure available for RLS, treatment can help you manage your symptoms, feel better and get back to a regular sleeping routine.

Leg pain is a very common symptom. You may have a mild leg muscle cramp or severe shooting pains in your leg. Treatment will depend on the cause. You can treat mild pain at home, but you should seek medical treatment for more severe, sudden or long-lasting pain.

What is leg pain?

Pain in your legs is a common symptom with many different possible causes. Leg pains may occur due to overuse or from general wear and tear. You may simply have a muscle cramp, but it may also happen after some type of sports injury or because of a certain health condition. You may have leg pain at night. You may also be experiencing left leg pain or right leg pain. You may have a sharp, shooting pain in your leg or a dull ache. Causes of leg pain may be related to many different parts of your body, including your:

• Bones.
• Muscles.
• Tendons.
• Ligaments.
• Nerves.
• Blood vessels.
• Soft tissues.
• Joints.

Treatment for your leg pain will depend on the cause. You can usually treat your pain at home. But it’s important to seek medical treatment if you have sudden, severe or long-lasting pain.

What causes leg pain?

Leg pain causes vary widely, from muscle cramps to serious health conditions that require immediate treatment.

Muscle cramps

If you have leg muscle pain, you may be experiencing a muscle cramp. Other names for a muscle cramp include a muscle spasm or a charley horse. You may get a muscle cramp due to:

• Dehydration: Dehydration is a condition that occurs when your body doesn’t have enough water to function properly.
• Medications: Certain medications, like statins and diuretics, can cause cramping in your muscles.

Injuries

Injuries are a common reason why you’d have leg pain. They can occur due to:

• Muscle strains: A muscle strain is an injury that happens when you pull, or tear, a muscle. It’s one of the most common injuries, especially among athletes.
• Shin splints: Shin splints occur when the tissues, muscles or tendons around your shin bone (tibia) become irritated and inflamed.
• Stress fractures: A stress fractures is another common sports injury. It occurs when repeated force on a bone causes a small crack to form.
• Tendinitis: Also spelled tendonitis, this condition happens when the tendons between your bones and muscles become inflamed.

Blood flow issues

Problems with how your blood flows can cause leg pain.

• Varicose veins: Varicose veins occur when blood backs up inside your veins. This makes them look purple or blue under your skin.
• Peripheral artery disease (PAD): PAD is a condition that causes fat and cholesterol (plaque) to collect in your arteries, causing them to narrow.
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT): DVT happens when you have a blood clot in a deep vein, which keeps your blood from flowing properly in your vein. This can be a dangerous condition, so you need to get help quickly.

Nerve problems

If you have nerve pain in your legs, you may be experiencing one of the following conditions:

• Sciatica: Sciatica is a common condition that involves the nerves in your legs, back and butt.
• Meralgia paresthetica (burning thigh): This is a painful condition that causes a burning sensation in your thigh. You may also feel aching, numbness or stabbing pain in your leg.
• Peripheral neuropathy: Peripheral neuropathy is a group of nerve diseases that affect a specific part of your nervous system. It can affect many different body parts, including your legs.

Other health conditions

• Electrolyte imbalance: An electrolyte imbalance occurs when you have too few or too many electrolytes in your body. This may be a sign of an issue with your liver, heart or kidneys.
• Arthritis: Arthritis is a very common condition that causes joint pain, stiffness and inflammation. There are more than 100 types of arthritis.
• Gout: Gout is one type of inflammatory arthritis that causes swelling and pain in your joints. It occurs when you have a buildup of uric acid in your body.
• Restless legs syndrome: This is a condition where you have the urge to move your legs when you’re at rest. This can interfere with sleep.

Less common issues that cause leg pain include bone conditions, like bone cancer and Paget’s disease of the bone (osteitis deformans), as well as infections like cellulitis and osteomyelitis.

How do you get rid of leg pain immediately?

If you have a mild case of leg pain, like pain from overuse or muscle cramps, you can try the RICE method. RICE stands for:

• R — Rest: Rest your leg as much as possible.
• I — Ice: Apply ice to the area that hurts for 15 minutes at a time.
• C — Compression: Gently wrap your leg in a bandage.
• E — Elevation: Elevate your leg above your heart.

You can also try gently massaging and stretching your leg muscles. Depending on your condition, you may want to take an over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever, like a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) (Advil®) or acetaminophen (Tylenol®).

To relieve other types of pain, like nerve pain or severe leg pain at night, talk to your healthcare provider.

Can leg pain be prevented?

You can prevent some forms of leg pain by remembering to stretch your muscles before and after participating in any kind of physical activity. Drink at least eight glasses of water a day to prevent dehydration. It’s also important to eat foods containing lots of potassium, like chicken and bananas. This can help you prevent injuries to the muscles and tendons in your legs.

To prevent health conditions that can cause leg nerve damage:

• Participate in some form of physical activity for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
• Maintain a healthy weight for you.
• Quit smoking. Ask your provider for helpful resources.
• Track your blood pressure and cholesterol and take steps to keep them at a healthy level.
• Reduce your alcohol intake.
• Talk to your healthcare provider about specific ways you can prevent leg pain.

When should leg pain be treated by a healthcare provider?

You might wonder when to worry about leg pain. It’s important to contact your healthcare provider if:

• Your leg is red and swollen, or black and blue.
• Your leg is cold and pale.
• Your leg pain worsens when you’re active and gets better with rest.
• At-home treatment options aren’t helping with your pain.
• You have a fever.
• You’re taking any medications that may be causing the pain. But don’t stop taking them until you talk to your provider.

If you have leg pain that worsens with activity, it’s likely arthritic and can be nonurgently evaluated.

You should be evaluated urgently if you have any of the following symptoms:

• Cellulitis or joint infection: Redness and pain of the skin or around a joint, especially with any fevers.
• DVT: You notice new swelling of one leg that may be associated with redness or pain. Risk factors for having a DVT include recent travel, surgery or an illness that may have limited your ability to walk around as regularly.

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Leg pain is a very common symptom with many different possible causes. It may be a mild, nagging pain that goes away with massage and a pain reliever. Or it may be severe, making it impossible for you to stand or walk. Don’t try to diagnose yourself. If your pain is that serious, you should see a healthcare provider for help right away. The cause of your pain may be something serious that needs immediate treatment.

A fever is when your body temperature is higher than your normal average temp. Most providers say a fever is either 100.0 F (37.8 C) or 100.4 F (38 C). When you have a fever, it’s your body’s normal response to fighting an infection or illness. Fevers usually aren’t a serious concern. They typically go away when the infection passes.

What is a fever?

A fever is when your body temperature rises higher than normal. A fever itself isn’t an illness. Rather, it’s a symptom of a wide range of health conditions. When your body temperature rises a few degrees above normal, it can be a sign that your immune system has been activated, often to fight an infection.

What is considered a fever?

Common knowledge states that a “normal” body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). But your baseline body temperature may vary by a degree or more. It also fluctuates. It’s typically lower in the morning and higher in the evening. It’s higher during certain points of your menstrual cycle and when you’re exercising.

Infants and young children normally have slightly higher body temperatures than older children and adults. So infants and younger children have slightly higher fever temperatures.

There are no strict guidelines for what temperature is a fever, because body temperature varies by person, time of day and method of measurement. But healthcare providers most often say a fever temperature is 100.4 degrees F (38 degrees C) when measured orally (by mouth).

Rectal and ear thermometers typically measure temperatures at about 1.0 degrees F (0.6 degrees C) higher than oral thermometers. Skin thermometers (such as forehead thermometers) typically measure temperatures at about 1.0 degrees F (0.6 degrees C) lower than oral thermometers.

What is a low-grade fever?

A low-grade fever means a body temperature slightly above normal. This type of fever can be a sign your immune system has been mildly activated. There’s no standard low-grade fever range. But many healthcare providers consider a body temperature between 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 degrees Celsius) and 100.3 degrees Fahrenheit (37.9 degrees Celsius) to be a low-grade fever.

What are fever symptoms?

In addition to an elevated temperature, you may experience the following symptoms:

• Chills, feeling cold, shivering and shaking.
• Body aches and headaches.
• Fatigue (tiredness).
• On and off or constant sweating.
• Flushed complexion or hot skin.
• Faster heart beats.

Additional fever symptoms in babies and children may include:

• Lack of appetite — not eating and drinking well.
• Earache or pulling at their ears.
• High-pitched crying.
• Fussiness.
• Paleness or flushness.
• Excessive thirst.
• Decreased urination.

What are the most common causes of fever?

A fever has many causes and can be a symptom of almost any illness. Common conditions that cause fever include:

• Bacterial infections.
• Viral infections such as influenza or COVID-19.
• Gastrointestinal (GI) infections.
• Urinary tract infections.
• Skin infections.

You may also develop a fever due to:

• A reaction to certain medications.
• Vaccinations.
• Autoimmune disorders.
• Cancer.

Can allergies cause fever?

Allergies can cause cold-like symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes, but they typically don’t cause fever. Despite its name, hay fever (also called allergic rhinitis) doesn’t cause fever.

What’s the best way to measure body temperature?

You can take your temperature in several different parts of your body. The most common site is your mouth (oral temperature). Other sites include your ear (tympanic membrane), forehead (temporal artery) and armpit (axillary). The most accurate site is the rectum, and the least accurate site is the armpit.

The best way to measure your temperature is with a digital thermometer. Glass thermometers contain mercury and providers no longer recommend them.

How can I break a fever at home?

If your fever is mild — less than 101 degrees F (38.3 degrees C) — you usually don’t need treatment with medication. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of rest. Taking a lukewarm bath — about 98 degrees F (36.7 degrees C) — may also help bring your body’s temperature down. Keep an eye on signs of dehydration and other worsening symptoms.

If you’re feeling uncomfortable and your temperature is higher than 101 degrees F (38.3 degrees C), you can try to break the fever. The most common way to get rid of a fever is to use over-the-counter (OTC) medications such as acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin.

Don’t give aspirin to children under the age of 17. Aspirin in children may cause Reye’s syndrome, a sometimes fatal illness.

Does ibuprofen reduce fever?

Yes, you can take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen to try to reduce a fever.

How long does a fever last?

The cause of the fever determines how long it’ll last. Typically, if an infection is the cause of your fever, it should pass within three to four days. Call your healthcare provider if the fever lingers longer than that or comes along with breathing changes.

When should a fever be treated by a healthcare provider?

In adults, fevers less than 103 degrees F (39.4 degrees C) typically aren’t dangerous and aren’t a cause for concern. If your fever rises above that level, make a call to your healthcare provider for treatment.

In children, call your child’s healthcare provider if:

• Their fever lasts more than five days.
• Their fever is higher than 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
• Medications such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen don’t break the fever.
• You’re concerned they aren’t behaving normally.
• They have any problems breathing or urinating.

When should I go to the ER?

If you have a fever along with any of the following symptoms, go to your nearest emergency room or call 911. It may be a sign of a serious or life-threatening illness.

• Pain or tenderness in your belly (abdomen).
• Nausea or vomiting.
• Severe headache.
• Stiff neck.
• Light irritates your eyes (photophobia).
• Convulsions or seizures.
• Difficulty breathing.
• Strange behavior and/or altered speech.
• Confusion or irritability.
• Difficulty waking or extreme sleepiness.
• Fever rash (small bleeding spots under your skin).

When should I take my child to the ER?

If your baby has a fever and is under 3 months of age, take them to the ER right away. Your baby’s immune system hasn’t developed fully yet, and they could have a serious infection.

If your child has a fever along with any of the following symptoms, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room:

• Extreme sluggishness or drowsiness.
• Lack of appetite.
• Excessive drooling or difficulty swallowing.
• Continuous crying.
• Stiff neck.
• Fever rash.
• Difficulty breathing.
• Severe abdominal pain.
• Redness or swelling.
• Dehydration (not drinking many fluids).
• Decreased urination.

What are the possible complications or risks of not treating a fever?

Untreated fevers above 105.8 degrees F (41 degrees C) can be dangerous. If your body temperature reaches this level, your organs will begin to malfunction and will eventually fail.

Even moderate fevers can be dangerous for adults with lung or heart disorders because fever causes your breathing rate and heart rate to increase. Fever can also worsen the mental state of people with dementia.

A note from QBan Health Care Services

While a fever can be uncomfortable, it’s typically a sign that your body is working properly and your immune system is kicking into action. You don’t need to treat low fevers, but you can take over-the-counter pain relievers until they pass. If you or your child has a higher temperature or your fever hasn’t passed within a few days, you should make a call to your healthcare provider. While infections most often cause fevers, there could be other underlying conditions you’ll want to get checked out.

Abdominal pain has many causes, some more serious than others. What feels like a stomachache may be coming from another organ in your abdomen. Or it may be coming from outside your digestive system. Always seek medical care if your abdominal pain is unexplained, severe or doesn’t stop.

What Is Abdominal Pain?

Abdominal pain is discomfort anywhere in your belly region — the area between your ribs and pelvis. We often think of abdominal pain as “stomach pain” or a “stomachache.” But pain in your abdomen could be coming from organs other than your stomach.

Your abdomen is home to many important organs, including:

• Stomach
• Liver
• Bladder
• Spleen
• Bile ducts
• Gallbladder
• Kidneys
• Pancreas
• Small intestine
• Large intestine (colon)
• Appendix

These are all organs in your digestive system and urinary system. But pain can also be in your abdominal wall. This is the skin and muscles that make up the outer shell of your abdomen. Sometimes, the pain that you feel in your belly may be coming from somewhere else, like your chest, pelvis or back.

What does abdominal pain feel like?

Abdominal pain can take many forms and mean many things. It may be constant, or come and go. You may feel it in one spot or all over. It may feel:

• Mild or severe
• Dull or sharp
• Burning or achy
• Crampy, twisting or pulsing

Your abdominal pain is a symptom that only you can describe. Since your healthcare provider can’t measure it, it’s what you say it is. Whether your abdominal pain is serious or mild, your provider will help you find the cause and provide treatment.

Types of abdominal pain

There are many different organs in your abdomen. So, your healthcare provider may narrow down the pain you’re having by which area you’re feeling it in. Providers often group your abdomen into quadrants, or four parts. They may ask if your pain is in the:

• Upper right quadrant (above your belly button, to your right)
• Lower right quadrant (below your belly button, to your right)
• Upper left quadrant (above your belly button, to your left)
• Lower left quadrant (below your belly button, to your left)

What does abdominal pain location tell you?

Location is an important clue to your abdominal pain. But it’s not the only factor. It may tell your healthcare provider which organs are involved. For example, pain in the upper right quadrant may mean you have a problem in your liver or gallbladder.

But your provider will also want to know more about your pain, including:

• What it feels like
• How often you feel it
• How severe it is
• If it spreads or radiates from one place to another

The answers to these questions give them additional clues about the kind of condition you may have.

Why do I have abdominal pain?

There are many reasons you may have abdominal pain. It may be related to digestion, injury, infection or disease. It may come from an organ inside your abdominal wall, or from the muscles or skin within it. Or it may have spread from somewhere else nearby.

Your healthcare provider will ask you detailed questions about your pain to figure out the cause. Keep in mind that the level of pain you feel doesn’t always line up with how serious it is. Some common, temporary conditions can cause intense abdominal pain. And some life-threatening, serious conditions may feel mild.

Abdominal pain can feel much worse than others might expect. So, make sure your provider knows exactly what kind of pain you’re in.

What is the main cause of abdominal pain?

Abdominal pain has many causes. Most are short-lived and not serious. They may have to do with digestion, inflammation or menstruation.

Digestive issues

Abdominal pain after eating may be due to:

• Indigestion
• Gas and gas pain
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Food allergies and intolerances
• Food poisoning

Inflammation

Irritation or infection in your organs can cause temporary inflammation, like:

• Stomach flu
• Peptic ulcer disease
• Chronic acid reflux (GERD)
• Urinary tract infection (UTI)

Menstruation

Causes of female abdominal pain may include:

• Menstrual cramps
• Ovulation pain
• Adenomyosis

What are the more serious causes of abdominal pain?

Sometimes, abdominal pain can mean a more serious medical condition. This can depend on where you’re experiencing the pain. Pain in different areas may mean certain organs are involved. You may have:

• Upper abdominal pain
• Lower abdominal pain
• Right side abdominal pain
• Left side abdominal pain

Causes of upper right abdominal pain include:

• Hepatitis
• Gallstones
• Gallbladder inflammation
• Bile duct, gallbladder or liver cancer
• Kidney stones and infections
• Bowel obstruction

Causes of upper left abdominal pain include:

• Pancreatitis
• Pancreatic cancer
• Enlarged spleen
• Gastritis
• Stomach ulcer
• Stomach cancer

Causes of lower abdominal pain include:

• Bladder inflammation
• Bladder stones
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Crohn’s disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• Hernia

Pain referred from your pelvic organs could be due to:

• Endometriosis
• Ovarian cysts
• Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
• Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome (FHCS)
• Ectopic pregnancy
• Ovarian cancer
• Uterine fibroids
• Uterine cancer

Causes of lower left abdominal pain include:

• Diverticulosis
• Diverticulitis

Causes of lower right abdominal pain include:

• Appendicoliths
• Appendicitis
• Appendix cancer (rare)

When you talk to your healthcare provider, let them know which region your pain is in.

How is abdominal pain treated?

Abdominal pain has a wide variety of causes and treatments. For some conditions, you’ll just need medicine to relieve your symptoms. For others, you may need surgery. And sometimes, you just have to get through a bout of stomach flu or a kidney stone until it passes.

If you don’t know what’s causing your abdominal pain, it’s important to find out. This is especially true if it doesn’t go away on its own. Remember that even mild cases can be serious.

Your healthcare provider may ask you to complete an imaging study so they can further evaluate your pain. Depending on the pain location and other factors, imaging tests may include:

• Ultrasound
• CT scan
• MRI

If you have a good idea that your stomachache is related to digestion, you can begin by treating yourself with:

• Bowel rest: Stop eating, or only eat easy-to-digest foods like crackers or bananas.
• Hydration: Drink plenty of water or a hydration formula.
• Heat therapy: Try a warm water bottle or a soak in the bath.
• Home remedies: You can try licorice for abdominal gas pain. Ginger can relieve indigestion, and peppermint may help relax your intestinal muscles.
• Pain relievers: Take an over-the-counter (OTC) pain medication, like acetaminophen.

For more serious conditions, treatment may include:

• H2 blockers
• Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)
• Antibiotics
• IV fluids
• Cancer treatment

Can abdominal pain be prevented?

You can’t always prevent abdominal pain. But you can take some steps to keep your abdominal organs healthy. You can:

• Eat smaller meals more often
• Make sure you’re getting enough fiber
• Get regular physical activity
• Drink enough water
• Avoid alcohol or limit how much you drink

If you have certain health conditions — like lactose intolerance or celiac disease — you may be able to prevent stomach pain. Your healthcare provider may recommend avoiding certain foods or drinks. Talk to your provider before starting any new eating plan.

When should abdominal pain be treated by a doctor or healthcare provider?

Always see your doctor if your pain is unexplained, severe or doesn’t go away. Or if you’ve been injured or are pregnant.

Also, see your provider if you have abdominal pain along with:

• A fever that doesn’t go away on its own
• Nausea or vomiting that doesn’t stop
• Blood in your poop, pee or vomit
• Swelling and tenderness in your belly
• Jaundice (yellowing of your eyes and skin)
• Pain in any other part of your body
• Shortness of breath or symptoms that get worse with physical activity

A note from QBan Health Care Services

So many things can cause abdominal pain. So, it’s certain that you’ll experience it from time to time. You may recognize common causes, like abdominal pain and diarrhea. Other causes may be more mysterious. And sometimes, abdominal pain is a sign of an unknown or serious medical condition.

Your healthcare provider can help you figure out what’s causing your pain. They can often treat common causes easily, helping you find relief. Even if your abdominal pain is mild, make sure you see your provider if it doesn’t go away, keeps coming back or gets worse.

A chronic cough is a cough that doesn’t go away. Common causes of chronic cough include asthma, postnasal drip and acid reflux (GERD). Treatments depend on the underlying cause. But they usually involve taking medicines and making changes to your routine. If you or your child has a long-lasting cough, see a healthcare provider.

What is chronic cough?

Chronic cough is a cough that lasts longer than eight weeks in adults and four weeks in children. It’s one of the most common reasons people visit their healthcare providers.

Coughing is usually a good thing. It helps you get rid of substances that can irritate your airway. Everyone coughs sometimes. But chronic cough is often a symptom of a health condition. Depending on what’s causing it, you may also have symptoms like:

• Fever
• Heartburn
• Chest Pain
• Hoarseness
• Shortness of breath
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Sore throat or frequent throat clearing
• Tickle in the back of your throat

No matter the cause, frequent coughing can leave you exhausted and self-conscious about when the next coughing fit will happen. This is why it’s important to see a healthcare provider to find ways to manage it.

The most common chronic cough causes include:

• Asthma. Asthma is the most common cause of chronic cough. Coughing may worsen in certain seasons or in response to dry or cold air. It may get worse when you’re around mold, pollen or smoke.
• Postnasal drip. Another name for this condition is upper airway cough syndrome (UACS). Allergies and nasal disease can cause your nose to make too much mucus. It can drip down your throat and irritate your windpipe and lungs, making you cough.
• GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). With GERD, stomach acid backflows into your food pipe (esophagus). It can irritate the tissue lining and make you cough.
• Other lung disease. Bronchitis, COPD, pleural effusions, pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis and lung masses can also cause chronic cough.

Other reasons for chronic cough include:

• ACE inhibitors (a drug class of blood pressure medicine)
• Allergies
• Heart failure
• Smoking
• Upper respiratory infections (like whooping cough)

When providers can’t find the cause, chronic cough becomes a condition instead of a symptom. In this case, they call it “chronic refractory cough.” In children, providers sometimes call this condition “habitual cough.”

How is chronic cough treated?

Treatment depends on the condition causing your cough. Usually, it involves a mix of medications and lifestyle changes to either cure or manage the condition causing issues. Your healthcare provider will recommend a customized treatment plan based on your needs.

Medicines

Lots of medications treat chronic cough. Your healthcare provider may prescribe or suggest:

• Antacids, H2 blockers or PPIs to manage GERD symptoms
• Antibiotics for bacterial infections
• Antihistamines and nasal sprays to relieve allergy symptoms
• Decongestants to relieve postnasal drip
• Expectorants that thin mucus so it’s easier to cough out (well-known ones include Mucinex^® and Robitussin^®)
• Mucolytics to break up mucus
• Steroids or inhaled bronchodilators to reduce swelling or inflammation in your airway from asthma or other lung conditions

Sometimes, the remedy is to stop taking medicines, like ACE inhibitors. But only do this if your healthcare provider says so. And never give over-the-counter medicines to children under 6 years old unless their pediatrician tells you it’s safe.

Lifestyle changes

To relieve symptoms of chronic cough, try soothing home remedies. Get enough sleep, eat balanced meals and make sure you’re drinking enough water. If you think reflux is part of your cough, you can raise the head of your bed. Work with your provider to identify food or substances that can trigger the cough. Then, make a plan to avoid them.

This advice may sound obvious. But it’s easy to let these kinds of things slide when you’re distracted by something annoying like a persistent cough. Tending to the basics can make a big difference when it comes to feeling better.

What happens if chronic cough goes untreated?

Chronic coughing can keep you up at night and rob you of precious sleep (insomnia). The effects can snowball into fatigue and stress that impact every part of your life. The frequent coughing can make you self-conscious — so much so that you avoid being around others.

In severe cases of chronic cough, you may have related medical issues like:

• Bleeding in your eye
• Broken ribs
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Hernia
• Loss of bladder control
• Muscle pain in your coughing muscles

Can chronic cough be prevented?

You can’t always prevent chronic cough. But you can do things to reduce your risk. You can:

• Quit smoking. If you don’t smoke, don’t start.
• Protect yourself from germs that can make you sick. This may mean staying up-to-date on flu shots, masking or washing your hands often. There are lots of ways to protect yourself.
• See your primary care provider and discuss the issue with them. They’ll help you decide if you need testing or treatment based on your symptoms.

When should chronic cough be treated by a doctor or healthcare provider?

If your cough lasts 10 days or more, and you don’t know why, it’s time to see your provider. If you have more serious symptoms, let your provider know right away or seek urgent medical care. Reasons to seek urgent medical care include:

• Coughing up blood
• Drenching night sweats
• Hoarseness that doesn’t go away
• Shortness of breath
• Trouble swallowing
• Unexplained weight loss
• Wheezing

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Chronic cough can make you anxious when you’re around others and things get quiet. As you feel the urge to cough coming on, it may seem as if all eyes are on you. But you don’t have to just accept the discomfort. There are treatments that can help. Most causes of chronic cough are conditions that you can manage with medicine. There are changes you can make to your routine that can help, too. Getting diagnosed is the first step to managing the condition and the cough.

A cough is a forceful push of air that your body uses to clear irritants, mucus and germs out of your airways. Common causes include allergies, asthma, infections (like colds), chronic lung conditions and acid reflux. Over-the-counter treatments, honey and water might help until you can find the root cause.

What Is a Cough?

A cough is a reflex that forces bursts of air through your airways and out of your throat and mouth. You usually feel a tickly or scratchy feeling in your throat that makes you cough.

A cough is your body’s way of protecting you from foreign substances that find their way into your airways. It also clears mucus out of your lungs and airways, which also gets rid of germs and irritants.

You might have a dry, non-productive cough (without mucus) or a wet, productive cough (with mucus). A cough might be barky (a sign of croup) or end with a whoop (a sign of whooping cough). It might come on suddenly and go away within a few weeks. Or it might seem like it’s been going on forever and will never go away (chronic cough).

What are the most common causes of cough?

Some common causes of cough include:

• Acid reflux or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)
• Allergens, like pollen, pet dander and molds
• Asthma
• Certain medications, like ACE inhibitors and nasal sprays
• COPD and other chronic lung diseases
• Infections, like colds, flu, whooping cough, bronchitis and pneumonia
• Irritants, like smoke, dust and strong smells
• Postnasal drip

Less common causes include cancers that affect your lungs, heart disease and vocal cord disorders. A healthcare provider might use a chest X-ray or lung function tests to help diagnose the cause of a cough.

Complications

Too much coughing or forceful coughing can lead to:

• Asthma attacks
• Difficulty breathing
• Choking
• Fainting
• Headache
• Muscle pain and strains
• Rib fractures
• Vomiting

What is the best medicine for a cough?

Some over-the-counter treatments might help with a cough. These include:

• Cough drops, throat lozenges and throat sprays. These might numb or soothe your throat for temporary relief from the tickly cough feeling.
• Cough suppressants. Cough suppressants like dextromethorphan help calm the part of your brain that tells you to cough.
• Decongestants. Decongestants might help if postnasal drip is causing a cough or making it worse.
• Expectorants. Expectorants like guaifenesin help thin out mucus. This makes it easier for you to cough out what’s irritating your airways.
• Honey. Some studies suggest that a spoonful of honey works as well as medications to calm a cough. But you shouldn’t give honey to kids under a year old.

Don’t give cough medications to children unless their provider (like a pediatrician or family doctor) says it’s OK.

Treating health conditions that cause cough

If an ongoing health condition is causing a cough, your provider might prescribe:

• Antibiotics for bacterial infections
• Antihistamines or steroid nasal sprays (like Flonase) for allergies
• Inhalers for asthma or COPD management
• Oral steroids for croup or flare-ups of asthma or COPD
• Proton pump inhibitors or H2 blockers for acid reflux

When should I worry about a cough?

Talk to a healthcare provider if you or your child has:

• A cough that lasts longer than a few weeks or gets worse over time
• A cough that makes a barking or whooping sound
• Vomiting from a cough
• A fever that lasts more than a day or two
• Yellow, green or bloody mucus

Go to an emergency room or call 911 (or your local emergency service number) if you have a cough and you:

• Feel like you’re choking
• Can’t breathe well
• See a lot of blood when you cough
• Wheeze (make a noise when you breathe out)
• Have severe chest pain

How do I stop uncontrollable coughing?

Taking a sip of water, sucking on a cough drop (carefully to avoid choking) or sitting in a steamy shower might help stop a coughing fit. But uncontrollable coughing can be scary and hard to manage. It can make it hard to breathe and cause you to throw up or choke.

If you have frequent coughing fits, see a healthcare provider or go to the emergency room. They may be able to treat you with a steroid or other medications to calm your cough.

What does it mean if I cough after eating?

Coughing soon after eating could be a sign of acid reflux. Or if you cough while eating, food may have gone “down the wrong way” (aspiration). This means it went towards your lungs instead of your stomach. You cough to try to force the food out, so it doesn’t get into your lungs.

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Coughing is your body’s way of protecting you from germs and irritants. But that doesn’t mean it can’t also be really annoying — and sometimes scary. Most causes of cough aren’t serious. But if you’ve had a cough for a long time, or if you’re coughing so much you can’t catch your breath, see a healthcare provider.

A bee sting is a painful injury that happens after a bee pierces your skin and injects venom. You can treat minor bee stings at home. Sometimes, your body can react negatively to a bee sting, and it causes a severe allergic reaction that requires immediate medical attention. Pay attention to your surroundings to prevent bee stings.

What is a bee sting?

A bee sting is a wound caused by a bee. A bee is a winged insect that has a thorn-shaped organ (stinger) at the end of its three-segmented body. These segments include the head, thorax and abdomen. Bees use their stinger to defend themselves and their hive, which is a bee’s home. The stinger contains venom. When a bee stings you, its stinger detaches from its body and sticks in your skin. The puncture of the stinger in your skin combined with bee venom causes symptoms that include pain and swelling.

You may have an allergy to bee venom, which can cause a severe allergic reaction that requires immediate medical attention and can be life-threatening if left untreated. If you were stung by a bee and experience symptoms like difficulty breathing or dizziness, call 911 or go to the emergency room (ER).

What types of bees sting?

Bees aren’t aggressive insects, but they can sting when they feel threatened. Only female bees can sting. Many different types of bees can sting you. The most common are:

• Bumble bee: A bumble bee is an oval-shaped and furry-winged insect that’s mostly black with stripes of yellow. It ranges from half an inch to 1 inch (1.5 to 2.5 centimeters) long. It has six legs on its thorax (middle section) and two antennae on its head. It flies slowly. These pollinators live in nests that are usually in the ground. A bumble bee doesn’t die when it stings you.
• Honey bee: A honey bee is a slender, furry insect that has a black body with pale yellow or tan stripes. While smaller than bumble bees (about half an inch long), honey bees also have six legs and two antennae. These honey-makers live in hives in hollow trees, on branches or in designated bee boxes that make honey harvesting easier for farmers.
• Carpenter bee: A carpenter bee is a larger (0.75 inch to 1 inch) flying insect that’s black and shiny with yellow hairs on its middle section (thorax). These bees create nests in wood. They’re fast flyers and can mimic hummingbirds.

Wasps, hornets and yellow jackets

Other flying insects can also sting you. People easily mistake wasps for bees. Wasps make large paper nests that hang from trees or corners of buildings. These insects can also make nests in the ground. A major identifying factor to separate bees from wasps are that bees are furry and wasps have little to no fur so they appear shiny. Wasps also have a distinct, narrow abdomen, two sets of wings and range from a quarter inch to 1 inch long.

• Wasps are usually black but can appear dark blue (metallic) or red.
• Yellow jackets are a type of wasp. They’re mostly black with bright yellow bands leading toward their stinger.
• Hornets are a type of wasp. They’re brown with yellow and orange stripes and have a yellow or orange head.

Wasps, yellow jackets and hornets are generally aggressive to protect their nests and can sting if you get close to them. They don’t have barbed stingers and can sting you multiple times.

Do bees die after they sting you?

The honey bee dies after it stings you. This happens because a honey bee’s stinger gets stuck in your skin, and they’re unable to disconnect its stinger from the rest of its body. As a result, the bee’s abdomen and stinger pull away from the rest of its body, which causes the bee to die.

Not all bees die after they sting you. In some instances, a bee can sting you more than once if it feels threatened.

How common is a bee sting?

A bee sting is a very common injury. Bees are active in warm climates or temperate climates during long periods of warm temperatures. A bee sting can happen to anyone who comes too close to the insect or bothers its home. Bees are pollinators, which means you’ll find them near flowers or flowering trees. An allergy to insect stings, including bees, accounts for about 5% of the United States population.

What are the symptoms of a bee sting?

Symptoms of a bee sting include:

• A sharp, burning pain at the site of the sting.
• Skin discoloration surrounding the sting.
• Swelling of the affected area.
• Itchy skin.

In less common cases, you could have a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to a bee sting. Symptoms of an allergic reaction after a bee sting include:

• Hives.
• Difficulty breathing.
• Swelling of your tongue and throat.
• Lightheadedness or dizziness.
• Stomach cramps.
• Nausea
• Diarrhea.
• A fast pulse.

If you experience any symptoms of a severe allergic reaction, contact 911, your local emergency services number or visit the emergency room immediately. Your symptoms could be life-threatening if left untreated.

Why do bees sting?

Bees are harmless insects unless they feel threatened. Bees use their stinger to defend themselves and protect their hive. A bee can sting you if you bother it by:

• Swatting at a bee or trying to catch one.
• Stepping on a bee.
• Disturbing its hive or nest.

What are the risk factors for a bee sting?

You may be more at risk of getting a bee sting if you:

• Are playing or working outdoors near a garden, flowering trees, a hive or a nest.
• Wear perfume.
• Wear bright colors outdoors.
• Harvest honey from bee hives.
• Try to remove or destroy a bee hive or nest.

What are the complications of a bee sting?

An allergic reaction is the most serious complication of a bee sting. Bee venom causes this reaction. Anaphylaxis can be life-threatening and requires immediate medical attention.

How is a bee sting allergy diagnosed?

Most mild bee stings don’t need a diagnosis from a healthcare provider unless they cause an allergic reaction. If you had a negative reaction to a bee sting, your provider may use a blood allergy test or a skin allergy test to see how your body, specifically your immune system, reacts to bee venom.

• Blood allergy test: Your healthcare provider will take a small sample of blood from your vein to test it in a lab. This test measures how antibodies in your blood react to an allergen.
• Skin allergy test: Your healthcare provider will inject a tiny amount of bee venom under your skin. If you have an allergy, you’ll develop a bump at the injection site during a skin test. Your healthcare provider will monitor you during this test, and it won’t cause a severe allergic reaction.

How do I treat a bee sting?

You can treat a bee sting at home by following these steps for bee sting self-care:

• Remove the stinger. You can use your fingernail, a credit card or gauze to remove the stinger by gently dragging it over your skin to pull it out. Avoid using tweezers since they can inject more venom into your skin when you pinch the stinger. Try to remove the stinger as quickly as possible. This reduces how much venom enters your body.
• Clean your wound. Use soap and water to clean the area of skin where a bee stung you.
• Place an ice pack on your skin. You can wrap an ice pack in a towel and place it on your skin to reduce swelling. Elevate the affected area of your body to lessen swelling.
• Monitor your injury. Visit the emergency room immediately if swelling spreads beyond the site of the sting and you develop symptoms of an allergic reaction.
• Take an antihistamine or pain medication. Bee stings are painful and can cause itchiness. Antihistamines can reduce skin symptoms, and over-the-counter (OTC) pain medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen can relieve your pain. Use these medications as directed on the label. You can also use calamine lotion or hydrocortisone cream to ease itching.

Treating a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting

Call 911 or visit the emergency room if you have symptoms of anaphylactic shock. If you have a known allergy to bee stings, immediately use an emergency epinephrine auto-injector that your healthcare provider prescribed to you. Emergency medical services will also use epinephrine to treat your symptoms upon arrival. A severe allergic reaction can be life-threatening and immediate treatment is necessary.

How soon after treatment will I feel better?

After removing the stinger, your symptoms will start to reduce. You may notice symptoms lessen as soon as a couple of hours after the bee sting. Swelling and skin discoloration usually go away in two to three days. In some cases, it can take seven to 10 days for your skin to clear up.

What can I expect if I have a bee sting?

Bee stings are painful injuries. The pain usually only lasts for a few hours if you have a mild reaction. Symptoms on your skin like swelling, skin discoloration and itching may last for a few days following the sting. Your skin will return to normal once your injury heals.

While rare, severe allergic reactions to bee stings can happen. They’re life-threatening and require immediate medical attention. Quick treatment with epinephrine leads to a positive outcome. If you have an allergy to bee stings, make sure you carry an emergency epinephrine auto-injector with you at all times. Tell your friends and family that you have an allergy and give them instructions on what to do in case of an emergency.

Can bee stings be prevented?

You can’t prevent all bee stings because insects are unpredictable. You can take steps to reduce your risk of getting a bee sting by:

• Being aware of your surroundings. If you’re outdoors and near flowers or areas where bees are active, be careful not to disturb them.
• Removing food. Bees are attracted to foods that you might have at a picnic or outdoor event. Try to cover foods and clean up any dirty dishes to keep bees away.
• Not using floral-scented products. Bees like floral or fruity scents. If you use hair or skincare products that smell like fresh flowers, bees may mistake you for one.
• Wearing protective clothing. Choose clothing items that cover your skin, like long sleeves and pants, especially if you’re working or playing outdoors. It’s very easy to step on a bee, so wear close-toed shoes instead of bare feet when walking in the grass.
• Staying calm. Bees aren’t aggressive insects and only sting to protect themselves. If you swat at bees or try to shoo them away, you put yourself more at risk of getting stung. If you stay calm and let the bee pass by, it’ll go away without harming you.

When should I go to the ER?

Visit the emergency room or call 911 immediately after a bee sting if you have any of the following symptoms:

• Difficulty breathing.
• A tight feeling in your chest.
• Difficulty swallowing.
• Hives or a skin rash.
• Swelling all over your body.
• Dizziness or lightheadedness.
• Stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhea.

What questions should I ask my doctor?

• How do I know if I’m allergic to bee stings?
• Is it safe for me to take over-the-counter pain medication after a bee sting?
• How do I use an emergency epinephrine auto-injector?
• Do I need to get an allergy test if I plan on becoming a beekeeper?

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Bees are vital for our environment. They pollinate flowering plants, and they help with the fruit and vegetable production that makes up most of what you can find in the produce section at your local grocery store. Unfortunately, the sting of bees isn’t as sweet as the honey they make. Your injury after a bee sting is only temporary and should go away within a few days. In rare but serious cases, a severe allergic reaction can happen. Contact emergency services if you have symptoms of anaphylactic shock.

Muscle strains (pulled muscles) are common but painful injuries. You can often treat a pulled muscle at home. But not all strains are alike: A severe tear might need medical care or even surgery. Follow your healthcare provider’s advice to ensure a smooth recovery.

What Is a Muscle Strain?

A muscle strain, or pulled muscle, is a tear in your muscle fibers. It’s one of the most common soft tissue injuries. You can strain a muscle by pulling it too hard or using it too much, which weakens the fibers.

Muscle strains can be minor to major. A mild strain might only break tiny fibers within the fabric of your muscle, while a severe one can tear through it. Strains are painful, but most can heal with time and rest.

Your muscles are made of thousands of small fibers woven together. When you strain a muscle, the strands of fiber are stretched beyond their limit and tear apart. If you’ve ever tried to use an old bungee cord to hold something in place, you’ve seen this happen. New bungee cords have plenty of give and stretch. But if you use one for too long or suddenly jerk on it too hard, the fibers will start to pull apart.

Types of muscle strains

Common types of muscle strains include:

• Abdominal muscle strain
• Back strain
• Groin muscle strain
• Hip flexor strain
• Calf muscle strain
• Hamstring strain

Healthcare providers also classify muscle strains as either acute or chronic.

• Acute muscle strains. These happen suddenly and cause immediate symptoms. You might pull a muscle with a sudden, forceful movement, or by twisting it.
• Chronic muscle strains. These develop gradually, and so do the symptoms. You can gradually tear a muscle by overusing it without giving it enough time to repair.

Muscle tears symptoms

Symptoms of a pulled or torn muscle include:

• Muscle pain
• Muscle spasms
• Bruising
• Swelling
• Muscle weakness
• Limited range of motion
• Feeling a “pop” during the injury
• Seeing a gap or dent in the shape of the muscle

What does a torn muscle feel like?

A torn muscle feels sore when you try to use it. You can usually locate the pain in one spot. You may be able to connect it to a recent event or activity. If it’s a chronic muscle strain, you may develop pain gradually over a few days. If it’s an acute muscle strain, you’ll feel pain immediately, and it may even feel like tearing. You may also feel your muscle weaken, and you may feel that you can’t use it at all.

Causes of muscle strains

Muscle strains happen when you tear the fibers of your muscle. This can happen suddenly or gradually.

Common causes of muscle strains include:

• Acute injuries. Muscle strains are often sports injuries, caused by sudden sprinting, twisting or jumping. But accidental muscle strains are also common in everyday life.
• Repetitive strain injuries. Repeating the same movement over and over, whether at work or a recreational activity, can strain your muscles over time.
• Overtraining. Training or laboring too hard or too long without letting your muscles rest weakens them. If they don’t have a chance to rebuild, they might break instead.
• Undertraining. Low flexibility and strength can cause muscles to strain with ordinary use. Not stretching or warming up before exercise can overstress your muscles before they’re ready.

Risk factors of muscle strains

Some muscles are more likely to tear than others. These are muscles that:

• Cross more than one joint. Muscles that cross joints often act to restrain other muscles when you move that joint. If the joint moves with too much force, these muscles feel the impact first.
• Contract eccentrically. Eccentric muscles stretch and lengthen when bearing a load. They absorb the impact of the load with controlled movements, like lowering a weight or walking downhill.
• Have type II muscle fibers. Muscles with higher concentrations of type II muscle fibers (fast-twitch fibers) are designed for short bursts of power and speed, so they use more force.

Other risk factors that can contribute to muscle strains include:

• Muscle stiffness. When muscles are tight and inflexible, the fibers break more easily.
• Muscle imbalances. Favoring some muscles over others can make the others too weak.
• Previous injuries. Muscles that have been torn before are more likely to tear again.

How is a muscle strain diagnosed?

If you’ve pulled a muscle, you’ll probably have a pretty good idea of how it happened. A healthcare provider will start by asking you about when the pain started and what you were doing at the time. Then, they’ll examine the spot, which may have visible bruising and swelling if it’s been at least 24 hours since the injury. They’ll gently feel it for tenderness and test the muscle for strength and range of motion.

A physical exam is often enough to diagnose a pulled muscle. But in some cases, your provider might want to take an MRI to rule out other conditions, or to determine the extent of the tear and grade it.

Muscle strain grades

Healthcare providers also grade muscle strains by how severe they are.

• Grade I. If you have a mild muscle strain, you’ve stretched and pulled your muscle enough to cause minor damage, but it isn’t torn through. This is the most common type.
• Grade II. A moderate muscle strain has torn through some or even most of the muscle. This will affect your muscle strength and range of motion. It can take time to heal.
• Grade III. If you have a severe muscle strain, your muscle has torn all the way through. A complete muscle tear (muscle rupture) might need surgery to repair it.

What’s the best treatment for a pulled muscle?

Most people can recover from a pulled muscle at home. Only a severe, grade III tear might need surgery. Surgery for a complete muscle tear means stitching the two ends of the muscle back together.

Home treatment for a muscle strain includes:

• The RICE method. Rest, ice, compression and elevation can help relieve pain and inflammation during the first few days of your recovery. After the first few days, you can start moving it again.
• Crutches. If your injury is in your lower body, you might need to use crutches to keep weight off the muscle when you walk. Your healthcare provider can guide you on how long to use them.
• Pain relievers. Anti-inflammatory medications, like NSAIDs, can help during the first few days of your recovery. After this, your healthcare provider might recommend switching medications.
• Physical therapy. It’s important to reintroduce gentle movement after the first few days of recovery. A physical therapist can guide you in specific exercises to rehabilitate your muscle.
• Platelet-rich plasma injections. This newer treatment uses platelets from your own blood to stimulate tissue repair. It’s still unproven, but some studies suggest it can speed up healing.

When should I see a healthcare provider for a muscle strain?

Check in with a healthcare provider if your muscle strain:

• Seems severe. If you heard or felt a “pop” when your muscle tore, if you can’t move your muscle at all, or if pain, bruising and swelling are severe, see a provider right away.
• Isn’t improving. If symptoms persist or get worse after a few days, your injury might not be as minor as you thought. It’s time to have a provider examine it.
• Triggers new symptoms. If you develop nerve-related symptoms like numbness, tingling, sudden weakness or difficulty controlling certain muscles, you may have nerve damage.

You might want to ask:

• Which muscle did I strain?
• What grade is my muscle strain (how bad is it?)
• What activities should I avoid during recovery?
• How long should I rest, and when should I start moving again?

How long does a pulled muscle take to heal?

If you only have a minor (grade I) muscle strain, it should heal within a few weeks. Moderate (grade II) muscle strains may take several weeks to months to heal completely. A severe (grade III) muscle strain can take four to six months to heal after surgery. You may need to immobilize your muscle with a cast for up to six weeks before starting your rehabilitation program. Athletes will need to sit out the season.

Most people recover completely from a muscle strain, even a severe one. But how you treat your muscle during recovery can affect how well it heals. In some cases, the muscle might retain some scar tissue, which is stiffer and more brittle than healthy muscle tissue. This makes it easier to tear the muscle again. You might have to be more mindful of how you use your muscle in the future.

What can I do to prevent muscle strains?

Some simple guidelines to help prevent muscle strains are:

• Condition your muscles with a daily fitness program.
• Stretch and warm up your muscles before using them.
• Check your technique when lifting weights or performing physical tasks.
• Pay attention to your posture and workplace ergonomics.

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Pulling a muscle is painful. For some, the frustration of having to sit out of your favorite sports and activities while you recover can be just as difficult. But your muscle needs time to heal, and it needs your patient attention during the rehabilitation process. Giving yourself that time is the best way to ensure you’ll be able to return safely to doing what you love to do, at the intensity level you’re used to.

A soft tissue injury can be painful and debilitating, whether it’s from a traumatic event or chronic overuse. Sprains, strains and contusions are a few examples. Repetitive strain can cause inflammation in your soft tissues, which can damage them if it lasts too long. These injuries take time to heal.

What is a soft tissue injury?

A soft tissue injury happens in the soft parts of your musculoskeletal system, like your muscles, tendons and ligaments. These are the tissues that support your skeleton and help it move. You can injure these tissues during physical activity or in an accident. Sudden, excessive force can also cause a traumatic injury, or chronic overuse may cause a repetitive strain injury. Most soft tissue injuries heal with time and rest.

What are the different types of soft tissue injuries?

Acute (immediate) soft tissue injuries include:

• Strains. A strain is when you overstretch or tear a muscle. You can strain a muscle by pulling it too hard or for too long. Sudden movements with a lot of force or repetitive movements with normal force cause muscle strains. Groin strains and hip flexor strains are common sports injuries. You can also strain or tear a tendon, the tissue that attaches a muscle to a bone.
• Sprains. A sprain is a tear in a ligament that holds a joint together. Ligaments connect and stabilize the muscles and bones in a joint. When something forces a joint too far out of its normal range of motion, it can stretch and tear the ligament, weakening your joint. For example, you might sprain your ankle by twisting it or sprain your wrist by falling onto your hand.
• Contusions. A contusion is a bruise, which is what you see when broken blood vessels cause discoloration under your skin. A forceful blow may break blood vessels deep within your soft tissues, including your muscles. A muscle contusion may not be visible, but it’s painful and takes time to heal. If it doesn’t heal completely, it can sometimes lead to long-term complications.

Repetitive strain injuries that may affect your soft tissues include:

• Tendonitis. Tendonitis is inflammation and swelling in a tendon. It has several causes, but the most common cause is repetitive strain. This is when overuse causes tiny, microscopic tears in the tendon fibers. When your tendon becomes inflamed, it needs time and rest to repair itself. Chronic (long-lasting) tendonitis can lead to destructive changes in your tendon (tendinopathy).
• Bursitis. Bursitis is inflammation and swelling in your bursae. These are soft tissues that cushion the space between your bones and other tissues and provide shock absorption when they move. Too much stress on your bursae from too much force or friction can cause painful swelling. It’s common in your elbows and knees. It’s also common to have bursitis along with tendonitis.

How serious can soft tissue damage (injury) be?

Acute soft tissue injuries can be mild to severe. A healthcare provider may grade your injury as first-degree, second-degree or third-degree. If you have a first-degree strain or sprain, the tissue is “pulled” but not torn. A second-degree injury is a partial tear. A third-degree injury is a complete tear through the tissue. Most soft tissue injuries heal with time, but a third-degree injury might need surgical repair.

Similarly, muscle contusions heal on their own with time, but a very severe one can cause extra complications due to severe swelling. These complications may require special treatment and a longer recovery. Repetitive strain injuries heal when you stop the activity that’s irritating the tissue. But if you go back to those activities too soon, they can become chronic injuries that cause lasting damage.

What are the symptoms of a soft tissue injury?

The most common symptom of soft tissue injuries is pain, usually accompanied by swelling. Swelling is a sign of inflammation, which is your body’s way of responding to an injury. Your body is sending extra blood and resources to the area to begin the healing process. But swelling can add to your discomfort.

Other possible symptoms include:

• Stiffness and lost range of motion
• Difficulty moving or putting weight on the body part
• Visible bruising, if blood vessels are broken
• Numbness or tingling, if a nerve is damaged

What causes soft tissue damage?

The two major causes of soft tissue injury or damage are repetitive strain (from overuse) and trauma (from a sudden force). A forceful impact from a direct blow, fall or collision may cause a contusion. A sudden, jerking movement or many strong pulls may strain a muscle or tendon or sprain a ligament.

Soft tissue injuries are different from bone injuries, but sometimes, they can occur together. For example, a broken bone, or one that’s been dislocated, may penetrate or pull the surrounding tissues. The bone injury might be more obvious, but you might also have damaged soft tissues with it.

What are the possible complications of soft tissue injuries?

Immediate (acute) complications that can occur with soft tissue injuries include:

• Blood vessel damage. Most bruises or contusions are from mildly damaged, leaking blood vessels. But a severe injury may cause more serious blood vessel damage. This could lead to serious internal bleeding (hemorrhage) or loss of blood supply to your tissues (ischemia).
• Nerve damage. Trauma that causes soft tissue damage can also cause mild nerve damage, called neuropraxia. This can temporarily interfere with sensory and motor signals between your brain and body part. Swelling from tendonitis or bursitis can affect your nerves by compressing them.
• Compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome is severe swelling within a muscle compartment — a collection of muscles wrapped in fascia. It’s intensely painful and can cut off the blood supply to the muscles. You might need emergency surgery to relieve the pressure.

Long-term complications that can occur with improper healing include:

• Contracture. You may need to immobilize your injured body part while it’s healing. But too much immobilization can make soft tissues tighten and contract, sometimes, permanently. Your healthcare provider will prescribe specific physical therapy exercises to prevent this.
• Joint instability. A sprain that doesn’t heal completely can leave your joint unstable and more likely to sprain again. Some severe sprains may need surgery to fix this. Other soft tissue injuries that don’t heal can affect your joints by shifting weight and stress to tissues that support a joint.
• Chronic inflammation. Repetitive strain injuries that don’t heal completely can lead to chronic tendonitis or bursitis. This can cause chronic pain and eventually, long-term soft tissue damage. Your tissues may weaken and stiffen, becoming less functional. Weakening can lead to rupture.
• Heterotopic ossification. Severe soft tissue injuries can cause a sort of scarring in which bone tissue develops within your soft tissue. Myositis ossificans, bone tissue in your muscle, can occur after a muscle contusion. Enthesophytes, bone spurs in your entheses, can follow tendonitis.

How are soft tissue injuries diagnosed?

A healthcare provider will physically examine your injury and ask you questions about how it happened or what type of stress might have caused it. Sometimes, they’ll want to take images to see the injury in more detail or to check for additional injuries or complications. An MRI can show soft tissue damage.

What is the best treatment for a soft tissue injury?

Most soft tissue injuries heal at home with conservative care. Rarely, you might need surgery for a severe injury. Head to the ER if you think you have a severe injury, or if you have alarm symptoms like increasing pain, numbness or faintness. You should still see a healthcare provider for minor injuries.

Conservative care for soft tissue injuries consists of pain relief and standard protocols like RICE or its recent update, PRICE (protection, rest, ice, compression and elevation). Recently, healthcare providers have introduced a new protocol to guide your recovery after the first few days: PEACE and LOVE.

PRICE

RICE is a well-known acronym for treating acute musculoskeletal injuries. PRICE is a recent update.

It stands for:

• Protection. To protect the injury during healing, you might need to wear a cast, brace or splint.
• Rest. Rest is the most important part of healing for any musculoskeletal injury.
• Ice. Ice helps reduce pain and inflammation. Apply an ice pack for 20 minutes at a time.
• Compression. An elastic bandage around your soft tissues can reduce swelling and bleeding.
• Elevation. While resting your injury, keep it elevated to reduce blood flow and swelling.

PEACE and LOVE

The longer acronym, PEACE and LOVE, offers additional advice for the later stages of your recovery.

It stands for:

• Protection. To protect the injury during healing, you might need to wear a cast, brace or splint.
• Elevation. While resting your injury, keep it elevated to reduce blood flow and swelling.
• Avoid anti-inflammatories. Providers now recommend pain relievers that don’t suppress inflammation, like acetaminophen or arnica, after the first few days of recovery.
• Compression. An elastic bandage around your soft tissues can reduce swelling and bleeding.
• Education. This is to remind healthcare providers to educate you about your role in your own recovery. Specifically, they should encourage you to play an active rather than passive role.

and

• Load. Loading means gradually returning some mechanical load (weight or stress) to your injured part. Your provider might refer you to a physical therapist to guide this process.
• Optimism. Research has found that a positive approach to recovery can affect your prognosis. Believe in your own capacity to heal, and don’t neglect your mental health during recovery.
• Vascularization. This means increasing blood flow to your injured tissues. While you might use ice and compression to reduce blood flow earlier on, later on, blood flow can help with healing.
• Exercise. Physical therapy can help restore strength and flexibility to your weakened tissues. This can help prevent reinjury as you return to your activities, especially for unstable joints.

How long does it take for a soft tissue injury to heal?

Recovery from a soft tissue injury can take weeks to months, depending on how severe it is. Your healthcare provider is the best person to tell you what to expect. Following your provider’s advice during your recovery will help ensure it goes smoothly. If you return to activities too soon, you could reinjure your tissues. But if you wait too long to start moving again, your recovery might take longer.

What can I do to prevent soft tissue injuries?

Most injuries are accidents, which are hard to prevent entirely. But some people are more at risk of soft tissue injuries than others. If you’re among them, you can reduce your risk with a little preparation.

Risk factors for soft tissue injuries include:

• Practicing sports and physical training
• Tasks that require repetitive movements
• Poorly designed equipment or workstations
• Becoming suddenly active after not being active

To reduce your risk of soft tissue injury, remember to:

• Stretch your muscles before using them and after sitting still for many hours.
• Check your technique before beginning training or repetitive tasks.
• Make sure your tools and work area are clean, safe and ergonomic.
• Listen to your body and its limits and ease up when it tells you to.

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Soft tissue injuries can be just as serious as bone injuries, and they can take just as long — or longer — to heal. This can be hard to understand and explain to others, especially when you and they want you to return to your activities as soon as possible. But don’t shortchange your recovery. It takes time and slow, deliberate rehabilitation to repair these tissues, but it’s worth doing it right. Your body will thank you.

Sports injuries are common muscle, bone or soft tissue injuries that occur during physical activities. They include sprains, strains and fractures — injuries that usually heal within weeks or months — as well as longer-lasting conditions like tendinitis. Overtraining, falls and running into things are common causes. Many sports injuries can heal at home, but it’s important to have a plan for rehabilitation.

What are sports injuries?

Sports injuries are the types of injuries that commonly happen when you’re playing a sport or doing something athletic. Exercise is important to your overall health, and it can help build strong bones and muscles (musculoskeletal system). But physical activity also raises the risk of injury to your bones, muscles and other soft tissues. Accidents, overtraining and contact sports can lead to sports injuries.

Injuries in sports can happen suddenly, or they can develop slowly over time. Acute injuries happen with sudden, excessive force. Repetitive strain injuries happen when you repeatedly overuse a body part. Any injury can become chronic (long-lasting) if it doesn’t heal well. Many sports injuries can heal at home with appropriate care. But it’s a good idea to have a sports medicine physician examine your injury.

What are common types of sports injuries?

Common types of sports injury include:

• Bone fractures.Sudden force applied to a bone can crack or break it, like a fall, collision or sudden twist. Chronic stress on a bone can cause a stress fracture or growth plate fracture.
• Bursitis.Bursitis is a type of repetitive strain injury that affects your bursae. Bursae are soft tissues that provide padding and shock absorption between your bones and other tissues.
• Concussions. A concussion is a brain injury that happens when you hit your head and your brain bounces off the inside of your skull. Contact sports can lead to concussion injuries.
• Contusions. Contusions are bruises. They come from bleeding under your skin. Ordinary bruises are superficial injuries. But a muscle contusion or bone contusion can be more serious.
• Joint dislocation.This occurs when the end of a bone gets forced out of its normal position within a joint. For example, if your shoulder pops out of its socket, it’s been dislocated.
• Muscle strains.A muscle strain occurs when you overextend a muscle and it stretches too far and tears. Most muscle strains are mild, but a severe one can tear all the way through.
• Sprains. A sprain happens when a ligament stretches too far and tears. Ligaments are tough bands of tissue that connect bones and stabilize joints. These injuries can be mild or severe.
• Tendinitis.Tendinitis is a type of repetitive strain injury that affects a tendon. It’s caused by repetitive motions over time. Tendons are connective tissues that connect muscles to bones.

Which body parts get injured the most in sports?

Certain body parts tend to take more stress from sports than others. Since physical activities rely on moving joints, it’s often these joints and the tissues that support them that get injured the most.

Some of these include your:

• Achilles tendon. Your Achilles tendon is the thick cord that connects your calf muscles to your heel bone. Strain on this tendon can cause Achilles tendinitis or Achilles tendon rupture.
• Ankle joint. Your ankle contains three joints, as well as other bones, cartilage, ligaments, muscles and tendons. Common ankle injuries include ankle sprains and ankle fractures.
• Elbow joint. Your elbow joint is prone to overuse injuries from repetitive movements during sports. Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow are two examples. You can also get elbow bursitis.
• Head. Less than 2 in 10 sports injuries are head injuries, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Most of these are minor, including nosebleeds and tooth loss, but they also include concussions.
• Knee joint. Your knee joint includes several ligaments that you can sprain. Examples include ACL tears and PCL tears. Other common knee injuries include jumper’s knee and runner’s knee.
• Leg muscles. Leg muscle strains are common, including groin pulls and hamstring injuries. A shin splint, which involves the soft tissues around your shin bone, is a common runner’s injury.
• Shoulder joint. Injuries to your shoulder’s rotator cuff, including tears and tendinitis, are sometimes called swimmer’s shoulder. Other shoulder injuries include fracture and dislocation.

What are common sports injury symptoms?

It’s not hard to tell when you’ve got a sports injury. You’ll usually get it while playing or working out. You’ll notice when what you’re doing becomes painful. You may also notice other signs of injury.

Common symptoms include:

• Muscle or bone pain (musculoskeletal pain)
• Bruises, color changes or swelling that you can see
• A bone or joint looking out of place (deformity)
• A hard time moving or putting weight on the body part

What causes sports injuries?

The most common causes of sports injuries include:

• Falls, which account for more than 1 in 4 sports injuries, according to the CDC
• Training too hard or too long (overexertion) or overestimating your abilities, which can cause injury
• Direct impact, which includes being hit by sports equipment or running into another player

Risk factors

Sports injuries are usually accidents, and accidents are often random. But some things can contribute to the risk of an injury. These risk factors may include:

• Not wearing the right gear or using the right safety equipment
• Not warming up or stretching properly before activity
• Starting at an intensity level your body isn’t used to
• Playing aggressive contact sports, like tackle football

How are sports injuries diagnosed?

To diagnose a sports injury, your healthcare provider will start with a physical exam and medical history. They’ll ask you about what happened at the time of the injury and review your symptoms. They might check how your injured body part moves or how it feels when they touch it. Depending on the injury, they might want to look at pictures of the bones or tissues involved.

They’ll get these pictures through imaging tests like:

• X-ray
• CT scan
• MRI

How do you treat a sports injury?

When you first get a sports injury, you can treat it with the RICE method for immediate relief. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Sometimes, a parent, school nurse or sports medic will apply the RICE method on the field or playground until you can see a healthcare provider. It can help reduce pain and swelling in the acute phase of your injury. But you’ll need different treatment later on.

Many sports injuries can heal at home, though it’s important to have a healthcare provider advise you on your treatment plan. More serious sports injuries may require specialized medical care, like:

• Pain relief. You may need over-the-counter or prescription pain medications.
• Closed reduction. A healthcare provider might need to move a joint back into place.
• Surgery. You might need surgery to repair a tear or fracture, for example.
• A cast or splint. You may need to wear a cast or splint to hold your tissues in place.

After a period of rest, you’ll need to restore strength and flexibility to your injured part. This is the rehabilitation phase of your treatment plan. Your healthcare provider will advise you on when and how to start moving your injured part again. They might refer you to a physical therapist to design a custom exercise plan. Almost any sports injury can benefit from a course of physical therapy.

How do I know if I should seek medical care for a sports injury?

When in doubt, it never hurts to see a qualified healthcare provider about an injury. Repetitive strain injuries, like tendinitis, can sometimes be hard to recognize until you see a provider. You might not realize you have an injury if you can’t connect your symptoms with a specific event. On the other hand, if you have an acute injury, you might not be able to tell how serious it is. Signs to watch for include:

• Severe pain that isn’t getting better
• Extreme bleeding, bruising or swelling
• Obvious deformity, like bones that look out of place
• You can’t move or use the injured part

What can I expect after a sports injury?

The outlook after a sports injury depends on the type and how bad it is. Most sports injuries are minor and can heal in a few days to weeks. Others might need medical interventions or surgery and can take several months to heal. How well you take care of your injury at home can also affect your recovery. Returning to activity too soon can interrupt the healing process. Not moving it enough can also stall it.

What questions should I ask my healthcare provider about my sports injury?

You can ask your provider:

• How should I manage my pain?
• How long should I rest my injury, and when should I start moving it again?
• What types of exercises should I do during rehabilitation?
• When can I return to sports or other intensive activities?
• How should I take care of my injured part when I return to my sport?

What can I do to prevent sports injuries?

Not all injuries are preventable, but there are some practical steps you can take to reduce your risk:

• Get trained. When you start a new activity, make sure you learn and practice safe techniques.
• Gear up. Use the right protective gear and equipment to prevent injuries.
• Start slow. Warm up and stretch before activity. Gradually increase your level of intensity.
• Build fitness. A regular fitness routine will help condition your body for various sports.
• Mix it up. Cross-train or vary your exercise routine. Don’t play the same sport year-round.
• Know your limits. Listen to your body and don’t push it too far. Allow yourself time to recover.

A note from QBan Health Care Services

Sports injuries are common, but most are minor and heal easily. Good training and technique can help prevent injuries. Accidents can still happen, but the health benefits of an active lifestyle outweigh the risks. In general, it’s better for your body to challenge it than not to. The process of injury and recovery can help teach us greater respect for our bodies — their limits, as well as their amazing healing abilities.