Learning About Muscle Health

We need our muscles for our bodies to function properly, so it is important that we know how to take care of them properly. Throughout our lives, there are going to be many occasions when we cause injury to ourselves and our muscles become sore and strained, but with the right care, muscle pain does not need to be permanent. There are many steps we can take to avoid muscle injuries, including getting enough exercise so that they are flexible and limber, eating right, not smoking and being careful about how we perform certain tasks, such as lifting heavy objects.

Athletes Are Prone to Muscle Pain

If you are into sports, you have no doubt had your fair share of muscle pain. It is so easy to get strains, cramps, and every day aches and pains when you participate in sports, for a number of reasons. There is always a risk of falling when you are playing certain sports and contact sports can be the cause of a whole lot of pain. This is why it is so important to be careful when you are on the field. If there is safety equipment to be worn, wear it. The more padding and protection that you can have on your body, the less apt you will be to suffer from injuries that cause muscle pain.

Common Causes of Muscle Pain

We all experience aches and pains in our muscles now and again. Sometimes, muscle pain is simply caused by every day activities, such as lifting and pulling and can cause us to feel achy and stiff. Other times, muscle pain is caused by an injury or trauma and the pain can be much more severe. The following are some of the more common causes of muscle pain:

- Muscle Cramps - Muscle cramps are involuntary and can often come on very suddenly. There are a number of causes of muscle cramps, including muscle fatigue, exercise, dehydration, and certain health conditions, such as kidney failure and hyperthyroidism.

- Muscle Strains - When you have a strained muscle, you have a muscle that has been stretched too much. It is very easy to get a muscle strain and they are most common in the knees, legs, the back, and the neck.

- Pulled Muscles - This is basically the same thing as a muscle strain and must be treated as such.

- Overuse - If you are performing the same task over and over again, your muscles may suffer from repetitive strain injury. Make sure that you are taking regular breaks to help avoid muscle strain.

There are many other sources of muscle pain but these are the most common. One of the most common types of muscle pain is back pain and this can be cause by all of the above things, as well as muscle pain in other areas of the body.

Treatment of Muscle Pain

There are many different ways that you can treat muscle pain. Depending on the type of injury or cause of pain, you may need to ice the area, to keep it from becoming inflamed. After that, heat is always a good idea, because it really helps to ease a lot of pain and helps to relax the injured area. Painkillers may be necessary at times and in most cases, mild over-the-counter medications will do nicely. This also is true of anti-inflammatory medications, which may be recommended for certain types of muscle pain. It is always good to get plenty of rest when you have muscle pain and not to move around a whole lot, so as not to aggravate the injury any further. If you are experiencing muscle pain, you should seek treatment from your physician as soon as possible. It may even be that you need to have some sort of physical therapy and the sooner you start treating your muscle pain, the sooner you will no longer be in pain.

Protein Is Essential for Muscle Health

It is always a good idea to eat a healthy diet but do you know why you should be eating a healthy diet? There are certain things that we can get from dietary sources that our bodies need to be healthy and it is essential that we have protein, carbohydrates, and fats in our diets, macronutrients that are incredibly important. Protein is responsible for the health of our muscles, so it is imperative that we have the right amount of it in our diets. Without protein, our muscles would not grow and develop properly and would not be able to recover following any type of trauma and even from working out.

A healthy diet needs to include foods that are high in protein. There are many dietary sources of protein, with animal based proteins being complete, providing you with all of the essential and non-essential amino acids. You can also get a lot of protein from plants but these are all incomplete proteins and must be eaten in combination to get the full effects. There is one plant based protein that is complete, though and that is soy. There are all kinds of products available that are made with soy and a good one to have in your diet is soy milk. There are also soy based protein supplements that are popular with many body builders and other athletes.

If you are thinking about using protein supplements, you may be surprised to learn just how many different kinds are available. You have a number of options, including using flavored protein powders to make delicious shakes and smoothies which can even be used as meal replacements. Or, you can use unflavored powders to add to your meals to give them a boost of protein.

About Protica Research

Founded in 2001, Protica, Inc. is a nutritional research firm specializing in the development of protein-rich, capsulized foods (dense nutrition in compact liquid and food forms). Protica manufactures Profect protein beverage, IsoMetric, Fruitasia and more than 100 other brands in its GMP-certified, 250,000 square foot facility.

You can learn more about Protica at http://www.protica.com.

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