I got them the first time fifty seven years ago in 1953 after a rare heavy snow storm in Washington D.C. I starting by shoveling a neighbors walk for 35 cents, but soon learned a lesson about supply and demand and was getting a buck or two for a narrow path from the curb to the front door. I joined forces with another kid, and we were making money hand over fist, more than I imagined I would ever have. I think it was around thirteen dollars.
But, then as I was relaxing after moving that thick wet snow, I felt the pain, first in the calf of one legs, then the upper muscle and then both legs. I had never called my dad at work, but this time I begged my mother to get him on the phone. In those days such rare pain to this kids mind meant only one thing, that I had gotten polio. My dad came home and reassured me, as he was familiar with what I had. And soon enough, it went away, and I still had my loot.
I've had these on and off for all my life. For a while, they would happen at embarasing places like a restaurant or while sitting in a theater. No matter what I had to get up and walk it off. A few years back it was getting bad again, usually after playing tennis, something I would be reluctant to give up for many reasons. I was on Lipitor for mildly elevated cholesterol, and when I described it to my doctor, we decided to discontinue it.
Now it's back, and worse than ever. Last night it was so bad, and went on so long that I came close to passing out. Had I done so, the cramps probably would have continued and could have done severe damage to my legs according to the sources I've been reading now for many hours.
I finally came across this forum, from the "Books for Dummies" publisher that I didn't know had branched out to the Internet. It's been up for a year, and has 248 responses from people who are tortured by this and seeking an answer. It turns out that the Medical Profession has very little to offer, and in such situations, with something that is sporadic, just like until yesterday I would have attributed this to Lipitor, the cures that have proliferated are amazing. I used the search engine of the site to quantify some categories.
A popular one is the Soap cure:
Now you can all laugh. Several years ago I had leg cramps almost every night and hd to get uop and sgtretch or rub ASpercreme on the calves of my legs. I mentioned it to a cousin from Texas and she suggested I put a bar of ivory soap under the bottom sheet at the bottom of the bed. I did it and except for the one or two times over the past several years that the bar of soap was dislodged and pushed down the side of the mattress I have not had any leg cramps. Give it a try, It only costs a bar of Ivory soap.
Ah, but maybe I laugh too soon:
Post 147---I'm a 65 years old biochemist and I've been having these excruciating pains in the calf at night once or twice a month for several years. I believe they're brought on by pressing down my left leg against the mattress (I sleep on a waterbed.) The pain is such that I need to bury my face in my pillow to stifle my screams. At the same time, I press down as hard as I can with my other foot and concentrate on the sensations in the toes of my other foot: anything so as to think of something else! I've found that this distracts me from the pain and it ends within a minute or two. And I can even walk OK within 10 minutes. From reading the posts, I get the impression that it's an imbalance of electrolytes such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and perhaps phosphates that must be involved. Ivory soap should contain sodium and/or potassium. The Gatorade idea sounds good also. I'm going to try Epsom salts as well. As for mustard, it's likely that it is its content in sodium rather than isothiocarbamides that matters. Arginine and whey would contribute to building protein, but I've been taking Arginine and Ornithine every night so I doubt that it's a protein deficiency in my case. Hypoglycemia (low sugar)could contribute to the problem too, particularly for those who drink alcohol with dinner. So, when in pain, drinking something sweet like orange juice could help, if it's hypoglycemia that's involved.
Read his comments #149 and #150 for those who want more details
Another common theme is inter cellular water balance, or diuresis
Posted by Gerald DECEMBER 26, 2010 | 08:27AM #180
Key issue causing calf cramps for me (and I suspect virtually everyone else writing above) is that calf cramps are caused by slight dehydration. For those with a scientific bent you will see the common denominator in all these causes: (any alcohol(eg. wine causes dehydration); hot previous day or hot night or even pyjamas too warm (all cause dehydration); exercise with not enough water to replace sweat(sweating causes dehydration); concentrated foods (ie. foods that need significant natural dilution for body's absorption by osmosis - bananas, concentrated fruit juices (eg. concentrated grape juice or sugary drinks); chicken with too much seasoning. All these cause slight dehydration. If you feel vulnerable at bed-time it is best to have several glasses of water right then (waking to pee is better than the cramp!) and maybe a couple of more glasses of water during the night.
and this one from comment #236
I also suffer from gout and dehydration also copntributes to this. So the key here is to ALWAYS be hydrated. The best way to measure this is to monitor your urine and make sure it is clear with little or no yellow in it at all. If there is colour then drink more water. This does not include the yellow from foods or some vitamins. Hot showers and baths can dehydrate you as well as booze, extreme activity like child birth, sex or rugby. The older you are the less effective is the mechanism that tells you that you are thirsty so you have to be conscious to drink lots. Taking electrolytes of all types and sources is helpful. I have gone to the bike stores that cater to high end racers and have gotten convenient electrolyte additives for the water that I drink. Also always have room temperature water standing in a glass or or large bottele handy and constantly drink from this. You can drink more warm water than cold. Last trick to help; cramping while it is happening. Keep a LARGE glass or bottle of water by your bed and if you start to feel the cramp coming on start drinking and don't stop until the cramp subsides
Yeah, this could have contributed to my episode yesterday, since we were at a fair with only a little water, and I did play tennis that morning. Look extreme excessive does play a part, but such exercise is vital, and not being active would cause other problems.
I don't know of too many people who go to the hospital for leg cramps, maybe it's the other name for it, Charley Horse" that makes it sound too trivial. Some of the descriptions of it refute that quickly. Those who think It's just my low toleration for pain, read this one, #61, that reflects many others on the board:
Posted by jessk16 MARCH 25, 2010 | 05:41PM
I have had cramps many of times before, but about 3:30am i woke up in slight pain. It then progressed to the worst pain i have EVER felt! I have not been through child birth, but i think this cramp was worse. I was clutching the bed and trying not to scream and wake up my neighbours. Everytime i nearly fell back asleep, it would start to tense again. I couldnt even walk to the bathroom. Wow. it really was so painful. I think i had about 2hrs sleep, and am having the day off work. I dont think i could handle even driving today.
Fourteen commenters described this as "excruciating" something far beyond any over the counter pain killer can even touch. And if the pain were to be numbed without ending the cramps, the damage to the legs would then certainly happen. There is no report of the effect of this if it continues in the internet, or any article on emergency treatment of this condition. The one article based on the website of the journal "Emergency Medicine" does give a link to such ER treatment, but it is not accessible. So, If out of desperation you do go to an E.R. you have to hope that the attending physician happened to have read it, and that it does give some suggestions. But what they are is not available to the public.
In todays world this is criminal. Almost all medical research is funded at least partly by public funds. We are past the time when such research should be available only to those who pay the very high cost of a subscription. This is a side issue, but quite relevant.
It turns out last night, I had on hand some tabs of diazepam, which is primary known as the tranquilizer Valium. I sometimes take a small dose, 5 mgs to help me sleep, but I know that it is also a muscle relaxer. As I was staggering in pain I asked my wife for two pills, more than I ever take to sleep. The cramp subsided, but after a while lying in bed, it came back with a vengeance. But mercifully, after a short time, the pain was gone, and I fell asleep.
Is Valium a treatment for acute extreme muscle cramping? The closest I could come to find out was this report from Drug.com, a review of diazepam to treat muscle spasm. While none of the conditions were quite what I've been describing here, they all said that it worked. I've added Nocturnal Leg Cramps to the Valium site for others to report their experiences.
If you have ever had these miserable cramps you might have found this informative And whether or not this affects you, let's start a movement to require every publication that accepts public funds to post their full articles on the Internet. They still will be peer reviewed by professionals, but this way the research we paid for will be more widely disseminated.
The next thing is to find out whether diazepam does control this pain. And then if it does, (a very big IF) to disseminate this information to sufferers and doctors, and have it approved to be prescribed for this condition. Since this is no longer patented, the small profits of generic production does not provide any incentive to fund this kind of study.
So, I'm trying it to do this by this article. I wish I could send anyone who is interested in joining the study a couple of tabs of Valium, but I really don't want to go to jail. Perhaps, If you suffer from this you have a friend who can give you a few to try after you show them this article.