No cure for cramp

"Currently no treatments for leg cramps are proven to be safe and effective but there is a clear need for treatment options." NPS

Like most ageing people I get night cramps a few times a month. They are extremely painful, particularly in the dream that wakes me up - I find in my dream I am having a cramp that leaves me screaming with pain - in my sleep anyway. I don't think I wake up screaming. I do wake up in pain though and have to leap out of bed and bang my leg up and down a few times. This usually fixes it. If not then I have to walk up and down a bit and maybe even massage my leg a bit. It's not a big deal really, but last night I had two of these - one in each leg, and so I thought I would look to see if there is anything I can do about it. I know magnesium is sometimes touted as a cure for example, and quinine and salt have also been commonly suggested. So I thought I would check it out.

It turns out that nobody really knows. It's very difficult to test for cramps - either prevention or cure - for the obvious reason that most cramps are random and spontaneous so you can't really do a laboratory test. And the various 'cures' that have been suggested either do not have enough convincing evidence for them or are actually potentially dangerous. They have looked at evidence from athletes who suffer from cramps but even this has been inconclusive.

I remember being taught at school that lack of salt was a cause of cramps, and people like stokers and athletes who get hot and sweat a lot (thus losing salt), were taken as evidence of the theory. But they have tested this out in cold and hot climates, different sports and occupations and not found anything to suggest that it is down to losing salt. I can't say for sure but I do think that there seems to be some inference that dehydration is a factor and I guess I could say that I drink less water than some. I tend to drink water when I'm thirsty rather than striving to drink some enormous quantity like 2 litres a day. And I have read articles for and against this theory too - drinking larger quantities of water that is. So really nobody knows.

Quinine used to be prescribed for cramps and maybe it was effective. Indeed I think I was prescribed it for a short period. But it has been proved that quinine is actually bad for the heart, and so that has been stopped.

So we are back to magnesium, which I think has something to do with messages to nerves. Big studies have been done on this and the results were so inconclusive that it seems to be thought that it's no use taking extra magnesium - which can also be damaging. Unless you are pregnant that is. It seems to be possible that magnesium is effective with pregnant women. Not us oldies though.

Then again if you eat a balanced diet you are probably getting sufficient magnesium anyway. The picture at the top is of magnesium rich foods. The main ones seem to be dark chocolate - yes chocolate - nuts and seeds, bananas, avocados, leafy vegetables and legumes, though there are a few others as well.

I also found various physical remedies like applying heat and/or Epsom salts, and stretching are good but these are not much good in the middle of the night.

"When we feel that agonising pain, the best evidence suggests that it is stretching out the muscle, not fluids, that provides relief. If you feel that pain in your calf muscle you grasp your toes and gently ease your foot towards you. This stretches the muscle and eventually eases the pain." BBC Future

So really the answer is in prevention and really nobody knows what to suggest. I saw one suggestion of a bit of gentle excercise before going to bed, and drink of water. I think I'll try the water approach and try to drink a bit more, although:

"a serving of magnesium-rich dark chocolate is unlikely to cause any harm." Weleda