Muscle fasciculations: How worried should we be when it happens?

image source
Hello people of steemopolis,
Have you ever had this sudden and rapid movement of muscles on your body? It could be the muscles in your chin, your arm or even your eyelids!
I feel the twitch in my eyelids at least once a month. Sometimes the twitching occur in other parts of my body like the muscles in my arm and legs.

I began wondering if this was something I should be worried about. Turned out that it’s not always a major problem that causes twitching. Although twitching sometimes could be a symptom of some major neurological diseases.
Actually, I am this kind of person who hardly fall sick and if do fall sick, then it’s probably just malaria. The point is I hardly have any medical problems.
I can’t remember when I started experiencing these twitches but I know it’s been more than 5 years but it doesn’t happen often. I think everyone experiences twitching at least once in their lifetime.

Muscle twitching explanation.

Muscles twitching is also referred to as spasms or muscle fasciculation . It is the twitching of voluntary muscles in the body. It occurs at either random or specific time and places. It can occur in any muscle in the body but it occurs in the eyelids, feet, arms and legs most of the time. The tongue too is not an exception! I haven’t experienced twitching on my tongue though.
Trying to move a muscle while it is twitching usually makes the spasm to stop and might twitch later when the muscle is at rest. There are a number of reasons why our muscles twitch and the cause depends on if the twitch is a minor or major one. Minor muscles twitching are usually not serious and are of mostly ”life-style related causes”
Muscles are made up of fibres that are controlled by nerves. Twitching of the muscles fibres could be caused by either a damage or stimulation of a nerve.
The specific cause of muscle twitching is not known yet and it is still unknown if it is a disease of the muscles, motor nerves or even a disease of the neuromuscular junction. Although it is a symptom of a number of serious diseases of tyeblikes of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Creutzfeldz-Jakob Disease (CJD), spinal injury, Lyme disease or muscular dystrophy.
A correlation was found in muscle twitching and the body height, weight and anxiety levels.
Here are some common causes of minor muscles twitching.
Taking lots of stimulants and caffeinated products can cause muscles in any part of the body to twitch.
Deficiency of Vitamins B, D, calcium can make the muscles in the eyelids, hands and legs to twitch. Taking enough amounts of these nutrients would be a good idea to avoid the jerking of muscles.
Of course, nicotine is not left out. It is usually found in cigarettes and the likes of tobacco products. It causes the twitching of muscles in the legs.
Muscles fasciculation can also occur after physical activities. This is due to the lactic acid that accumulates in the muscles during exercise.
Muscles twitching can also be cause by stress and anxiety. The twitch caused by stress and anxiety is called ”nervous ticks”.
There also some major causes of serious fasciculation of muscles and they are triggered by much more serious causes compared to the minor spasms causes.
• There are situations where nerve cells die and causes muscles to twitch. The twitching could affect the muscles in the arms and legs. This condition is known as Lou Gherig’s disease or amoytropic lateral sclerosis.
• Issac’s syndrome also causes spasms. It affects the nerves that stimulate the fibres in muscles making muscles to twitch.
• Spinal muscular atrophy is another cause of serious spasms. It affects the control of muscle movements as a result of damages made to the motor neurons in the spinal cord. This is so serious that it can cause the tongue to twitch.

Most of the time, muscle twitching is not usually as a result of a serious medical condition.
Let me end by saying what I got form this source.

Muscle twitching typically isn’t an emergency, but a serious medical condition may be causing it.
Muscle twitching however, isn’t always preventable.

Have you experienced muscle twitching before? You can tell me about it in the comments.
Thanks for reading.

References

1
2

---

@geniusvillain