SUMMARY: The “jelly legs” feeling, which typically refers to feelings of weakness, dizziness, or loss of control in the legs, is often caused by a rush of adrenaline taking blood away from the legs, though there may be other causes.
Leg weakness can be caused by a variety of medical conditions, some of which are serious. Possible causes include stroke, systemic diseases, inflammatory conditions, nerve damage, muscle disorders, and medication side effects.
if your legs or another part of your body turn to jelly or feel like jelly, they suddenly feel very weak because you are nervous or frightened.
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. There are three different types of muscle weakness: Primary muscle weakness.
What is weakness in MS? Weakness is a common symptom in multiple sclerosis. You may feel that you do not have enough strength or energy to move some or all of your limbs, or your whole body. Weakness and fatigue are closely linked and having one often makes the other symptoms worse.
A feeling of sudden leg weakness, causing your legs to give out or buckle can be alarming. Weakness in your leg(s) may occur from problems in the nerves and/or muscles in your lower body and is usually treatable. Rarely, the underlying cause may be a serious medical condition requiring immediate medical attention.
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.
Feeling weakness in one or both of your legs is called monoparesis or paraparesis and can be a direct result of MS. You can also feel weakness in your arms and other areas of your body, but to feel it in your legs often occurs more frequently.
Causes of Leg Fatigue or Heaviness
They include: Varicose veins: The leg veins become enlarged. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD): Buildup of fat deposits in the artery walls, thus, causing inadequate circulation of blood in the legs. Overtraining syndrome: Excess training or physical activities to improve performance.
Muscle weakness in the legs may indicate a neuromuscular disease is present. These diseases lead to a loss of functioning in nerves and muscles throughout the body. They include muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), myasthenia gravis and fibromyalgia.
Combining running and walking with strength training and other forms of aerobic exercise like swimming, elliptical training and cycling can add variety to your workout and can greatly improve your performance. Sports like soccer and basketball are great for improving leg power as well.
However, tremors and other movement disorders are associated with vitamin deficiency, most vitamins B1, B6 and especially B12. B12 is very important for keeping your nervous system in good working order. Severe lack of Vitamin B12 is rare, but shakiness and tremors can occur even in mild deficiency.
Legs can “give way” due to muscle issues, especially while exercising. These instances are not cause for alarm typically. But if your legs give way and you lose complete control or feeling, the spinal nerves are likely the culprit. The nerves in our spine help deliver signals from our brain to the legs.
Causes of nerve damage include direct injury, tumor growth on the spine, prolonged pressure on the spine, and diabetes. A spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries are among the most common reasons that legs give out. These injuries vary in severity but should always be evaluated immediately by a spine specialist.
Long-term numbness or a tingling feeling in the legs and feet may be due to conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes, peripheral artery disease, or fibromyalgia. The sensation may be felt in the whole leg, below the knee, or in different areas of the foot.
It is one of the more common symptoms of MS. Spasticity may be as mild as the feeling of tightness of muscles or may be so severe as to produce painful, uncontrollable spasms of extremities, usually of the legs. Spasticity may also produce feelings of pain or tightness in and around joints, and can cause low back pain.
Rising from a squatting position or stepping onto a chair tests proximal leg strength; walking on the heels and on tiptoe tests distal strength. Pushing with the arms to get out of a chair indicates quadriceps weakness. Swinging the body to move the arms indicates shoulder girdle weakness.
Weakness in the legs is a common symptom of many health conditions and injuries, including autoimmune diseases, spinal conditions and injuries, and stroke. Often, leg weakness will resolve over time, but in some cases, it can be a medical emergency, especially if the weakness comes on suddenly.