The Reason behind Flu Muscle Aches – Now You Know!

When you have the flu, one of the symptoms you might experience is an aching of your muscles. Usually, muscle aches and pains are related to overuse, tension, or injury resulting from strenuous physical work or activity. But it could also be a symptom of having the flu, which is what you experience when you have flu muscle aches. But why does this happen and how does flu cause muscle pains and aches?

When you get the flu, one of the first manifestations that become evident is a fever. This is one of your body’s ways of getting rid of heat-susceptible invaders. The increase in body temperature causes your body to use up more water at the cellular level, which could result to dehydration. This is especially the case when the sufferer does not replenish his body with the appropriate foods and drinks.

This, as well as loss of fluid caused by other symptoms of the flu such as vomiting or diarrhea, are the reason behind flu muscle aches.

With the loss of fluid comes the loss of electrolytes or ions found in these fluids. These electrolytes are responsible for a lot of important bodily functions such as muscle contraction and even basic cellular metabolism. As far as your muscle is concerned, the most important ions which you can’t afford to lose when you have the flu include potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium.

Having low potassium levels will disable your muscle cells from functioning properly, which could result into a feeling of exhaustion in your muscles.

To counter the feeling of flu muscle aches, try eating foods with high potassium-sodium ratio such as spinach or avocados. To replenish lost electrolytes, you can drink energy or sports drinks containing such important ions, provided that these beverages are low in sugar. Drinking lots of water on top of all these will definitely help bring back lost fluids in your body.

So the next time you get muscle aches because of the flu, you’ll be able to understand your body more, and hopefully you can apply this knowledge in coping with flu muscle aches.