I would imagine dialysis creates all sorts of deficiency problems. Makes a bit of cramp sound very trivial in comparison.
j
Hahaha, try potassium if you want horse pills!
If you’re going to take magnesium for cramps then what type of magnesium is best?
I understand that magnesium oxide’s lower bioavailability makes it a poor choice and magnesium carbonate, which appears to be the form of choice for chronic kidney disease’s hyperphosphatemia, doesn’t seem to be OTC.
One thing I read is that it’s not easy to tell if someone is deficient in magnesium at the cellular level, as the body will pull magnesium to keep blood levels stable. It takes severe deficiency before it shows up in the blood serum tests that are usually run.
One Source: Magnesium: Are We Consuming Enough? - PMC
My own results were within the normal serum ranges, but doc said it wouldn’t hurt to try, and see if it helped. It seemed to result in reducing muscle tension for me.
I also know that calcium and Vitamin D deficiencies can cause this, and that those two are actually linked with magnesium in the body. Vitamin D helps absorb both of them, and having too much of one of the other two can offset the balance of the other.
My doctor advised me to seek out magnesium glycinate over the other (inevitably cheaper) forms because she felt glycinate offered better bioavailability for cramp prevention.
I found big bottles at Costco (Nature Made brand) but I have also seen glycinate in the vitamin depts at my grocery store and Target, among others. You just have to be a careful label reader. When you’re pricing them take note of how many are needed for the RDA. A bottle of 120 might be only a months worth if you need two capsules twice a day.
When I take them to prevent night time leg cramps I make a mental note to take them with a big glass of water because dehydration can cause cramps also.
CVS is really good for buy one get one free or some percentage off.
They’re my pharmacy so I pay the $5 a month (which gets me a $10 credit every month) for free delivery which also gets me an automatic 20% off CVS brand benefit!
It’s probably the lemon juice, believe it or not. Our crusty old Jesuit brother athletic trainer in high school swore by dill pickle juice as an anti-cramping remedy, and we all thought it was absurd, but it did work. I looked it up a while back when I saw commercially packaged pickle juice, and found out that it’s apparently the acid and some sort of reflexive action that relieves cramping.
Reflex inhibition of electrically induced muscle cramps in hypohydrated humans - PubMed
You asked, we answered: Can pickle juice help cramps? | Nebraska Medicine Omaha, NE
Can pickle juice reduce cirrhotic muscle cramping? | Michigan Medicine
Pickle Juice for Dialysis-related Muscle Cramps: Fact or Myth? - Renal Fellow Network
I was getting calf and thigh cramps after 30 minutes or so of snorkeling. Started using a foamy spray solution of magnesium rubbed on and left to dry, prior to the snorkeling. It seems to be quite effective.
Too much magnesium can be dangerous if you have kidney failure, but a person with normal kidney function would get pretty severe diarrhea before they reached that point. (That’s why Epsom salts - magnesium sulfate - can be used as a laxative.)
@Treppenwitz any number of nutritional imbalances can cause leg cramps. If that works for you, keep using it.
I read recently (no, not in a CE lesson) that taurine supplementation can reduce vomiting in cats. It’s an amino acid that is often not in sufficient amounts in commercial cat foods, so I got some and put it in the same baby food I use for her potassium supplementation. I wish I had known about this 15 years ago, because she’s puking a LOT less now. You know SHE doesn’t experience the placebo effect!
Don’t bet on it. For example:
I vaguely recollect reading somewhere that the mechanism (in blinded trials) is presumed to be something to do with how a pet’s owner reacts to the treatment, and how this influences the pet.
j
Protocol
Intro
I get cramps after bike rides. The weather forecast is so bad I’m doing this by number of rides rather than by number of weeks. Qualifying rides are:
35+ miles on the road bike; or
30+ miles on the cross
Treatments
Main protocol
Boots Ca (2 tabs) vs
Boots Ca + Mg (2 tabs)
Dose ranging extension (if an effect is apparent) (note that this is an adaptive protocol – neat huh?)
Boots Ca (1 tab) PLUS Boots Ca + Mg (1 tab)
Treatment Phases
Initial: 5 qualifying rides on Boots Ca + Mg (2 tabs)
Washout: 1 week on Boots Ca (2 tabs)
Dechallenge: 5 qualifying rides on Boots Ca (2 tabs)
Washout: 1 week on Boots Ca + Mg (2 tabs)
Rechallenge: 5 qualifying rides on Boots Ca + Mg (2 tabs)
Dose Ranging Extension
10 qualifying rides on Boots Ca (1 tab) PLUS Boots Ca + Mg (1 tab)
Efficacy measures
Post ride, for the rest of the day, log the following
Number of slight cramps (me standing up and shaking the cramp off)
Number of severe cramps (me jumping/falling out of my chair screaming Fuck! Fuck! Jesus! and desperately trying to straighten out one or both legs)
At the end of the treatment phase: Global impression
Data analysis
Let’s just discuss.
XXXXXXXXXX (ENDS) XXXXXXXXXX
Now here’s a thing. The study currently doesn’t have a name. Ideally I think it should have one of those names that have a funky acronym to go with them, like:
BRAINS Bayer Randomized Acute Ischemia Neuroprotectant Study; or
CABG PATCH The Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Patch Trial
I’ll take suggestions.
j
RIDE. Randomized Idiopatic Decramping Exercise?
A thing of beauty! Thank you!
j
My pleasure. As the random is not really in the procedure I had to put it in the title. That often works. 
People very rarely read the protocol.
j
My lord. A meta analysis that is in its entirety 28 dogs across three studies, and it relies on self-reporting (owners, obviously) of existence/frequency of seizures to enter the study, but seizure monitors are used during testing. I have theories other than the placebo effect.
I am pretty sure Magnesium supplementation (Magnesium Citrate) helps with my Restless Leg Syndrome. Before I started the supplements, I would have to stand on a vibrating plate for 20mins every evening to settle my legs before bed. Now, I might need to use the plate once a month, if that.
Interesting - I have a friend who suffers from that - I’ll pass your comments on.
j
I just had a chat with her and she’s interested to give it a try. Can I ask, on her behalf, what dose do you use? Please feel free to PM me if you prefer to do that.
Thanks in advance
j
I found that the best treatment for the worst of the worst cramps is quinine. Unfortunately, it can no longer be obtained for that use. I will say that a small bottle or two of Fever Tree Tonic Water helps with my leg cramps.
I find adding some Bombay gin and lime juice improves efficacy.