When I was a teenager and a young adult, I suffered from nighttime leg cramps in my calves- I would stretch in my sleep and bam! Ow! This happened many times, was a regular occurrence. Eventually it went away and hasn’t happened in several years.
Last night it happened, but in my thigh. I was in the process of turning from one side to the other in my sleep and bam! Ow! I thought I might be dying for about 2.7 seconds, but then it went away, leaving just a residual soreness throughout today.
The only changes recently have been I’ve started taking St. John’s wort, and I’m pretty sure my thyroid is low, but I have been taking a lot of vitamin D to somewhat stave that off until I can get to a doctor.
How weird is this? I hope it’s a fluke- I will be anxious about turning over for a while now. So painful. Ow.
My mom started having these back in September. For her, the cramps were in her thigh and her calf at the same time. She could barely stand when they happened and walking was painful for the rest of the day.
As I recall, she decided that they were due to low Vitamin D. She had gotten bloodwork done recently that showed low Vitamin D and the whole-leg cramps stopped when she started supplementing Vitamin D. I know this doesn’t fit with your situation since you are already supplementing Vitamin D, but it’s been a couple of months since she had the last attack.
Good to know, though, that it could be related to Vit D. I suppose this is just (one more) impetus I need to go ahead and go to the doctor and get all my levels checked, since I also have issues with B12.
In doing online research, we also stumbled across a page that suggested that naproxen can cause leg cramps. She stopped taking that, too. I don’t recall her logic, but she decided it was the B, not naproxen. She doesn’t fall for woo (she’s a nurse and a very good one), so I’m sure her logic was reasonable.
Speaking of online research, I just did a little bit more, and it seems that thyroid disease can cause them- as well as many other things, but I have been having problems with it for a while now. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and go to the doctor. Thanks,** Red**.
She already supplements with vitamin D, and doesn’t take naproxen (but does take ibuprofen).
She tends to blame it a surgery that bolted the achilles tendon back to her heel after fixing a bone spur there. It certainly started after that… but it also comes and goes in regularity, so I’m not sure how much blame to assign there.
I started having thigh cramps about 8 years ago, in my late 40’s. The first time it happened was after a couple of days of walking in NYC, I had pushed my legs way harder than they were used to. I was awakened by flat out screaming agony not only in my thigh, but way, way worse: my*** inner thigh.*** Ya. That tender, fragile muscle group known as the adductors go into horrifying spasms and I awaken convinced someone is trying to kill me. It’s stunningly painful.
And that’s where I’ve gotten them ever since, and always after some sort of “overdo”.
I also have developed a tendency to have really bizarre spasms in my feet, causing my toes to pull upward in a manner I cannot control or overcome without great pain. It is exceedingly strange.
I get pretty severe leg cramps pretty regularly at night, though they’ve gone down since I got my diabetes diagnosed and started treating it. Thigh cramps are the worst, because it’s much more difficult to stand and put pressure on the muscle.
First, load up on water and potassium. That fixes this issue for some people. If it persists, try other approaches, but this is cheap and easy and often works.
One old-timey remedy for acute muscle cramps is yellow mustard. I have no idea WHY it might work, but I can vouch that it DOES work, at least for me, and I’m not a woo-ish person at all. So I keep a couple of takeout mustard packets in my nightstand drawer.
Foot cramps = teh sux.
Calf cramps = owowowowOOWWWWW
Never had a cramp in the adductors, but 1) I hope never to do so, and 2) I learned a new word today!
