{"id":14373,"date":"2020-03-26T10:21:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T10:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.today\/?p=14373"},"modified":"2021-05-06T16:08:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T16:08:08","slug":"14-frequent-causes-of-shin-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.today\/14-frequent-causes-of-shin-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"14 Frequent Causes of Shin Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pain is one of the most important indicators within the body: Everyone experiences pain, but everyone experiences pain in a different way – and there are different types of pain out there, and different places in the body this pain can be felt. 
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It’s one of the first symptoms that a patient will report when they don’t feel well; it also happens to be one of the first symptoms that doctors will ask patients to describe so they can get a better idea of what that patient is going through right now.
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Types of pain and how the patient feels it can tell a doctor what to look for: Just the same way, shin pain isn’t just pain felt in your shins – but can also indicate a potential handful of conditions and injuries that differ greatly from one another and will require the right diagnosis.
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Here are 14 important things shin pain can mean.
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1. Arthritis
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Arthritis <\/a>is a common inflammatory health condition that’s related to the body’s bones, muscles, and joints; it’s diagnosed at a rate of several thousand new cases every year, and it’s not just the elderly who are prone to developing arthritis, but an increasing rate of children and people of all ages are also diagnosed – arthritis can happen to anyone.
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Joint swelling, discomfort, and pain are some of the characteristic symptoms of arthritis. Stiffness in the joints is also one of the most common symptoms people with arthritis experience – and many times, this will eventually change the shape and form of the surrounding bones and joints.
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Arthritis can affect any selection of tendons and bones in the body, including the spine and hips, but also including the shins. 
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For chronic shin pain, arthritis is one of the first things you should look for, especially where you feel the same type of pain elsewhere.
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2. Ankle Injuries
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One of the most common causes of pain is an injury to the area, where it’s not caused by a chronic condition such as arthritis. If you feel a sudden pain in your shin, usually either as sharp or radiating, then it could be possible that an injury to the knee or shin has been sustained – and it might not be an obvious type of injury<\/a>, but instead one that happened without realizing it.
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Shin pain can be caused by several different types of direct bodily injury: One of the areas that you might have hurt when you experience shin pain is the ankle.
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Any ankle injury, particularly sprains, have the ability to radiate through to other parts of the body – and if you’ve recently hurt your ankle in any way, you can expect to feel this pain move through, sometimes to parts of the body that include the shins.
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3. Lifting Heavy Weights
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Weightlifting <\/a>is an official sport practiced by thousands of people all over the world, but most people who lift heavyweights aren’t doing it for competitive reasons: Lifting heavy things is a part of life for most people, and for even more people it’s part of their job or career – and as you might have guessed, picking up heavy things can have further implications for the body when you do it.
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The lifting of heavy things can cause injuries, and chronic or sudden pain felt in the shins can be one of the first ways in which you’ll feel it. 
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If you’ve picked up something heavy preceding the pain in your shins, then it’s almost certainly the cause (even if you didn’t notice the initial injury). If you pick up heavy things regularly as part of your job or career, then the same is true.
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In this case, see a doctor as soon as possible.
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4. Blood Clot Risk
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Blood clots<\/a> are a common circulatory condition that might be caused by many others; when a blood clot settles anywhere in the body, numbness, pain and color changes are common – many patients have even described a blood clot as feeling like a “pinched” area in a certain spot. Tingling and redness are also symptoms that might characterize a blood clot, but these symptoms are not seen in everyone who gets blood clots.
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The appearance of a blood clot anywhere in the body can be considered a serious medical emergency that requires immediate treatment: If you have one or suspect that you do, see your doctor or seek out emergency room treatment as soon as possible.
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Sometimes blood clots will have little to no symptoms for some patients, although they can also manifest as shin or leg pain that’s either serious or “nagging.” Never ignore the appearance of pain, even if it feels insignificant to you at first.
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5. Circulation Issues
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Circulation <\/a>issues are a blanket term that describes many conditions (and symptoms of other ones) that cause symptoms that affect the heart, blood vessels or blood flow in some manner. This is a potential list of a thousand different conditions that would be too much to list in one place, but that can also be summarized to a few general symptoms that most people with circulation problems will feel.
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If you have issues with circulation, difficulty sensing temperature, numbness, tingling, the feeling of being alternatively “hot” and “cold” and an irregular heartbeat are known to be common: Depending on the different symptoms that you experience together with this, your doctor will know which specific circulation symptoms or conditions to test for from there.
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Shin pain is common in the case of circulation problems: Usually, the pain is different from a direct injury, and might be more pinching or nagging in nature.
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Again, see your doctor.
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6. Chronic Joint Inflammation
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Inflammation <\/a>is a reaction by the body’s immune system that usually means it’s attacking its own cells for one reason or another: Infection, illness, and chronic health conditions are all things which can trigger inflammation – and dietary factors, lifestyle choices, and specific injuries are other potential causes that can either trigger inflammation or worsen the inflammation that’s already there.
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Conditions like arthritis can cause inflammation to occur, but there are also many different other reasons for the same thing.
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Inflammation can be caused by things you eat (e.g. acidic foods are known to often cause attacks of gout), but it can also be due to a lowered immune system, as a medication side-effect or due to chronic conditions.
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Of course, shin pain is commonly felt with inflammation of any areas (including bones, muscles, tendons, and joints) located close enough to the shins. This includes the knees, ankles, feet, and hips.
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7. Repetitive Strain
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Repetitive strain <\/a>injuries are usually picked up over a long period of time spent doing the same thing using the same body part over and over again to do it: One of the most common types of repetitive strain injuries in modern times includes what most people call “tennis elbow” (a form of tendonitis, but also a repetitive strain injury) and what’s becoming known at an increasing rate as “smartphone thumb.”
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Typical repetitive strain injuries can occur anywhere in the body, including the shins: This is common for anyone who is a regular walker, runner or lifter of heavy objects – and this makes careers like service industry staff who spend a lot of time going up and down from one point to another more at risk than everyone else.
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Anyone who starts to feel chronic pain in the shins (and often the ankles, knees, and hips) should slow down on physical activity and be booked off work until the potential cause of the pain can be properly examined and subsequently treated.
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Gout <\/a>is one of the most common types of inflammation that a lot of people experience, but not a lot of people realize their \\’s a name for. If commonly goes undiagnosed because it’s not a permanent condition, but a permanent condition with “flare-up” periods where the inflammation is worse and might appear to go away for a while until the next trigger is encountered.
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Common symptoms for sufferers of gout include the hot, inflamed feeling of certain joints together with swelling and severe pain: This pain might radiate and commonly go to the shins and other bones from there.
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The easiest way to spot gout is to look for a dietary-related cause: Things like salt, red wine, chocolate, and sugar are especially known to trigger gout for many people – and every time they encounter these dietary triggers, it creates a flare-up of inflammation within the body.
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9. “Shin Splits” 
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If you experience any sharp or stabbing pain in your shins, sometimes pain that resembles “growing pains” to a lot of people, then it might be what people commonly refer to as “shin splints.” What the condition known as shin splits really is, is a type of stress fracture<\/a> that happens over a long period of time with impact taken to the knees and shins.
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Runners, walkers and those with connective tissue disorders are common risk factors for shin splints, although there are a thousand possible scenarios and conditions that might also trigger shin splits and the subsequent shin pain that might accompany the condition.
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If you feel any sharp pain in your shins that recurs after a while’s absence (or doesn’t go away at all), don’t ignore your symptoms: See your doctor for the right diagnosis, which can lead to finding the right treatment for your condition, usually including anti-inflammatories and a period of rest.
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10. Tendonitis
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Tendonitis <\/a>is a common type of injury that is tied to constant inflammation in the body’s tendons: This affects many people who already have another type of related condition like arthritis (or any kind of inflammatory or repetitive stress condition) along with it.
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If you have tendonitis, regular inflammation is one of the most common symptoms you’ll feel; this manifests through feeling pain in your ankles and shins – and is likely to radiate further from there.
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Tendonitis can be treated with a combination of rest, lifestyle changes and anti-inflammatory medication: Sometimes antibiotics might be required in the case of serious inflammation or where infections causing it are present.
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The first step, however, is finding the right diagnosis: First, seek the right doctor for a thorough examination, and after this, discuss the best treatment options or seek a second medical opinion.
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Tendonitis is easy to treat, and chronic tendonitis can be managed just as easily.
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11. Previous Knee Injuries
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Previous injuries can be one of the most common causes for pain felt, especially in or near the area where the original injury occurred – and there’s no official time restriction for how long ago these injuries might have been. It’s very common to see people talk about the pain they feel from “an old sports injury” or related injuries that happened years or decades back.
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These previous injuries might cause the injury to feel stiff, warm and inflamed on the days in which these joints take the strain that aggravates the injury; sometimes they might even react to temperatures<\/a>, especially older ones, with flare-ups.
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Previous injuries are common causes for chronic pain, especially in the shins when the injury might have affected the hips, legs or ankles. 
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A common treatment for these types of flare-ups include the use of anti-inflammatory medications, the addition of painkillers and the application of heat directly to (or near to) the injury site: Sometimes surgery might be required to remove calcification or repair microfractures.
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12. Prior Leg Breaks or Fractures
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Breaks and fractures are usually different from what people call “sports injuries” or old injuries: Breaks and fractures cause changes in the bone <\/a>and these changes will commonly cause serious pain (or weak spots that might lead to an increased likelihood of shattering or damaging the same bone).\u00a0
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If you have had a previous break or fracture of the knees, ankles or leg bones in the past – whether recent or years old – then it might lead to shin pain on a regular basis coupled with inflammation.
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If you have other conditions such as arthritis, which is common, these injuries could be worse, heal differently and the surrounding bone or muscle could degrade further and at a faster rate than that of someone without the condition, and there lies the potential danger.
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Whether you’re aware of the physical condition causing it or not, the first step is to see your doctor.
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13. Microfractures in the Shin
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Microfractures <\/a>describe hairline cracks that might occur in bone, usually from repetitive stress injuries, although also commonly from chronic conditions that people might not be aware of having in the first place. Common symptoms for microfractures include serious pain in the area – usually, heat and inflammation are also common symptoms that might go together with this.
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Many people with microfractures spend a great deal of time going through their lives with the condition and don’t know that these fractures are there: This can create either calcification or weak areas in the bone – and both of these can be potential causes of chronic pain.
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Where pain in the shins doesn’t go together with most of the other conditions that appear in this article, it could be due to microfractures. This takes a simple examination and an x-ray for your doctor to establish – and from there, they can put together an effective treatment routine to ensure improvement.
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14. Connective Tissue Conditions
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Connective tissue conditions are diagnosed at an increasing rate. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there are more occurrences of people who are born with these conditions, but instead mean that more people are being diagnosed due to new information and diagnosis protocols being available for doctors than ever before. 
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These types of health conditions cause weakness and rapid degradation of connective tissues in the body, and it commonly affects bones, tendons<\/a>, and muscles in the body.
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Conditions such as arthritis and heart conditions might be tied to having connective tissue disorders, and some kind of family history is a given for these genetic conditions.
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If you experience any type of regular pain and you’re not sure why (and you can see that someone in your family might have had the same issues, usually for a few generations in a row), it’s time to see your doctor. It takes a simple diagnosis from the right doctor to establish the correct course of action and treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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