Don't Ignore Unexplained Weakness: When to See a Neurologist

You exhaust yourself exercising, and the next day, your muscles are weak and sore. That’s a perfectly natural and healthy road to muscle weakness.

But if your muscle weakness seems to come out of nowhere, either suddenly or gradually, and you can’t tie the weakness to anything obvious, it’s time to investigate. In many cases, unexplained muscle weakness can be tied to your nervous system. There’s even a name for it — neuromuscular disorders.

For a more detailed look, we turn to board-certified neurologist Dr. Paul Gill, who, along with our team at Gill Neuroscience, helps patients get to the bottom of unexplained neuromuscular disorders. 

Differentiating neuromuscular disorders

It can be tricky to separate the different issues that can affect your muscles, and there are many. 

You’re likely familiar with muscular pain that stems from overexertion — too many pushups leave the muscles in your shoulders, arms, and back sore and weak the following day. And there are plenty of musculoskeletal injuries that can lead to weakness — a torn ACL can cause your knee to simply give out, for example.

Neuromuscular weakness is a different beast and one that arises due to problems with your peripheral nerves or issues in your central nervous system that affect your muscles. These are issues that likely won’t show up in any imaging that an orthopedist does, because it’s not really musculoskeletal in nature.

Neuromuscular disorder can not only lead to unexplained weakness, but you might also encounter other symptoms, such as tingling and numbness. You can develop unexplained pain sensations, too.

Neuromuscular disorders that lead to muscle weakness

Now let’s dive into some examples of neuromuscular disorders that count muscle weakness as a primary symptom. These include conditions that range from mild to severe, and here are several:

Herniated discs 

When you have a herniated disc in your lower back or in your neck, it can lead to symptoms that extend into your legs or arms, depending upon the point of nerve compression. These symptoms include numbness, tingling, pain, and muscle weakness.

Multiple sclerosis

This disease, which affects nearly a million Americans, is an autoimmune condition in which your body attacks the sheaths around your nerves. As multiple sclerosis advances, symptoms like numbness and weakness are common.

Guillain-Barré syndrome

The first symptoms of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is rare, are tingling and muscle weakness. These typically start in your feet and gradually make their way to your arms and face. 

The symptoms progress fast, and within days or weeks, you can be in the full grips of muscle weakness, which can affect all the muscles in your body, including those that help with autonomic function, such as breathing and swallowing.

The good news is that, with care, most people with Guillan-Barré syndrome get better.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

About 20,000 Americans have ALS, a disease that targets nerve cells that control your voluntary muscle movements. Muscle weakness is common with ALS and typically starts in the legs.

Stroke

When you have a stroke, muscle weakness is often part of the picture and tends to strike one side of your body. This weakness can affect your face — drooping on one side — but it can also cause muscle weakness all the way down to your feet, again usually on one side.

There are plenty more diseases and conditions that can lead to muscle weakness, such as Parkinson’s disease, peripheral neuropathy, and even more benign conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome.

The takeaway here is that unexplained muscle weakness is often a sign of a neurological disturbance, so seeing a neurologist is always a good idea for getting answers.

And there’s no better neurologist in the Houston, Texas, area than our own Dr. Gill. To get to the bottom of your muscle weakness, we invite you to call our office at 832-912-7777. You can also use our online form to request an appointment.