Hello doctor, I have been having muscle twitches all around my body for about two months. First I noticed it in the legs, around my calves, arms and even on my back. It has been fairly noticeable around my shoulders, and biceps. At one point I even noticed my right eye twitching whenever I blinked, though the eye twitch has not happened in a few weeks now, so maybe that was just due to a lack of sleep? My concern is that the muscle twitching is still felt pretty much all around my body, mostly my legs though sometimes in the arms and even in my stomach. I noticed that the leg twitching happens when I am at rest, with either my legs up on the recliner or in bed. If I am walking or standing I have yet to notice a thing. I have gone to see my GP doctor and she is attributing it to stress, anxiety or side effects of an anti-depressant drugs that she prescribed. (Though it has now been seven weeks since my last dose and I am still feeling the muscle twitches. During the span of these last two months, on three separate occasions, I have felt very weak for a day. Not to the point that I could not get out of bed, but definitely fatigued enough to do any daily activity, the feeling was like I was anemic. At times, I would feel like even my arm bones had some weakness. I would make myself walk around the neighborhood to let some fresh air, circulation. Do some self-evaluation tests like walking backward or one foot in front of the other, or even standing on one foot. The weird thing is that after a day, I would feel slightly better. After the second day, I would feel back to my normal self (but with the twitching). I started taking a Magnesium supplement because I had heard that it helped with calming down the mind and also helped with muscles. After two weeks it has not stopped the spasms. So, last week I went back to see my doctor and they had me run a magnesium blood test and I was just sent the results. Everything came back normal with the exception of vitamin D 25-OH being low at 26 ng/ml. Magnesium was at 2.3 and calcium was at 9.2. She did not order a B12 analysis so I am not sure if that is low as well. I have made an appointment with the GP to go over the results, but I am getting a little concerned because of the twitching that is not going away and now the low vitamin D result. Do you think this can all be attributed to the low vitamin D level? I fear that I may have an underlying condition such as ALS or MS since that is pretty much what you find when researching these symptoms.
Hello. I understand your concern and would explain that the muscle twitching could be related to low vitamin D levels. For this reason, it is important to take Vitamin D supplements. I would also recommend checking vitamin B12 plasma levels for possible deficiency and performing nerve conduction studies in order to examine your muscles and nerves. You should discuss with your doctor on the above tests. If all the above tests result normal, you should also consider benign fasciculations syndrome as a possible cause underlying your complaints. Anxiety could be playing an important role in all this clinical situation too. For this reason, I would recommend avoiding caffeine and trying Yoga.