BACKACHE WITH WEAKNESS: DESCRIPTION AND POSSIBLE MEDICAL PROBLEMS

It’s not uncommon for the muscles in your back and shoulders to ache after doing work where you have to hunch over, such as gardening or other work around the house. If you’ve also been twisting yout body and bending over, your hips may be painful after any exertion that you don’t do every day. As a result, there’s a good chance that, the morning after, you may feel as though you don’t have the strength to get out of bed.

Muscle ache that’s accompanied by weakness is a common occurrence. But if you have a constant, dull ache in the muscles around your shoulders and/or the backs of your hips and you don’t have the strength you once did, you may have a rare, progressive disease called polymyositis. This disorder is a variation of dermatomyositis, in which the muscle pain and lack of strength are frequently accompanied by a deep red rash that may be scaly. The rash most often appears around the eyes or on the neck, chest, hands, or elbows.

Both polymyositis and dermatomyositis are arthritic disorders, but they affect primarily the muscles, which become inflamed and swollen, not the joints, as do other forms of arthritis. Doctors believe that polymyositis and dermatomyositis occur due to a defect in the immune system. Two thirds of the people with polymyositis and dermatomyositis are women between the ages of 30 and 60.

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