Your legs may feel tired or fatigued if your blood isn't circulating through your body properly. Poor circulation often affects the lower part of your body since it's harder for blood to flow upward toward your heart. Sometimes blood can collect in your legs, ankles, and feet.
Why are my legs suddenly weak? Sudden leg weakness can be a cause for concern and should prompt immediate medical attention. Some causes of sudden leg weakness include stroke (due to a decrease in oxygen reaching parts of the brain), spinal cord damage, or a pinched nerve coming out of the spinal cord.
As a result, people with heart failure often feel weak (especially in their arms and legs), tired and have difficulty performing ordinary activities such as walking, climbing stairs or carrying groceries.
Another common symptom of chronic anxiety is weakness in the muscles, most commonly experienced in the legs and sometimes the arms. During the fight or flight response, the body is preparing to take action against danger.
People will often experience shaky or weak legs when dealing with vascular issues in the leg, like deep vein thrombosis or blood clots. Clots are very serious if untreated because they could break off into the bloodstream and travel to an artery in the lungs, blocking blood flow.
Muscle cramps or weakness
Another sign of dehydration is a feeling of weakness in certain muscles or severe muscle cramps. The cramps can be caused by electrolyte imbalances and reduced blood flow to those muscles.
Legs can “give way” due to muscle issues, especially while exercising. These instances are not cause for alarm typically. But if your legs give way and you lose complete control or feeling, the spinal nerves are likely the culprit. The nerves in our spine help deliver signals from our brain to the legs.
Causes of nerve damage include direct injury, tumor growth on the spine, prolonged pressure on the spine, and diabetes. A spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries are among the most common reasons that legs give out. These injuries vary in severity but should always be evaluated immediately by a spine specialist.
You may particularly experience leg cramps in your calf muscles and thigh muscles. You may also have involuntary contractions like muscle spasms. Dehydration also decreases blood volume. That means your muscles and organs have less blood flow, resulting in cramps and spasms.
Swollen legs and feet can be caused by some medications and underlying medical conditions, including venous insufficiency. Although prescription medications and creams can treat edema, it is essential to drink enough water.
Water. While it likely comes as no surprise, drinking water is most often the best and cheapest way to stay hydrated and rehydrate. Unlike many other beverages, water contains no added sugars or calories, making it ideal to drink throughout the day or specifically when you need to rehydrate, such as after a workout.
In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends an oral rehydration solution — a fancy term for a mixture of sodium, potassium, and glucose — as the best way to return to normal. When electrolytes and glucose are perfectly balanced, you can rehydrate up to three times as fast as with plain water.
When you're dehydrated, the body stores up energy by decreasing blood circulation. Blood circulation is important because it delivers oxygen to the muscles, and if our blood flow isn't circulating properly, we become lethargic and our energy level decreases.
You've probably heard the advice to drink eight glasses of water a day. That's easy to remember, and it's a reasonable goal. Most healthy people can stay hydrated by drinking water and other fluids whenever they feel thirsty. For some people, fewer than eight glasses a day might be enough.
See your doctor as soon as possible if you have:
A leg that is swollen, pale or unusually cool. Calf pain, particularly after prolonged sitting, such as on a long car trip or plane ride. Swelling in both legs along with breathing problems. Any serious leg symptoms that develop for no apparent reason.
Symptoms like lightheadedness, muscle cramps, and general weakness are indications that the body is failing to compensate for dehydration. Nausea and vomiting are particularly bad because they can cause the situation to get worse.