Leg cramps

[kathleenkleinhans]

Thank you!  It is usually a lack of potassium as well!  Eat those green leafies!

[braggin]

Flexing doesn't work for everybody. One thing that does work pretty well is just to hop up from bed (or your chair, or wherever you are) and put your full weight on the leg that is having the Charlie Horse. That stops them dead in their tracks. You have to watch out for magnesium because it also helps a lot with leg cramps, if you take too much of it, you can get pretty bad diarrhea.

[InfuseMe1]

you're right!  read about that trick years ago - and now for maintenance have a massager machine recommended by an old chiropractor, which has kept the spams at bay for the last 30 years now...  google "thumper"

[dsosnowski06]

Had them as well but my doctor told me drink more water and eat a banana a day.  Seems to be working

[stokeman455]

      Mine are a nitemare.. have Neuropathy,, those lock ups are not good..

[gaby_ro_2004]

Pickle juice!!!! IF you don't have magnesium in the house drink pickle juice.

[UGetPaid]

Might just be coincidence, but I used to get these quite often in the same circumstances (stretching while sleeping/just waking up)... I don't think I've had one :::knock on wood::: since I started walking a few miles every day. I've had other leg muscle issues from time to time from using them more often, but none of those brutal "that got me fully awake fast!" cramps.


But like I said - it is probably just coincidence and I've now jinxed myself by saying it!

Annnnnnnnd just shy of three weeks from saying so, the jinx manifested itself in the most horrible way in the middle of the night last night. Woke up with a crippling leg cramp - couldn't get myself up out of bed to stand up on it (escape from that damn CPAP hose gets tricky when I am not fully awake) and I woke my wife up wailing like a little baby as I tried to pull my toes forward with my free hand.  I couldn't even tell her why I was making such a ruckus!  I don't think she was very pleased with me.


I'm pretty sure I was adequately hydrated as I had about 80 ounces of water during the day Wednesday.

[lhz123]

I have always a leg cramps especially  in the  bathroom. The doctor told me to drink lots of water and vitamin D. It helps but once in a while i still get it.

[linderlizzie]

Bear in mind you have to catch the cramp before it fully takes hold. If you can feel it starting, that's the best time to flex the foot to keep it from going farther into a cramp.

I'm so sorry it doesn't work for everyone.  I was hoping it would.

[cathy37]

Sometimes that works for me and other times the cramps are so bad that they will not even work.  I try to eat bananas or drink orange juice because they are suppose to help.

[pectacon]

I wish I could find help for my dad's leg cramps, he gets really bad ones in the middle of the night a lot. He is already following every suggestion mentioned here so far and says nothing helps.

[judylucas]

I always get up and walk altho it hurts till it gets worked out

[rghvac69]

Hypocalcemia (low calcium) may cause leg cramps as well.

[darkxtsuna]

Once I feel one I have to quickly get out of bed or what I'm doing and walk around just so the pain wont kick in.

[paints]

Flexing seems to lock the cramp in, for me.  I hobble to the kitchen and take a tablespoon of mustard, and that usually helps.