Why COVID-19 sometimes causes this unexpected side effect

COVID-19 is a disease with many strange symptoms. While the virus mainly affects the respiratory system, it also affects people’s motivation and causes a variety of strange symptoms such as skin rashes, COVID tongue and COVID toes.

Another strange symptom that is also reported is back pain.

Intense bouts of back pain are reported by people who have had COVID-19, whether present at the moment or as a symptom of long-term COVID-19 illness. And while back pain doesn’t appear as one of the symptoms listed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), muscle and body pain are listed as part of the same group.

Photo by fizkes/Getty Images

RELATED: These popular foods could shorten your lifespan

Muscle and body aches are common in viral diseases. For example, the flu is also known to cause pain throughout the body. This is because your immune system is fighting off the infection and is working overtime to get rid of the foreign material. In these situations, your body produces interleukins, which cause the symptoms associated with viral infections.

When it comes to COVID-19 and back pain, COVID-19 is known to produce a powerful inflammatory response that can last for months and is the reason people continue to have symptoms long after their COVID-19 infection has ended. In a 2020 review, back pain was one of the most commonly reported symptoms of the disease, affecting about 10 percent of patients. While it’s not fully understood why the back is a target for COVID-19, experts know it’s related to the body’s inflammatory response.

RELATED: COVID-19 patients may be at higher risk for these diseases, new study finds

While back pain is often reported with COVID-19, just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have COVID-19. Back pain can be caused by a variety of things, be it stress, poor posture, a strained muscle or more. Many viral infections cause muscle pain, so it’s important to consider your other symptoms to determine what’s causing your condition.