People will often experience shaky or weak legs when dealing with vascular issues in the leg, like deep vein thrombosis or blood clots. Clots are very serious if untreated because they could break off into the bloodstream and travel to an artery in the lungs, blocking blood flow.
Why are my legs suddenly weak? Sudden leg weakness can be a cause for concern and should prompt immediate medical attention. Some causes of sudden leg weakness include stroke (due to a decrease in oxygen reaching parts of the brain), spinal cord damage, or a pinched nerve coming out of the spinal cord.
Poor circulation
Your legs may feel tired or fatigued if your blood isn't circulating through your body properly. Poor circulation often affects the lower part of your body since it's harder for blood to flow upward toward your heart. Sometimes blood can collect in your legs, ankles, and feet.
Many issues, ranging from restless legs syndrome (RLS) to serious conditions such as dementia, can cause someone's leg to shake. It is not possible to diagnose the cause of shaky legs based on symptoms alone. For this reason, people who experience leg shaking should speak to a doctor or healthcare provider.
As a result, people with heart failure often feel weak (especially in their arms and legs), tired and have difficulty performing ordinary activities such as walking, climbing stairs or carrying groceries.
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
Vitamin B1 deficiency can cause heavy and tired legs after running, muscle cramps, fatigue, and odd sensations in your legs and feet. Some foods rich in vitamin B1 include whole grains, vegetables, legumes, milk products, and meat.
When your leg muscles don't contract as they should, you may feel as though the muscles in your legs are weak. Some people say their legs feel like rubber or jelly when their leg strength is diminished. Weak leg muscles can make it difficult to walk or stand.
Another common symptom of chronic anxiety is weakness in the muscles, most commonly experienced in the legs and sometimes the arms. During the fight or flight response, the body is preparing to take action against danger.
Issues involving the spinal cord are the most prevalent source of leg weakness. A narrowed spinal canal, or stenosis, puts pressure on the nerves that travel through the spine. You might experience pain, tingling, heaviness or weakness in the legs.
Weakness in the legs often occurs as a result of overactivity. However, it can sometimes be a sign of an underlying medical condition. A person who experiences sudden weakness in the legs or some other part of their body should seek emergency medical attention.
Muscle weakness that is slowly getting worse needs to be checked by a doctor. Sudden muscle weakness and loss of function in one area of the body also needs to be checked by a doctor right away. It can be a sign of a stroke or of a problem with the spinal cord or a nerve.
Call 911. Get emergency medical help if you have sudden numbness or weakness in your legs or feet.
Your body prepares to deal with the stressor, interpreting the anxiousness as a signal that you'll need to stand your ground or escape from danger. Your muscles become primed to act, leading to a trembling sensation, twitching, or shaking.
Individuals with primary orthostatic tremor experience feelings of unsteadiness or imbalance. The tremor is sometimes described as causing “shaky legs” and can cause affected individuals to immediately attempt to sit or walk because of a fear of falling. In many patients, the tremors become more severe over time.
Is Shaking Your Leg a Sign of Anxiety? There are a variety of reasons as to why you might engage in frequent leg shaking. According to John Winkelman, MD, PhD, the chief of the Sleep Disorders Clinical Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, the most common cause among young people is anxiety.
The weakness can make your legs feel heavy, as if they are being weighed down by something. They may also ache and hurt. Some people with MS describe it as like having bags of sand attached to their legs. This muscle weakness combined with MS fatigue can be upsetting.
Nerve pain
MS can damage the nerves that affect your muscles. This can cause acute or paroxysmal pain in the form of spasms. Your arms and legs might shoot out uncontrollably and might have pain like cramping or pulling. Nerve pain can also be chronic in the form of painful or unusual sensations on your skin.
Jelly Legs and Muscle Weakness in MS
People with MS experience a variety of cognitive and physical symptoms. One of these physical (or “motor”) symptoms of MS is leg weakness, known familiarly as jelly legs.
Certain nutritional supplements can also boost leg strength. Examples include Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and Lysine. Lysine is an important amino acid that the body requires to develop robust muscles, tissue, and bone. CoQ10 is a critically important enzyme that allows for the body's absorption of nutrients.
Muscle weakness due to vitamin D deficiency is predominantly of the proximal muscle groups and is manifested by a feeling of heaviness in the legs, tiring easily, and difficulty in mounting stairs and rising from a chair; the deficiency is reversible with supplementation (15–18).
You may have trouble breathing, an irregular heartbeat, swollen legs, neck veins that stick out, and sounds from fluid built up in your lungs. Your doctor will check for these and other signs of heart failure. A test called an echocardiogram is often the best test to diagnose your heart failure.