Medical Question: Pain in arms after sneezing (details inside)

Just guessing. I am not a medical professional and I have never heard of this before.

It sounds like it could be nerve pain. When you sneezing the morning are you laying down? As opposed to sitting or standing up during the day? Maybe your position is aggravating or putting pressure on a nerve. It also could be in the morning having slept in a certain position your muscles are creating some sort of stress on a nerve, but through the day it is relieved.

Since pain down the arm is a classic heart attack symptom, maybe you are having a moment of some sort of something that creates that same discomfort as when blood is not flowing correctly throught the heart.

I doubt it is something dangerous, but I do think it is good to check with your doctor just in case. If he thinks it is heart related he could order a heart monitor to wear overnight so you can record during your sneezing. But, honestly, I have no idea if that is really a concern.

I really think it is a nerve in the spine, changing position or controlling your neck and head position when sneezing might be the cure. Another idea is to take ibuprofen for a few days if this is a new thing. Possible muscles are inflamed and pinching on a nerve and reducing the inflammation will cure the problem.

Do you lift heavy things during the day? Have any history of disc problems, or neck and shoulder pain and tension?

Let us know what the doctor says.

I, too, suspect it is related to the position in which you sleep more than anything else.

I am not a doctor, but I believe that JLeslie is incorrect.

When you sneeze, you are clenching (at a minimum) your facial muscles, and at a maximum, muscles in the rest of your body. Clenching reduces (to a small extent) the flow of blood for a fraction of a second, until you have actually done the sneeze.

I believe that the pain you feel i s a result of momentary slowing of blood to your extremities – just long enough that your body can feel it, but not long enough to do any damage.

But this is my theory, and I am not a doctor.

Just to clarify, I think it is more likely a muscle, skeletal, nerve thing, not the heart blood flow thing.

It might be cervical radiculopathy, i.e., “pinched nerves” in the spine of the neck. Sneezing often elicits spinal symptoms in susceptible patients. Your doctor might order a CT scan of the neck.

@JLeslie No I am not laying down when I sneeze its usually after I sit up then sneeze I can feel a little numbing type of pain. I really do think it has to do with blood flow or something like that. As I mentioned someone on another forum said low blood pressure. And it doesn’t happen every morning it’s every now and then, but when it comes it sucks! Coming to think of it though I did injure my neck working out a couple months ago but I think this problem was happening before that as well.

@JoeyOhSoClever It’s possible your neck already had some injury, but a few months ago whatever you did exaggerated. It is very common for people to describe bad shoulder pain for instance, and then on xray they find disc problems in the neck that the patient was never aware of or cannot pinpoint an incident that might have caused it. But, I am just guessing. Let’s see what the doctor says.