arm muscle twitch

[chuck172]

I've developed a muscle twitch in my left arm that runs down to my hand. I went to an orthopedic, then a neurologist. I was diagnosed with whats called Benign fasciculation syndrome.  (BFS) is a neurological disorder characterized by fasciculation (twitching) of various voluntary muscles in the body.
I wonder if anyone here that uses a chainsaw has developed muscle twitches like these.

[ehp]

I have it bad in both arms , I got a lot of steel in both shoulders so that does not help . What I donot like is both hands will close like there hanging onto the handle bars of a saw and will not straighten back out , I got to grab the fingers and make them go straight . I find this worse if I had not been cutting everyday . 

[treeslayer2003]

i get what ehp is talking about from time to time

[bushmechanic]

I have that twitching in my upper arm on the back of it every now and then. Also had to ply open my right pinky finger in the morning after using the saw the day before, doc told me that it was fluid build up in the joints causing it.

[North River Energy]

1. Make sure you're up on electrolytes to offset misfiring.
2. Calcium gluconate tablets can mitigate 'muscle lock up'.
3. I'm not a medical professional.

[ehp]

I was fine until the operations , got 52 pieces of steel in left shoulder and 31 pieces in right shoulder , after that I have twitching and some days its pretty much a full lock up but as long as I work pretty much 7 days a week it goes away until I miss a couple days of work

[treeslayer2003]

I was fine until the operations , got 52 pieces of steel in left shoulder and 31 pieces in right shoulder , after that I have twitching and some days its pretty much a full lock up but as long as I work pretty much 7 days a week it goes away until I miss a couple days of work

same here. i can't lay around. i got no steel but shoulders are both shot. left been severely dislocated.
you fingers ache in the cold?

[chuck172]

How bout twitches that you can see? I mean I can actually see areas on my forearm and wrist actually pulsate, or contract. Also my fingers on that arm tremor.

[RHP Logging]

Well this thread is depressing.  I haven't been able to open my hands all the way without the effort of another hand in a long while. My wife says I'm twitchy when she sits by me on the couch. I don't notice. I don't muscle twitches that you can regularly see but I know if I am dehydrated, down on electrolytes, or low on potassium, everything works and feels poorly. Muscles, joints, head.

[Mooseknuckle]

I use Cal Mag liquid supplement as most of us are defincient on calcium and magnesium   
This really helps relax the muscles but dont take too much or you'll be on the can letting loose. Best to see a naturopath and find out what you are deficient in.

[RHP Logging]

I eat lots of cheese.

[treeslayer2003]

I eat lots of cheese.

well duh.......

[chuck172]

My neurologist says it's caused by anxiety. Put me on xanax. I'm wondering if using a chain saw would aggrivate the twitching?
I'm looking into Cal Mag liquid supplement, thanks.

[longtime lurker]

Left shoulder is going. Tennis elbow on the left, carpal tunnel on the right. I get a bit of the can't straighten my fingers on the left hand if I back up for more then two days serious felling: I cut and skid by myself a lot because while I can still do bulk tonnages for a few days, no way could I do it for a week if I had a man on the skidder.

Right wrist is blown out, the bulge is the joint fluid.


 

I used to toss an 090 around like a toy, now if I had to go back to one I'd quit it. I had to use one of my old 076's for a day last year and I was in agony by mid afternoon. Made me fall in love with my 395's all over again that's for sure.

[chuck172]

There's some tough men in this industry!

[grassfed]

I have had twitchy muscles at various times for more than 40 years. I don't think that it is anything to worry about. chuck172

My neurologist says it's caused by anxiety. Put me on xanax.

my personal opinion is that I would never take xanax and I would not return to that Doctor. I  agree about the Mag supplement but you should try Natural Vitality, Natural Calm. I have tried Cal Mag and I found that Natural Calm works much better. I think that hydration, electrolytes and learning your limits as you get older helps. For hand cramps and carpal tunnel people should try stretching. There are good stretches that guitar and piano players use that should work well. I have found that taking small 5-10 minute breaks to drink water, eat a snack, and stretch helps my overall daily productivity. I like to eat an apple for a snack.   
     

[RHP Logging]

I eat lots of cheese.

well duh.......

Hahaha! Thought I should just put that out there. No calcium deficiencies for this boy. My kids brought home a dairy coloring book the other day- fun fact Wisconsin is the number four cheese producing region in the world behind the U.S., Germany, and France.

Potassium is very important guys. I started drinking the "revive" vitamin water (it's the fruit punch flavor)which is the only one with a good amount of potassium about a year ago. I've never felt better. On hot days I will drink two or three. This time of year one or so depending. It has lots of b vitamins, electrolytes, and vitamin c. Yes I'm younger then most of you by age(34) but maybe not in wear and tear, I rarely get sore or joint/muscle aches pains anymore. Gatorade is basically useless if you read the ingredients. Gives me gut rot too and has lots of crappy chemicals. Coconut water is also very good but it's dang expensive for a daily habit.

[treeslayer2003]

i agree i would not take any pills like that. look boys, if ya do this long enough you will develop these things.....occupational hazard.
Bob i didn't have much of this 10 years ago.....see what you have to look forward to? lol

[Puffergas]

Teaspoon of yellow muster every day worked for me. In my case it was heart problems.

[timberjack 240a]

I get them in my arms. Can see the muscles moving back and forth. Every once in a while my back will go nuts. Tightens right up, can't breath for a second and almost drops me to my knees. For me the only thing that helps is working through it. If I try to wait it out it just gets worse. The worst is my eye though. When work slows down and I get stressed out my right eye goes crazy. As soon as work picks up my eye goes to normal.

[chuck172]

Sounds like you have what I have timberjack. I went to a neurologist and he said it was "benign fasciculation syndrome"

[Mountain_d]

I was having trouble with similar issue. A good message therapist helped me. She sad I had an issue with my shoulder were the nerves pass through and I was feeling a tingling and loss of strength in my arm. She helped me. Can't hurt! Mountain.

[Don P]

I have/ had what Mountain-d describes, which is pretty common from what I understand. The doc ground, ported and polished the top of my humerus when he pinned the muscles back to it to make more room for all that stuff to pass through as the arm goes up and down. The way to make the most room and reduce the size of the parts passing that point is to have your thumb up when raising and thumb down when bringing the arm down whenever possible. If you feel like you have hot barbed wire around your upper bicep where kids get that barb wire tattoo, you are chafing the bicep tendons over that tight place... the sensation is down in the arm but what is going on is in that pinch point between your humerus and scapula. while looking in a mirror hold your arms at your sides and bring them up at the elbows as if you were holding a tray in front of you. Look in that elbow and up your biceps, if the bicep on the sore arm is dropping and you see more stuff at the elbow, you're chafing up that bicep mount. If it feels like someone lost their pillow inside, the bursa up there is unhappy, sort of like water on a knee. I've messed up every joint in that arm, broken wrist, dislocated elbow and detached ulnar nerve there (funny bone wanders around, the pinkie and ring finger half of that hand is numb), 2 rotator muscles fully torn and pinned back to the humerus. That arm started going numb, visibly twitchy and weak. They did a nerve study which is kind of neat. Basically he was ohming out my wiring trying to find where the nerve signal was being slowed or impeded. He found the big pinch point in C6 in the neck. I hadn't thought of that. With the machine on audio he would fire the muscles and also asked me to tighten and release various muscles and I could hear them. When he asked me to quiet the bicep I couldn't make the machine shut up without him holding the arm still. Knowing that, I tried to be nice to my head and neck and within a month or so it pretty much cleared up. Anyway just another possible cause on some of that stuff. Where we feel things is often not quite where the problem is. One thing the doc said, a shoulder is not one of those no pain no gain things, if it hurts you are damaging it and it does not heal.

[Mountain_d]

That is interesting about the ohm readings and muscles firing. I also see a chiropractor which helps me a lot. I used to think it was all B.S. But someone convinced me to try it. In time it made a big difference. My experience is the medical doctors are not to keen to try get these performance issues dealt with, but chiropractors take the aches and pains more seriously and try help. The medical doctors are great when the big things hit like cancer etc, but an arm muscle that does not work properly is a low priority when the appointment before you was someone with bigger problems. So for aches and pains the chiropractor combined with massage and also stretching routine was what saved me.