Sharp pain in multiple parts of the body

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hello. I'm having an issue with random parts of my body getting sharp stinging pains. The most common spot I get them is on the front part of my left tibia, although other common ones are my left knee and my left elbow. Although these are the most common spots, sometimes they occur in other areas of my body, in no apparent pattern. The odd thing about them is the sharp pain lasts a second or less and then goes away. The frequency of these pains also vary, sometimes a couple times in a minute, sometimes hours in between them, no matter if I'm standing, walking, sitting, or laying down. It hasn't affected my daily activities other than to be a nuisance, but the pains seem to be getting sharper and more painful as time goes on. Does this sound serious or just a temporary problem?

Dear Caleb: Amongst the multiple causes of sharp pain with or without tingling and numbness of the extremities (arm-hands and leg-feet), there are: vitamin deficiencies (Vitamin B12), nerve compressions at the level of the spine, problems with the peripheral nerves of hands and feet, and metabolic causes as problems with the Thyroid gland and Diabetes. Definitely you will need an evaluation with physical and lab tests and once that your physician ruled out the vitamin deficiency, and thyroid problems, might be important to rule out some other metabolic causes as Diabetes, which can produce the symptoms that you described above.