Signs Your Muscle Pain is Something Else

 Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a condition that makes your muscles ache and feel stiff. If you have it, you may be more sensitive to pain than most people. You’ll also feel the pain all over your body, on both sides and above and below your waist. You may have fatigue and brain fog, too.

Lyme Disease

In the first 3 to 30 days after you get a bite from a tick infected with Lyme disease, you may notice muscle and joint aches along with rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, and chills. If you have these symptoms, see your doctor. Left untreated, Lyme disease can cause your joints to get stiffer (especially the knees) and more painful over time.

Arthritis

Arthritis can be from autoimmune inflammation or from wear and tear. Joints can be painful and swollen, which affects muscle movement. This can result in sore muscles. Your chance of getting arthritis goes up as you age, and you’re more likely to have certain types if they run in your family or if you injure a joint.

Rhabdomyolysis

Endurance athletes, firefighters, people in the military and older adults who can’t get up from a fall for an extended time are at the highest risk of getting rhabdomyolysis. This rare condition causes muscle soreness, pain, and swelling because of muscle tissue breakdown. It can be life-threatening. Certain medications, illegal drugs, muscle injury, and severe dehydration or overheating can also cause it.

Viral Illnesses

Viruses like Covid-19, the flu, and the common cold share symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle soreness. Your joints might ache, too.

Flu

The achy, sore muscle feeling you get when flu sets in is a result of your immune system’s response to the virus, not the flu itself. Though the common cold and sinus troubles can also make you ache, the muscle soreness and pain you get during the flu tend to be more severe.

Medication Side Effects

Some cholesterol-lowering drugs (like statins) come with muscle pain and damage as a side effect. They cause sore, tired, or weak muscles for about 10% to 20% of people who take them. It’s rare, but statins can cause rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition that leads to muscle soreness, weakness, and swelling because of muscle tissue breakdown.

Anemia

Though anemia (a low red blood cell count) doesn’t typically cause pain, the lack of oxygen to your tissues does make you feel weak and tired. It’s often a sign you need more iron in your blood. You may also feel cold, short of breath, dizzy, or have an irregular heartbeat and pale skin.

Multiple Sclerosis

Muscle spasticity is a common muscle symptom when you have multiple sclerosis. Spasticity is a feeling of stiffness or tightness -- spasms or long muscle contractions that happen randomly. These spasms can happen anywhere but are more common in your legs.

Low Vitamin D

You need vitamin D to function well. You get it from sunlight and the food you eat. A severe deficiency can cause sore, painful joints and muscle weakness, muscle cramps, and difficulty walking.

Lupus

Over 90% of people with the autoimmune disease lupus will have pain in their muscles and joints at some point. Around half have muscle pain as one of their first symptoms. It’s common to have muscle pain during a lupus flare.