It’s a Charlie horse and they hurt like a bitch. I haven’t had one in ages, but my daughter just had one recently. Someone upthread said bananas for potassium and I agree. I think it’s an electrolyte issue. I also find even though it sucks, getting up and stretching the muscle helps.
I used to get them constantly. A coworker suggested magnesium supplements and I’ve been leg cramp free for more than 5 years. I can skip days but if I miss a week or more (too lazy to refill) I’ll start to get twinges.
Don’t know why it works but sure works for me.
Just in case you don’t know this, when you get the dreaded cramp of death in the middle of the night, massage toward your heart. IE, use both hands on opposite sides of the cramp and start from the bottom of your calf and rub upwards toward your knee. Hurts like crazy for the first couple of times.
Thank you to my high school cross country couch who promised that we would all experience these cramps, and this was the way to deal with it. He was also a race walker on the US Olympic team in Tokyo. FWIW, explained that it is a build up of lactic acid in the calf. Massage it out toward your heart so the blood will circulate out the lactic acid. Works for me
I get one once in a while and usually I’m having a dream in which I’m running. Must be some weird dream reflex in conjunction with possible dehydration/potassium issue. It happens a few times a year, so I’m not really concerned. Often I wake up in time to flex my foot forward again and keep the cramp from getting really bad.
The OP said it only happened once. It would make no sense for him to go on drug therapy, significantly alter his lifestyle, or change his diet.
If it happens again, two things you can do. Get out of bed and walk around the house on it, using your normal walking gait. If you can’t do that face a wall and lean against it, with your legs straight but stretching your calf muscles as much as you can. Also pinch your upper lip laterally between your thumb and index finger knuckle. Hold that pinch for a minute or so, you’ll feel the cramping muscles to relax.
If you’re really dehydrated and you do these exercise tricks and then go back to bed, doesn’t the cramp soon come back? Why isn’t everybody saying “oh, and drink some water”? Have I got something wrong?
I was going to mention that in my post. Worth trying, I suppose, but this is what I was taught to do when I read about it in high school, and it didn’t do jack shit to relieve the cramp. (And, besides, by one minute my cramps, at least, would be long over with. There’d be residual soreness, but the main “feeling like my muscles are tearing themselves apart” and that “hard knot” feeling lasts, for me, about 20 seconds. Maybe 30 seconds at the very, very most. It just feels like a much longer amount of time.)
Besides dehydration or a lot of exercise/use the day before, one thing that causes them for me is a milkshake late in the day. Apparently throws the ion balance off.
Just adding to chime in to repeat what others have said.
Dehydration, low potassium, low magnesium.
Make sure you check for and take care of all 3 of these things first.
As already mentioned there are dietary deficiencies that cause leg cramps and they are easily dealt with.
Mine was a symptom of a blood clot. The area became painful when walking and got progressively worse over time. As I walked the leg would radiate pain down the calf and up the shins. I would have to stop walking until it stopped hurting. Toward the end I could only walk about 100 feet. Turned out to be an arterial blood clot that eventually ran the entire length of my leg. I almost lost the use of it. But that’s not what the op is describing. I post this in case similar symptoms materialize.
If the symptoms get worse see a doctor. They’ll have your veins scanned for clots which is where they usually start. If the scan shows no clots but the symptoms get worse then get an arterial scan. If you have an arterial clot that’s a serious problem because of where they originate from. They’re ticking time bombs.
Question for you. I used to get a Charlie Horse at least once a week, almost always while sleeping. It got to the point where I could react quickly enough and stretch it out so that it didn’t set in. But it still hurt like holy hell for at least a minute or so. It was a lot more frequent as I got older, but it’s definitely something that happened periodically since I was a child.
About a year and half ago, my doctor put me on a high blood pressure medication and also taking Magnesium (400mg twice daily). My BP wasn’t terrible, but borderline. It’s better now but since then, I almost never get the cramps anymore. Maybe once every few months or so. Dramatically better. Do you think it was the Magnesium or maybe even the BP medication? Just curious more than anything else.
Typical causes of these are:
- no specific cause. Doctors call this ‘ideopathic’, and it’s one of the most common causes.
- pregnancy.
- physical stress. Using your leg muscles much more than normal, like walking a lot, climbing stairs, etc. Common for runners after an event, people after moving their household possessions, etc.
- mental stress. Often happens when people are stressed-out. Sometimes even the stress of a scary nightmare is enough.
- dehydration. Especially after drinking, or extra exercise.
- dietary/vitamin deficiencies. Potassium, magnesium, calcium, vitamin D are common ones.
- nerve damage. Either from an accident/injury, or related to another disease (diabetes-related nephropathy is a typical one).
- side effects from various drugs.
- poor blood circulation or low blood oxidation. Often manifests first in the extremities, like the legs. Can be related to lung problems or heart problems. More common in smokers.
So a whole lot of possible causes, and lots of them related to each other. For example, moving to a new home can be mentally stressful, plus you spent the day carrying boxes & furniture from one place and up stairs into a new place, you probably didn’t drink as much fluids or eat a good diet that day. These factors reinforce each other, and result in leg cramps. Luckily, it’s usually a minor, temporary (though quite painful) problem. Sometimes (especially if frequent) an indication of other medical conditions.
I reduced my nightime cramps greatly with magnesium taurate, and in sweating weather, a big dose of salt. I mostly blame dehydration for my personal cramp experiences.
Coconut water has three times the potassium as an equal weight in bananas, and for me, is a lot more palatable. When I am on shift at Burning Man I carry two 200-ml boxes in case I meet someone who is cramping.
So, the most common cause is no specific cause. Makes sense to me. I get these a fair amount and they suck. They are usually associated with too much beer consumption or hard exercise. Knowing that, I try to increase my non-beer fluid intake. It doesn’t always work. I did start drinking a pint or more of a sugar-free electrolyte drink every day. They are less frequent but still happen. If anyone can tell me how to keep my foot at a 90 degree angle to my leg while sleeping (short of wearing ski boots to bed), I’d be happy to listen.
Maybe, but it’s hard to say. So many variables, not a lot of solid data to make any sort of judgment on. By your own admission the symptoms didn’t go away, they just decreased. Which happens typically with most people, with or without intervention.
And what other changes might you have made that you didn’t mention? That’s the problem with figuring out common stuff like this; too many factors to tease apart, no single big culprit causing most of the symptoms.
The list QtM gave above is the go to solutions. Unless over exercise is the likely culprit, I think doing gentle calf raises (off the floor, not that hanging off a step style) before the calf stretches recommended is also good.
Here’s an odd one: Earl Grey tea. It’s the bergamot in it that apparently causes cramps in some people.
The Wikipedia article mentions someone who got cramps drinking 4 liters a day. But it only takes a couple cups for Mrs. FtG to get a cramp sometimes.
“Stretch it”? So tell me what I get every so often that seems to be an “anti cramp”. What happens is that I wake up, go to stretch or extend my leg my leg and it won’t STOP stretching. Doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s very painful, and can leave me with a sore calf for several hours. I’ve also occasionally gotten it when relaxing following exercise.
You stretch the other way. If it’s a standard calf cramp, you stretch with toes going up. Lean against a wall, hang your toes over a step, or any of a hundred other ways to strech.
The trick is when the cramp is on the opposing muscle. Then you have to stretch with the toes going down. Not nearly as easy.
Which way is the body part being pulled? Force it the other way.