What's wrong with swollen calf muscles

Leg pain generally occurs among the elderly. Nowadays, many people often experience calf muscle swelling and pain due to work reasons. Generally speaking, there are two types of muscle pain felt in the limbs: simple muscle soreness and muscle strain. Simple muscle soreness often occurs after exercise; muscle strain manifests as local muscle pain. So what are the causes of swollen calf muscles in daily life?

1. Renal edema. In patients with acute nephritis, chronic nephritis or kidney disease, due to reduced renal blood flow, sodium and water retention, increased capillary permeability, and excessive protein loss in the urine, the plasma colloidal osmotic pressure will be reduced, causing fluid accumulation in the tissue spaces and causing edema.

2. Cardiogenic edema. When right heart failure occurs in various heart diseases, venous blood cannot return smoothly, causing increased pressure in the veins, and body fluids leak into the tissue spaces, causing edema.

3. Hepatic edema. Factors such as liver damage in cirrhosis, obstruction of portal vein return, increased portal vein pressure, and low plasma albumin in liver failure can cause edema.

4. Malnutrition edema The occurrence of some diseases is still closely related to daily diet. Usual malnutrition can cause edema, followed by symptoms of sore and swollen calf muscles. There are also people with poor kidneys. As we all know, kidneys are important organs for producing urine. Poor kidneys can easily lead to edema, which in turn causes symptoms of sore and swollen calf muscles.

What to do if your calf muscles swell:

1. Apply hot compress to the sore local muscles to promote blood circulation and metabolic process, which helps to repair damaged tissues and relieve spasms. The best time for hot towel compress is about 10 minutes. The water temperature should not be too high, about 42℃ to prevent burns.

2. It can be used in combination with topical analgesics, such as Voltaren Emulgel. Apply directly to the painful area and massage until the affected area feels slightly warm, so that the drug ingredients can be fully absorbed and reach the affected area directly to relieve pain quickly.

3. Oral vitamin C can promote the synthesis of collagen in connective tissue, help accelerate the repair of damaged tissue and relieve pain. Vitamin E can reduce the accumulation of harmful muscle products (such as free radicals) during exercise, relieve muscle soreness during exercise, and reduce the degree of damage to muscles caused by strenuous exercise.

4. Perform static stretching exercises on the sore area, keep stretching for 2 minutes, then rest for 1 minute, repeat. Doing this stretching exercise several times a day can help relieve spasms.

Massage to reduce swelling:

Calf massage technique demonstration 1

Use both hands to circle your ankles, and use the tips of your thumbs to gently push the muscles on the back and lower half of your calves from bottom to top. This is where you are most likely to feel sore because the muscles are tight due to standing for a long time. Use your left and right hands to gently push for 1 minute or until you feel relief, then switch to the other side and do the same action.

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Calf massage technique demonstration 2

Then use both hands to pull up the back of the calf from the bottom to the top, from the ankle to the knee, to help the muscles relax again. Repeat for 1 minute and then switch to the other side and do the same action.

Use the thumbs and index fingers of both hands to pinch the tibia of the calf, and let the fingertips gently slide from bottom to top on the midline of the left and right sides of the calf for 3 minutes or until the soreness is relieved, then do the same movement on the other side.

Calf massage technique demonstration 3

Then use both hands to pull the calf to the left and right sides alternately. Repeat for 1 minute and then switch to the other side and do the same action.

Calf massage technique demonstration 4

Gently stroke the entire calf from top to bottom, from the knee to the ankle, with your hands covering the entire front of the calf.

Lift the entire calf from the ankle to the back of the knee from bottom to top, feeling as if you are holding up the entire back of the calf with both hands. Repeat the above two steps for about 1 minute.

Note:

After strenuous exercise, you should do some muscle stretching exercises to prevent muscle fiber spasms.

If muscle pain has already occurred, try to reduce the amount of activity in that area to reduce irritation to the affected area.