Does ALS make your hands hurt?
In some patients, the disease may be initially diagnosed incorrectly as a nerve problem in the hands or wrist (carpel tunnel syndrome), or a pinched nerve in the neck or back. But those conditions are commonly associated with pain—ALS is not generally a painful disease.
Does ALS make you stiff?
Early symptoms of ALS usually include muscle weakness or stiffness. Gradually all voluntary muscles are affected, and individuals lose their strength and the ability to speak, eat, move, and even breathe.
What do ALS muscles feel like?
In ALS, motor nerve cells (neurons) waste away or die, and can no longer send messages to muscles. This eventually leads to muscle weakening, twitching, and an inability to move the arms, legs, and body. The condition slowly gets worse.
What does ALS pain feel like?
This can cause significant pain in the bone or due to pinched nerves from increased compression. Immobility commonly results in deep aching pains, typically in the lower extremities. Spasticity in people living with ALS can cause clenched-muscle and straight-muscle spasms, creating significant amounts of pain.
What does ALS feel like in your legs?
Weakness in your legs, feet or ankles. Hand weakness or clumsiness. Slurred speech or trouble swallowing. Muscle cramps and twitching in your arms, shoulders and tongue.
What muscles are affected first with ALS?
When ALS begins in the bulbar motor neurons, localized in the brainstem, the muscles used for swallowing and speaking are affected first. Rarely, symptoms begin in the respiratory muscles. As ALS progresses, symptoms become more widespread, and some muscles become paralyzed while others are weakened or unaffected.
What does ALS muscle weakness feel like?
The first sign of ALS is often weakness in one leg, one hand, or the face. Or it can be having a hard time talking or swallowing. The weakness slowly spreads to both arms and both legs. This happens because as the motor neurons slowly die, they stop sending signals to the muscles.
Do ALS cramps come and go?
Cramps develop early in the illness and show a trend to decrease over subsequent years. The number of cramps varies widely from month to month in those with frequent cramps. Older patients and those with limb-onset ALS report more cramps than younger and bulbar-onset ALS patients.
What do ALS legs feel like?
The first sign of ALS is often weakness in one leg, one hand, the face, or the tongue. The weakness slowly spreads to both arms and both legs. This happens because as the motor neurons slowly die, they stop sending signals to the muscles. So the muscles don’t have anything telling them to move.