By saying “myalgia”, we mean any pain that is found in our muscles, while the term “arthralgia” means any pain that is located in the joints. Both myalgia and arthralgia can be related to one muscle or one joint, or multiple muscles (polymyalgia) or many joints (polyarthralgia).

The reasons behind maylgia and arthralgia in many cases are common, while in other cases they are completely different.

Myalgia is most often associated with tension, overwork or muscle injury from exercise or demanding physical work. In these cases, the pain tends to affect specific muscles and begins during or immediately after the activity. Pain-causing activity is usually evident. Myalgia can be a sign of whole-body illnesses, such as some infections (including influenza) and disorders that affect the connective tissues throughout the body (such as the Lupus). One very common cause of myalgia, is the sudden onset of exercising body parts that were not used to in such exercises, thus creating “soring”. This occurs due to contusions in muscle fibers, after their sharp extension. Cramps, which are nothing more than a prolonged muscle or muscles spasm, are also a very common cause of muscle aches.

Regarding arthralgias, missteps are a very common cause for the joints concerning mainly the ankle area o  ‘startles’ of the joints due to over-stretching or over-stretching.

Apart from these more harmless cases of myalgias and arthralgias, there are many other causes which are even more serious and cause serious problems in posture and body movement. Such causes of myalgia are dermatomyositis and polymyalgia, two systemic diseases that besides the muscles can affect other systems of our body such as the circulatory, the respiratory, the nervous etc. Not infrequently, myalgia may also be caused by the use of certain medications such as various antibiotics (amphotericin) hypocholesterolemic (clofibrate and statins also known from the recent noise they cause for rhabdomyolysis) as well as cortisone.

Arthritis is a very common cause of various arthralgias, which can be of infectious (a consequence of a local infection such as psoriatic arthritis) or non-infectious aetiology. The latter include degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis-spondyloarthritis) or arthritis associated with autoimmune systemic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, etc. Gout is also a common form of inflammatory arthritis due to the deposition of uric acid crystals on the joints.