Anxiety is an emotion a person feels in the face of a possible threat, which may be real or imagined. It shows itself in different ways, but one of its most characteristic symptoms is excessive worry about something. Under normal conditions anxiety is good, because it is an alarm system that warns you of danger. The problem comes when anxiety becomes uncontrollable, to the point of altering your behaviour and changing your whole life.
When your mind perceives a situation as threatening, the muscles in your body tense up, your breathing speeds up and it feels as if you were going through an episode of tachycardia in which your life is slipping away. Because mind and body are interconnected, the body reacts and releases large amounts of creatine kinase into the blood. These are enzymes that play an important role in the muscles, and if their levels are high, significant damage to the muscle fibres can occur. If it is an isolated or occasional episode, there is nothing to worry about, but if anxiety recurs frequently, it can lead to degenerative muscle problems. Hence meditation, yoga or any other discipline is highly recommended as a way to relax your muscles when you are going through stressful periods.
Creatine kinase: symptoms, causes and prevention
It is difficult to know when your creatine kinase levels are high, but there are some symptoms that can point you in the right direction, such as chest pain, cramps, numbness, dark-coloured urine, tingling or muscle weakness. So pay attention if one or several of them appear, because having higher than normal creatine kinase levels means the muscle is damaged, either by a tear or by some other deterioration. In addition, high creatine kinase levels can also indicate brain injury or inflammation of the heart muscle. In fact, people who have had heart attacks had higher than normal creatine kinase levels.
Causes
High creatine kinase can be due to many factors related to your lifestyle habits. You only need to look at the lifestyle you lead and you will know where you can start to address it.
If you do intense physical exercise on a regular basis, it is best to have blood tests from time to time. It is normal for your muscles to feel the strain after intense activity, but if creatine kinase levels remain high for a long time, you should start looking into where the problem lies. Hence the importance of keeping an eye on your levels.
Levels also shoot up in people with obesity, diabetes, viral infections, hormonal imbalances, coeliac disease, or kidney or neurological diseases.
Prevention
Some situations and illnesses simply cannot be avoided. However, if you eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly (it does not have to be intense) and practise relaxing habits, you help prevent your muscles from suffering because of high creatine kinase levels.
Anxiety