Got any ideas please

[Ernie]

I am in need of a solution to the problem of recurring nocturnal leg cramps.  I get them real bad and it is about the worst way to wake up that I can think of.  My GP prescribed Quinine but it isn't doing much good.  I sweat profusely down here as the summer is quite warm and very humid this year.  My age and weight may have some bearing on the sweats ;D ;D

I recalled that when I used to take my students on tours of the steel works in Hamilton Ontario, there were dispensers for salt tablets all over the mill as it was so hot and everyone perspired like mad.

I drink about 10 litres of water daily and have now added 5 litres of salt water during the night.  this seems to help a bit but I would be grateful for any suggestions which would be more efficacious.

[Tom]

Ernie,
I get them too, sometimes.  Usually a bout will last a week and then they are gone.   It's good to get a Dr.['s opinion because it could be an indication of something really bad.   But I was told that the main problem is de-hydration and over exertion.   Drink water and replace  electrolytes.   A sports drink may help.   So will stretching excercises before you go to bed.  Things like touching your toes with your legs straight and your butt against (close to) the wall.  Leaving your feet free while you sleep too.  Having your toes pushed down by a heavy blanket or tight sheets can help to start cramping.

The water always helped me, eventually.   I found that an aspirin before bed helped too.  I guess I relaxed better.

[Ernie]

Thanks Tom

Touching the toes may be a bit of a problem, I did mention my weight  :( :(

[Tom]

Me too  :D   But, if I spread my feet apart, I can do it.  ;D

[Fla._Deadheader]

Yer really gonna laugh at this, but, in the local newspaper in Fl. people would write in a LOT, about putting a bar of soap under the covers where you sleep  : : :  Can't understand it, but LOTS and LOTS of people would try it, and then write in that it works  ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

  Let us know how it does for you, Ernie ??   No special type or brand required.  ;) ;D

[IMERC]

Sounds like dehydration and build up of latic acid from excersion.

More fluids and do the Williams exercises a bit before sack time. (searching fer the link)

[sprucebunny]

Calcium. When you sweat alot, it's washed out of your system faster.

Try taking 1000MG with dinner or before bed.

[estiers]

Cramps can be caused to lack of potassium.  Maybe try eating a banana a day to increase potassium levels.

[Murf]

I used to suffer from the same thing, Doctor said it was mostly from inactivity after my heart attack. He said the same as has been suggested here, stretch, etc., and drink lots of water. Then my legs were sore from all the walking to the bathroom and back.

Then I happened to mention it to my SIL who is a homeopath. She said it was from not enough calcium, I took a supplement for a while and it stopped, never had it since. She also advised it could also be from Phosphorous rich foods and drinks like soda or processed meats and most snack foods.

[estiers]

From what I remember calcium and potassium travel the same pathway.  Its been a long time since biochemistry :P...

[beenthere]

Me too  :D   But, if I spread my feet apart, I can do it.  ;D

Pictures Tom, we want pics 

[JimBuis]

Ernie,
Too much caffeine?  My Dad started having this problem.  The family doctor asked him if he drank a lot of coffee.  My Dad was famous for making a huge pot of the strongest coffee ever invented,......you know the stuff that will dissolve a stainless steel spoon when you stir it.  He used to drink a huge restaurant-sized pot by himself everyday.  He didn't give up coffee, but started drinking water and other stuff.  The doctor also gave him a prescription, I think it was a muscle relaxant.  After awhile he stopped the medication and controlling his caffeine intake helped.

It was the strangest thing I had ever seen.  My Dad was one of these old guys who swore that REAL men don't cry.  I saw him cut himself, smash his thumb, whatever, and no tears.  However, when those leg cramps kicked in at about 3 a.m., he screamed like I had never heard before and the tears were flowing like a river while he hobbled around the kitchen table trying to walk the cramps out.  I guess REAL men do cry after all.

Good luck,
Jim

[IMERC]

here ya go.

http://search.earthlink.net/search?q=williams+exercises&area=earthlink-ws&FD=0&channel=narrowband

up yur potassium intake too and not so much calcium unless you drink soda pop. Soda pop will flush yur system of vitamins, potassium and lots of calcium.

[Lud]

I'm throwing my support to Fla. DH as I have read the same Dr.'s column in the paper regularly.  And what does it hurt to try a bar of soap.  Seems it should be one that's worn down a bit, not new,  and I think it was to be put under the fitted sheet down at the lower leg level of the bed.  Read multiple times of relief brought to those who've tried it .

The one I heard today was the one I'll try tonightas I've a cold in the later stages and coughin' for a while before I get to sleep.....supposedly if I put Vicks on my feet and then a light pair of socks ,  I won't cough!!  As much!!   got to try it!

[IMERC]

I've a cold in the later stages and coughin' for a while before I get to sleep.....

Phlem pocket in yur lungs shift when you go horizontial to verticale causing irritation.

[Tom]

if you'll boil a  handfull of garlic with a new hatched chicken that was born on a monday and the tail of a dead cat in an iron pot full of vinegar and add some rainwater from a barrell that caught it off of the south end of the house and then pour it in an old tennis shoe..............  hmm-m   No, that's for supthin' else.

[IMERC]

if you'll boil a  handfull of garlic with a new hatched chicken that was born on a monday and the tail of a dead cat in an iron pot full of vinegar and add some rainwater from a barrell that caught it off of the south end of the house and then pour it in an old tennis shoe..............  hmm-m   No, that's for supthin' else.

if ya add the red toad stools ya got it.

[fstedy]

I've also always heard that potassium deficency would cause leg cramps.

Tom
You forgot to add the center pair of legs from a wooly centipede.  That converts your tonic for  leg cramping.

[breederman]

Don't know how to prevent them, but I do know you can stop a "charlie horse" in its tracks by stretching your toes up as hard as you can when one starts.

[Larry]

Had em all my life after strenuous work.  If I'm pulling the winch line all day to fetch trees I'll have the cramps that night.  This time of year it's to cool to sweat much.  Not a bit over weight and in pretty good condition for my age.  Drink lots of water but that doesn't seem to help much.  I do think the bananas help.  Pulling on my toes used to stop the cramp maybe 20 years ago but don't do a thing anymore.  If I get one the wife will rub it out and slap on Ben Gay...if I'm lucky the cramp will be gone in about an hour.

[getoverit]

I'm not sure if y'all are talking about the same thing or not, but here's what has happened to me a few times:

In the middle of the night (around 3am or so) I wake up with a funny feeling in my toes. When I make any movement whatsoever in my toes, the muscles in the back part of my leg become as hard as iron, and the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in them makes me begin pounding them with my fists. No movement at all seems to help until it goes away, usually after a couple of minutes. Hurts so bad all I can do is scream in pain. The next day, my legs are so sore I can barely walk, but walking it out does seem to help. I'll go for weeks or months before it happens again.

Is this what y'all are talking about? I thought I was the only one that had them :'(

[Tom]

Yep, those are leg cramps.


Take two aspirin with a glass of water.   

That'll be a dollare three ninety-eight.  :D

[Larry]

Leg cramps exactly...I've even found in the last 5 years if I get a really good leg cramp it will trigger a cramp right below my rib cage and then it really becomes fun. ;D

[Ianab]

Only place thats worse to get them than in bed is in the surf (bodyboarding)

A bit of strenuous paddling (with flippers on) then sitting around in cold water waiting for a decent wave. Okies - finally, wave of the day appears on the horizon and it's anouther frantic paddle to get into position. You get it right and launch off the lip of the best wave of the day.. just as your calf muscle cramps up 
If you are lucky you can still ride out the wave and get clear.. if you aren't.. here you are trying to paddle out of the drop zone with one leg as the rest of the set rolls over you.  Leg cramp is bad enough without having 9ft of whitewater bearing down on ya  :D

[farmerdoug]

I use to get craps in the legs occasionally in the past but one day while hunting my buddy offered me a vitamin C drop.  He siad that when ever he exercised alot he would eat them and his legs would not get as sore and no craps.  So I started taking them and have had few craps since then.  I eat alot of citrus with vitamin C in now and still take the drops once in a while.  The tablets are sold with cough drops.

Farmerdoug