My arm hurts and I can't sleep at night

Some diseases tend to show signs of worsening at night. For example, patients with eczema will obviously feel that eczema is more itchy at night than during the day. Some patients with arm pain may feel that their arms are fine during the day, but at night, their arms will be very painful, even making it difficult for them to fall asleep. So when your arm hurts a lot at night and you have trouble falling asleep, what disease should you consider?

Why do elderly people have arm pain?

1. There are many causes of arm pain, most of which can be traced back to one thing - muscle fatigue. If the pain is severe on the first day and better the next day, then there is nothing wrong with it, but if the pain comes back for no clear reason, then it could be arthritis.

2. If the pain gradually worsens, you may have a fracture in your forearm or upper arm. You might think that a broken bone would be easy to feel, but people often break a bone without realizing it, for example, from a bump or fall, until you suddenly feel pain from increased activity or pressure on the injured area.

3. One of the most common diseases for arm pain is tennis elbow, which is a kind of "tendinitis", an inflammation of the tendon tissue around the elbow joint (the same condition can also occur in the knee joint, and is generally more likely to occur in housewives and people who do housework). Arm pain caused by bursitis is easier to identify because the elbow symptoms caused by bursitis include warmth, tenderness (painful to the touch), and painful swelling of the elbow. When suffering from tennis elbow, although the elbow becomes useless, there are no such symptoms.

4. Shoulder and arm muscle spasms are often caused by local cold, long-term work with the head down, long-term computer operation, incorrect sitting posture, etc. Because of maintaining a certain posture for a long time, the neck muscles and joints are always in a tense state, which can easily cause symptoms of shoulder and arm pain.

Elderly people with arm pain should be alert to coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease is the abbreviation of coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, which refers to heart disease caused by coronary atherosclerosis that narrows or blocks the blood vessel lumen, or (and) myocardial ischemia, hypoxia or necrosis due to functional changes (spasm) of coronary arteries, also known as ischemic heart disease. The cause of coronary heart disease is not very clear. Currently, it is believed that the risk factors for coronary atherosclerosis include dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity, hyperuricemia, hyperfibrinogenemia, genetic factors, etc. Men, the elderly, and those who do not like sports are often prone to coronary heart disease.

Coronary heart disease, typical symptoms are easy to detect

Angina pectoris caused by coronary heart disease refers to a group of syndromes with precordial pain as the main manifestation due to insufficient coronary artery blood supply caused by atherosclerotic stenosis, temporary myocardial ischemia and hypoxia. Typical angina pectoris is characterized by paroxysmal chest pain, the pain of which is mainly located in the precordial area, within a palm-sized area with unclear boundaries. Chest pain is often oppressive, stuffy or tight, and may also be a burning sensation, but it is not like a needle or knife-like pain. During an attack, patients often unconsciously stop their original activities until the symptoms are relieved; attacks are often triggered by physical labor or emotional excitement (such as anger, anxiety, over-excitement, etc.), and can also be induced by fullness, cold, smoking, tachycardia, etc. Typical angina pectoris often occurs in the morning under similar conditions. The pain usually lasts for 3 to 5 minutes before gradually subsiding. Sublingual nitroglycerin can relieve it within a few minutes. It may occur once every few days or weeks, or multiple times in a day.

Arm pain, a hidden sign of coronary heart disease

However, in addition to the traditional chest tightness and heart discomfort, there are many other signs of coronary heart disease, and arm pain is one of them. The root cause of some arm pain is not in the bones or joints, especially the pain and discomfort radiating to the left shoulder, arm and even the fourth and fifth fingers, which is very likely to be one of the precursors of heart disease. This is because the nerve fibers distributed in the heart, upon receiving the signal of myocardial ischemia, will immediately transmit the stimulus to the brain, causing people to quickly feel pain there. However, the nerve fibers that transmit these stimuli do not travel in a straight line, but first enter the spinal cord and then are transmitted from the spinal cord to the brain. Specifically, the nerves from the heart and the sensory nerves from the skin of the upper limbs do not mix when they first enter the spinal cord. After entering the spinal cord, the two form a common pathway. Originally, most of the stimulation transmitted through these common channels comes from the skin, but this stimulation comes from the heart. So the brain mistakes the information coming from the internal organs as coming from the skin. For this reason, heart pain causes pain in the left (or both) shoulder, upper arm, and fingers.