When can leg pain still occur?

It is completely normal and not worrying if you feel pain in your legs the odd time after exercise. This is often a sign of overwork and overexertion. However, if the pain occurs regularly after exercise and does not disappear, this must be observed more closely.

The pain can then possibly be interpreted as a sign of incorrect training. In addition, the pain after sport can be associated with too little rest for recovery and too heavy and too intensive training. When jogging, pain in the legs can be a sign of muscle fatigue.

If the body receives too few minerals for its metabolism, pain can also occur. To compensate, you should then eat minerals such as calcium, magnesium or iron in addition to your normal diet. In order to stimulate the regeneration of the body after a strenuous workout, one should run out after jogging.

Pain in the legs when walking is often a sign of circulatory problems. These affect the arteries of the legs and are therefore called pAVK (peripheral arterial occlusive disease). It is caused by a slowly increasing narrowing of the arteries due to growing arteriosclerotic (calcifying) plaques.

The diameter of the vessel becomes smaller and smaller due to the increasing calcification, so that the blood flow to the following tissues steadily decreases and finally the tissue is less well supplied, which ultimately causes the symptoms. It is astonishing that symptoms only occur at 75% vessel occlusion. Before that, the body manages to circumvent and compensate for the deficiency in various ways.

The pain in the legs with pAVK initially occurs mainly under stress, i.e. in everyday situations when walking. An increasing distance also worsens the pain. Stopping at the beginning of the disease makes the symptoms disappear again.

For this reason, PAD is often referred to as a “shop window disease”, since a constant alternation between standing and walking is practiced. In addition to the pain, there are other symptoms such as sensation of discomfort or a feeling of cold, and in higher stages of the disease, skin and nail changes. The narrowing of the artery can occur in many different places in the leg, which is why the extent of the symptoms can also vary.

The pAVK is divided into different stages according to Fontaine: In stage 1, there is a narrowing, but no pain. The situation is different in stage 2. If a distance of more than 200 meters can be covered without pain, stage 2a is present.

If the affected person can no longer cover a distance of more than 200 meters without pain, this is stage 2b. In stage 3, the patient already has pain at rest and in stage 4, there are additional open areas (ulcer) or the tissue has already died irreversibly (necrosis). In this case there is a great risk of amputation.

Apart from a circulatory disorder, pain in the legs can also be caused by a so-called spinal stenosis of the lumbar spine. This is a narrowing of the spinal canal, which has its origin in wear and tear on the spinal column. The spinal canal is the space formed by the vertebral bodies in which the spinal cord runs, from which the nerves finally exit into the outer zones of the body.

Similar to PAVK, patients are forced to interrupt walking due to pain. Especially activities such as cycling or walking uphill cause severe pain to the affected persons. Patients also complain of sensitivity disorders in the legs and in the groin region.

Pain in the legs when climbing stairs can be an indication of two types of illness. One could be an orthopedic problem. Signs of wear and tear of the joints, irritation of the ligaments or, in the worst case, an undetected fracture could be the cause.

However, it would be unlikely that the pain would only be felt when climbing stairs. Rather, they would be felt during any kind of sporting activity and also during normal walking. On the other hand, a circulatory disorder of the legs seems much more likely.

During normal walking, the blood flow is still sufficient; when climbing stairs, however, the muscles of the legs need more blood, which cannot be supplied due to the circulatory disorder.The most common circulatory disorder of the legs is pAVK (peripheral arterial occlusive disease), as part of arteriosclerosis. A particularly dreaded cause of pain in the leg is the so-called leg vein thrombosis, which can occur suddenly, for example when lying in bed for a very long time. When lying down, the blood is less able to flow back to the heart, so that the blood accumulates in the vessels and clots (thrombus) can form.

The clot now blocks the vein and the blood accumulates before the occlusion and suddenly causes severe pain, redness, overheating and swelling in the leg area. There is a great risk that part of the thrombus or the thrombus itself will break off and migrate to the lungs. In the lung, the clot, by blocking a pulmonary vessel, can then cause a dreaded pulmonary embolism, which is accompanied by shortness of breath, palpitations, severe chest pain and great anxiety.

If a leg vein thrombosis is suspected, you should consult a doctor immediately. Pain in the legs at night is caused, for example, by the so-called restless legs syndrome. This causes pain in the legs and discomfort at rest, i.e. when lying down and especially at night.

The sensations can be very different and range from tingling, pulling, pricking, itching to severe pain. The sensory disturbances in the legs are also accompanied by a strong urge to move. As a result, patients often suffer from sleep disorders, both when falling asleep and when sleeping through the night.

Getting up and walking around can possibly alleviate the symptoms for the moment. In most cases, no cause is found for the Restless Legs Syndrome, which the doctor describes as “idiopathic”. Therapy is provided by medication.

First choice drugs are levodopa and dopaminergics. Leg pain after a single intoxication is rarely related to the alcohol itself, but rather to the magnesium deficiency which is caused by it and triggers an increased tendency of the muscles to cramp. It is usually a matter of aching muscles or calf cramps.

But also with alcoholics it is not only the alcohol, but above all a malnutrition that often accompanies it, which leads to nerve damage. Although alcohol itself has a cytotoxic effect and attacks not only the liver and pancreas, but also nerve tissue. This then gives those affected a feeling of pain in their legs.

Due to the malnutrition that often accompanies this, there is a lack of vitamin B, which is important for the body to maintain the body’s own nerves. Chemotherapeutics are roughly speaking cell poisons. Depending on the specification of the chemotherapeutic agent, however, not only cancer cells but also healthy, normal body cells are attacked by this toxin.

Thus, it is possible that the chemotherapeutic agent is also directed against neuronal structures of the body, resulting in nerve damage. Especially when there are not enough protective factors in the body to dampen the effect of the chemotherapy, the body’s own structures are affected. In this case, the damage to the nerves can lead to pain by over-stimulating pain-mediating fibers of the nervous system.

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Leg pain is also a phenomenon that is more common during the menopause. Compared to hot flushes, for example, this is rarely discussed. The exact mechanisms that lead to leg pain are not yet fully understood.

However, a connection with the altered hormone balance is also regarded as likely. Those affected state that the pain can also travel within the body, i.e. it does not always have to affect the same area. Even in children, pain in the legs can have very different causes.

Inflammations, infections, bone fractures or rheumatic diseases but also tumors can cause pain. However, children also often have so-called growth pains in their legs. These occur only at night or in the early evening, but not during the day and not under stress.

A possible explanation for the pain is a tension pain caused by an acceleration of bone growth. Children in the growth phases are particularly affected, by which we mean mainly children in infancy and during puberty.Another cause of leg pain in children can be the so-called hip cold (Coxitis fugax). This is a short-term inflammation of the hip joint, which heals completely after a few days to weeks and usually without consequences. Often, hip rhinitis is preceded by an infection of the respiratory tract or the gastrointestinal tract. The therapy of the disease includes a rest for a few days and a symptomatic treatment of the pain with painkillers.