Muscle twitching all over the body at rest
Are you Looking for a Solution for your Muscle Twitching all over the Body at Rest?

Are you suffering from muscle twitching all over your body at rest? And have you ever paid attention to see if it happens when you have your head in a certain position? Not only is it terribly disruptive when you sleep, it can be downright scary! Especially when you google search “cause of muscle twitching all over the body,” there can be all kinds of nasty diagnoses that appear. Yes, muscle twitching all over the body at rest can be an indication of a serious medical problem. However, it can also be a sign of a functional disturbance to your nervous system that you can improve. I’ll explain more about what that means in this article, but let me pose an additional question for you first: What other symptoms do you experience in your life? Even if they don’t seem to be connected to the muscle twitches?

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Headaches? Vertigo? Low back pain? Or something else? Whatever it is, my experience is that there is usually a connection. The question then is, “What is it?” And then “What can you do about it?” I want to explain the role of the upper neck and how it may be related to muscle twitching that happens in your body, and how correcting underlying issues there may be able to help improve your quality of life and peace of mind.

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What no one has ever told you about Muscle Twitching all over the Body at Rest

First, I need to address the big scary stuff. Multiple Sclerosis. Brain Tumours. Motor Neurone Disease. And the like. If you’ve used google to search for your symptoms, you have likely scared yourself to death that the muscles twitching you are experiencing is because you have something like these conditions. So let me ask you: have you had a brain and upper neck MRI? If the answer is “Yes,” and if you have seen a neurologist or other specialist in North Lakes or Brisbane, then you can rule that out and put your mind at ease.

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Still, it doesn’t explain why you would be experiencing muscle twitching all over your body. Sometimes it’s the legs (“restless leg syndrome”). Sometimes it’s the eyelid. Sometimes it’s the arms. Sometimes it’s the whole body. Often, a magnesium deficiency is implicated as the cause of muscle twitching in the body. So you take magnesium supplements: sometimes they work, other times they don’t. One explanation could be because neuromuscular activity is influences by all your electrolytes, and not just magnesium. Sodium, potassium, calcium, lithium, cholorine, bromine, iodine, selenium, etc. And not just a deficiency, but an excess or any imbalance among any other these elements may cause the same muscle twitching.

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Other research has implicated that muscle twitching - specifically restless leg syndrome - may be related to iron deficiencies and/or neurotransmitter imbalances involving dopamine. Historically, medical treatment has focused on therapy that augments the levels of dopamine in the body. Such strategies have proven to be effective in the short term for helping people with restless leg syndrome. However, long term positive effects have been limited. One way or another, it is clear that the underlying nature of muscle twitching in the body involves a functional disturbance of the nervous system. The fancy term for “muscle twitching” is called a fasciculation. In addition to the electrolyte and neurotransmitter imbalances as described above, muscle twitching has been clinically linked to abnormal activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Sympathetic nerve fibres are present everywhere in the body where you have a blood vessel.

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The sympathetic nerves in the head and neck originate from the spine from the lower neck and ascend to form a structure called the superior cervical ganglion (SCG). Because the SCG influences blood flow to all parts of the brain - including the primary motor cortex - it is hypothesised that disruption to sympathetic function here could be related to muscle twitching all over the body. Localised twitching such as the legs, eyelid or arms could also be related to disruption of sympathetic activity of localised nerves or muscles in that part of the body.

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What is the Role of your Upper Neck in Muscles Twitching all over the Body at Rest?

The vertebrae at the base of the skull - the C1 (atlas) and C2 (axis) - have a unique relationship with the brainstem and sympathetic nerves to the head and face. Foremost, the C1 and C2 are designed to rotate, which allows for head movement. If you suffer an injury that causes the vertebrae to fixate or “lock” within their normal range of motion, it can stop you from being able to turn your head to one side. In addition, it may produce mechanical irritation as the joints lie against the sympathetic nerve fibres, which go up to the head.

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This irritation could be the source of some muscle twitching. And it has been my personal observation that flickering of the eyelid or lip is often associated with a misalignment of the C1-C2 joint in the upper neck. Secondly, the C1 and C2 vertebrae contain thick ligaments called myodural bridges, which anchor the bones onto the spinal cord in order to protect the brainstem from compression when you turn your head. However, if the vertebrae are misaligned, the same bridges can produce physical tension, which can affect the spinal cord.

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Now, your brain is not stupid, and your body is not weak. And we aren’t talking about anything crushing your nerves either. What we are talking about is a tension force that can disrupt normal nerve function in the body. All it takes is the weight of a 10c coin to disrupt nerve function by 60% in 15 minutes! So, your brain makes certain compensations by shifting your posture as I have written about here. What this requires is muscle changes! No just at the site of irritation, but all the way down your body into your shoulders, arms, back, legs and feet. In other words, a problem at C1-C2 has the potential to change muscle tone everywhere in your body.

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And what happens to muscle when it is under constant stress or strain? It can start to twitch or cramp or even spasm. With my own clients, I have them keep a journal for one week to observe patterns when they experience their symptoms. If they notice flickering in their eyelid, I have them immediately observe their head and neck posture: i.e., are they turning their head to one side, or leaning their neck one way.

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If they feel cramping in their legs, I have them do the same thing. I even have them do the same thing when they are trying to sleep.

If they experience muscle twitching everywhere in their body when they are at rest, I want to know if there is a pattern to their symptoms.

The reason is because IF you notice a pattern of head or body position that happens every time when you have muscle twitching all of your body at rest, it is a VERY IMPORTANT SIGN that your condition may be linked to the alignment of your upper neck!! And if so, there may be a natural and non-invasive solution that may be able to help you.

Can Upper Cervical Care Help your Muscle Twitching all over your Body at Rest?

If you have had an MRI to rule out the dangerous or scary things and are looking for a natural treatment for muscle twitching all over your body - and even if you do have a condition such as multiple sclerosis or parkinson’s - Blair upper cervical care may be able to help you. Upper cervical care is a precise form of chiropractic that was developed in the USA to correct the alignment of the C1 and C2 vertebrae without twisting, cracking or popping the neck. In other words, it is NOT what many people think of when they hear the word “chiropractor.”

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The procedure involves a thorough analysis of your condition on three levels:

A precise posture analysis to determine how your neck is affecting your nervous system and the muscles all over your body;
Computerised infrared thermography, which measures heat as a function of your muscles and also your sympathetic nerves;
A unique series of digital x-rays that show the precise alignment of the vertebrae in your neck in ways that aren’t normally visible on MRI or even CT scans.

As I mentioned before, a Blair upper cervical adjustment does not involve any twisting or cracking. Instead, the adjustment simply uses a light and precise “tap,” which is all it usually takes to restore normal movement of the joints through the upper neck.

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Blair upper cervical care is not a direct “treatment” for any medical condition, nor is it even a treatment per se for muscle twitching all over your body at rest, no more than saying that exercise or diet cures any condition either. It is an approach that helps to facilitate normal and natural function of your nervous system so that your body can be as well as possible. And when it is, often times, those problems such as the muscle twitches go away on their own!

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Have you Tried Upper Cervical Care to Help your Muscle Twitching all over your Body? 

I’ll conclude this article with something I mentioned in the beginning. Muscle twitching all over the body is a very scary symptom! It’s like you’re a prison and unable to control what is happening in your own body. Then, when you do a bit of research, your fears are affirmed when you discover that it can be linked to some pretty serious stuff.

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That is why it is important if you do experience muscle twitching all over your body at rest that you have an MRI to rule in or rule out such types of conditions. But on the other side of that - whether you do or do not have any type of condition - I want to offer you the possibility of hope that there is help. What we offer is a natural option that may be able to help enhance your health and wellbeing, no matter what condition you have. And especially if you have already made the link between head and body position with the onset on your symptoms, upper cervical care may be the very thing you need.

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If you are looking for a natural solution for your muscle twitching all over your body at rest, contact our practice on 07 3188 9329 to speak with CA about how we can help you. 

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References

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Hubbard TA, Kane JD. Chiropractic management of essential tremor and migraine: a case report. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine. 2012;11(2):121-126. doi:10.1016/j.jcm.2011.10.006.
Knutson GA. The role of the gamma-motor system in increasing muscle tone and muscle pain syndromes: a review of the Johansson/Sojka hypothesis. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 2000; 23(8):564-72.
Leite MA, Orsini M, de Freitas MR, et al. Another Perspective on Fasciculations: When is it not Caused by the Classic form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Progressive Spinal Atrophy?. Neurol Int. 2014;6(3):5208. Published 2014 Aug 8. doi:10.4081/ni.2014.5208.
>Poyraz M, Matur Z, Aysal F, etc. Clinical, Electrophysiological, and Serological Evaluation of Patients with Cramp-FasciculationSyndrome. Noro Psikiyatr Ars. 2017 Jun;54(2):183-186. doi: 10.5152/npa.2016.14816. Epub 2016 Mar 28.