Nocturnal Muscle Cramps

[OGC]

Hi Dr Steve,

My wife is getting very painful cramps in her right calf. She gets them about twice a week, usually at night while she is sleeping. This has been going on for about two months.

The same thing happened about a year ago and that series of cramps lasted about 2 months.

I don't know if it matters but she has chronic iron deficiency anemia and gets iron infusions every month.

She isn't the most active person in the world but is not a couch potato either.

Do you have any idea what may be causing them or how to avoid the cramps ?

Your Pal

Rich

[GvacNoMore]

Hi Dr Steve,

My wife is getting very painful cramps in her right calf. She gets them about twice a week, usually at night while she is sleeping. This has been going on for about two months.

The same thing happened about a year ago and that series of cramps lasted about 2 months.

I don't know if it matters but she has chronic iron deficiency anemia and gets iron infusions every month.

She isn't the most active person in the world but is not a couch potato either.

Do you have any idea what may be causing them or how to avoid the cramps ?

Your Pal

Rich

Muscle cramps are usually caused by dehydration, followed by potassium deficiency.

You've got to drink A LOT of water this time of year.

Oh, and potatoes have more potassium than bananas.

[ToiletCrusher]

Muscle cramps are usually caused by dehydration, followed by potassium deficiency.

You've got to drink A LOT of water this time of year.

Oh, and potatoes have more potassium than bananas.

I could go for a potato split right now.

Hold the chocolate sauce. I'm watching my figure.

[Dr Steve]

Hi Dr Steve,

My wife is getting very painful cramps in her right calf. She gets them about twice a week, usually at night while she is sleeping. This has been going on for about two months.

The same thing happened about a year ago and that series of cramps lasted about 2 months.

I don't know if it matters but she has chronic iron deficiency anemia and gets iron infusions every month.

She isn't the most active person in the world but is not a couch potato either.

Do you have any idea what may be causing them or how to avoid the cramps ?

Your Pal

Rich


What she's having is called "Nocturnal Muscle Cramps" or "charleyhorses". why the hell they were called charleyhorses is beyond me. A Weird Medicine Tee Shirt to the first person that can give me a convincing answer to that one.

Muscle cramps occur when striated muscle (like in your legs or biceps) contracts for no good reason, without instruction from the brain. It can be due to relative dehydration as was mentioned above, or an electrolyte deficiency or a host of things.

If she's otherwise well and has no other symptoms, she can take a multivitamin with potassium, eat bananas or taters or other high potassium foods, get her calcium and magnesium checked, and a few other things. OR she can drink 4 ounces of tonic water (diet is fine) on ice before bedtime when she's having the attacks. Tonic water contains quinine which is an amazing cramp stopper; the FDA frowns on taking quinine tablets for fear it will cause cataracts in rats, but tonic water is sold in every grocery store in the country.

She should talk this over with her doctor, though, at her next physical exam (she is getting a yearly pap, right?) or sooner if the cramps get worse or spread to other muscle groups.


let me know how she's doing!


your pal,



steve

[underdog]

I've been getting these since I was a child. I've gotten to the point now that I'll wake up right before I fully move my leg and catch myself at the brink of a painful knot. But then I have to avoid moving the leg for a while.

If they do go through, they are excrutiatingly painful.

[RhinoinMN]

From Wiki

The term may date back to American baseball slang of the 1880s, possibly from the pitcher Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn who is said to have suffered from cramps.[10] Another story mentions a horse named Charley that used to work at Comiskey Park, the Chicago White Sox's ballpark. In those days, an old, retired horse was often called "Charlie."


another

"Yet another theory, and one that thankfully does not involve limping equines, holds that a player for Boston in the 1880's named Charley Radbourne was popularly known as "Old Hoss." As reported years later (1907) in a Washington Post article recently unearthed by slang expert Barry Popik, Radbourne was rounding the bases after hitting a home run in a game with Providence when his leg muscles seized up, bringing him painfully to the ground. Another player rushed to his aid, asking, "What's a mattah wit you, Charley Hoss?" And, says the Post, "from that day to this lameness in baseball players has been called 'Charley Hoss,' or 'Charles Horse.' True? Perhaps, but that story is probably not the last word on "charley horse."

[Reynolds]

My doc prescribes me quinine for my cramps, first I heard of the cataract thing, thanks.

[Dr Steve]

From Wiki




another

Good enough. PM me your addy and your tee shirt size!

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[Chigworthy]

I get these pretty frequently. I believe mine originate from severe sciatica that I had corrected with a laminectomy. The sciatica is gone, but I have a distinct numb zone that runs down the outside of my right calf and into my little toe, and I get the crippling cramps about once a week in the middle of the night, or if I squat down shortly after getting out of bed. The worst time one struck, I was camping and "squatting in the woods" so to speak. Times like that, you learn the power of mental control.