mild headaches,numbness (without tingling),internal twitching,trembling

[wildmonkey11]

First of all i am 20 years old.

About two( maybe closer to 3) years ago i started feeling occasional muscle twitching that isnt visible. It would only last a second. Last year it started happening on a regular basis and would last at least 5-10 seconds. I also started getting mild headaches that are tolerable, but irritating. I didnt think much of that, at the time i thought it was a result of going off a medication. After that i started feeling on very rare occasions complete numbness (without tingling) on small portions of my body( upper thigh and half of my face are a few examples).Now the most recent development is trembling. It seems like it manifested in the last month or so.. I stopped wearing heels because there are times it's like the position of my feet in the heels are hitting nerves and my legs start shaking. Its normal to sit funny or something and hit a nerve and start shaking sometimes, but it happens constantly. I feel like its rapidly getting worse. Just bending my legs a certain way can trigger it. I guess I would like to know what this could possibly be, and does it sound neurological?  What type of specialist should i consider? A neurologist ?

Also, i do have fibromyalgia, but I have had it almost 12 years and this had never been an issue.

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there.  There are certain causes responsible for muscle twitching like diet deficiency, drug overdose, and side effects of diuretics, corticosteroids, estrogens, exercise, benign twitches, and nervous system conditions like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, muscle dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy and myopathy. Your neurologist needs to look into these conditions one by one. The other possible cause could be multiple sclerosis and is a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not. Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI in addition, a spinal tap. Therefore, it would be prudent to consult your neurologist with these concerns. Causes of strokes can be investigated like high blood pressure and high cholesterol along with brain hemorrhage. Take care.

[ggreg]

Yes, anytime you feel numbness and twitching, a neurologist is the right doc to visit.  He should be able to figure out what is causing this.  I don't know how long ago you went off your medicine, but sometimes it takes a good month or two to get over "withdrawals" from some meds, so could be that's all it is.  Then there is getting enough vitamins and minerals, so you could ask your regular doc to do some labwork on your blood, to see where those are, you could be deficient in one or more vits and mins, and thus may need to take a supplement for a while or maybe eat more foods that have what you're missing in them.

If you are getting these twitches and numbness mostly in your legs, could be you have perhaps one of three things:  peripheral neuropathy, restless legs, or possibly a back problem.  But you did say you had some numbness in your face, which neuropathy in general can do this.  So, you will need to see a neuro, and you could also have your regular doc draw blood to see what your vitamin and mineral situation looks like, and he could ALSO double check how your heart and circulation system are doing, in case somehow that is involved.  He can also test the blood for your sugar levels, many diff things could be at work here.  But I've given you my best ideas about it, now you can visit the right docs and get it straight.