need help w/ charlie horses & cramping

O

olgappetra

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I'm not sure where to post this but hope I maybe get response if I also post it here instead of just in weight loss. I could really use some assistance dealing w/ charlie horses & muscle cramps. They are getting in the way of my fitness & health goals right now. I am not weight training (yet), just using some very light weights w/ simple basic exercises until I can handle more. I spend time stretching before EVERY time I try to do anything, whether it is light weights, I'm only using 1-5 lb<--that is how bad it has gotten for me after being bedridden for a long time from health issues, as I can barely use those right now; swimming; stationary bicycling; or even just walking.

I have a history of muscle cramps from just walking, & already drink tonic water that has quinine in it & take 1 soma (other muscle relaxants didn't work at all or had bad side effects) at night. The dr prescribed it 3x/day, I don't like how tired they make me so take one. I also take a multi vitamin, along w/ extra calcium & Vit. C, potassium & magnesium to help w/ the cramps. My doctor doesn't know why I keep getting cramps & I don't think he realizes how bad they are. They don't happen when I'm sleeping unless I walk, exercise or swim during the day, then they start up when I start moving again. They do decrease when I stay in bed but I am trying yet again to get back on track!

Right now, the cramps are even getting in the way of exercise & swimming in the water! I want to keep adding laps (and non water exercises, too) but the cramps get worse the more I exert myself. Now, just doing range of motion in the water is causing them & I can't do more than 3-5 laps at the most. The more I am trying to do, the more I cramp, to the point that I wake up w/ charlie horses at night several times. :violent2: I've started using an old fashioned wooden rolling pin to gently stretch the muscles when nothing else will work.

The basic things I've gathered when I read about charlie horses say that they are not caused by lactate, as I used to believe, but by little tears in the muscle & the only way to alleviate them is to gradually increase the intensity of your workout & take the supplements I already am taking. The only way for me to not increase using muscles of *just living* & barely beginning to exercise is to go back to bed!

They are preventing me from doing more to improving myself at this point, and they are also messing w/ my much needed restorative sleep.

Anyone have ideas or suggestions for dealing w/ them? Any help would be appreciated! I have spent hours & hours researching them online but am bogged down by the massive amount of conditions that can cause them. Anyone have any ideas of what to ask my doctor about them?

Oh yah, I forgot to add, all of my levels are basically *normal* except my triglycerides, which I am trying to correct through diet. My liver levels are a bit off because I have pancreatits, which I am trying to learn to manage at this point. No, I don't drink, have never drank heavily & haven't drank at all for quite some time.

Thanks in advance for any responses, 'cuz I wanna Keep on keeping on!

olga p
 
I am sure I will get some people that will disagree but most now say that you shouldnt stretch a muscle until it is warm. They found that runners that stretched before they ran were more likely to pull a muscle. Now they have runners jog for a little and get warmed up then they stretch. I have also seen alot of articles that argue against stretching and a lot that argue for stretching before physical activity. When I was in massage school they told us if we had a client that got a cramped muscle to stretch it. I havent had a lot of cramps but I would imagine that you may not feel like stretching it at that moment but that is probably what you need to do. Hope that helps.
 
Some muscle cramps can be attributed to low potassium levels. However, nocturnal muscle spasms can be caused by low calcium levels.

It depends on whether or not you have a neurological or neurodegenerative disease. If you do, calcium will do nothing for you.
 
Thanks, both of you. I might swimming first & see if it works. Do you think fibomyalgia or multiple complex pain syndrome (reflex sympathetic dystrophy) could be the neurological causation of the cramps?
 
olgappetra said:
Thanks, both of you. I might swimming first & see if it works. Do you think fibomyalgia or multiple complex pain syndrome (reflex sympathetic dystrophy) could be the neurological causation of the cramps?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Google "calcium potassium fibromyalgia muscle spasms" and then "calcium potassium reflect sympathetic dystrophy" and see what comes up.

This is one site that popped up for me: Muscle spasms - Fibromyalgia Support Group at WebMD (it's a fibromyalgia support group).
 
I already belong to a fibro support site but thanks anyway! I will check out some more things about it, however by getting busy w/ my trusty googling search engine.
 
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Google away, Olga :)

If you find something interesting, please post it so we can see whether it is fact or fiction. There's a lot of junk on the internet ...
 
how about taking fish oil to help with triglyceride levels?

also, i know you are tight with money and i forget if you have insurance coverage or not, but what about some physical therapy where they actual stretch out and massage the muscles?

i just had a terrible charlie horse in my foot two nights ago and it hurt like hell! i can't imagine getting them frequently like you say you do. although, i do know that i get them often in the winter and it usually feels like it happens to a toe that i injured as a kid and radiats down through the center of the foot.

i would just keep trying. your body will eventually get stronger and maybe they'll happen less often.
 
Thanks for the responses. I am already taking fish oil, multi-vitamin, extra potassium, calcium & magnisium & eating fish 3-4 trimes/week, along w/ eating lots & lots of spinach & other green leafy vegetables along w/ lots of other vegetables, along w/ a lot of changes in my diet to hopefully help reduce the triglycerides. Although I am supposed to cut ALL sugars, even from all fruit, starchy vegetables, ALL carbohydrates, etc., I haven't gone that far. I also can't afford ONLY spring water or a filter for my tap water yet, but hope to get one soon! (Maybe I'll get one for Christmas if I aks nicely...) I am trying to eat much healthier than I was & am decreasing the things suggested to cut out entirely & only use nonprocessed food. I do have a hard time believing in total abstinence from almost everything, like diets to reduce 'em show. Moderation in everything, right? I just Emailed my doctor telling him that, along w/ the request that I get tested again in a month or two to see if all that I'm doing is making a difference or not.

I already asked him (too) if massage would help & if medicare would help w/ that or not & am waiting for an answer. It seems that the more I try to get healthier & do preventative things to prevent getting sicker, the less likely I will get assistance w/ it. They also won't pay for a simple "trike" to get exercise, but WILL pay for expensive physical therapy, along w/ transportation to & from there, doctor visits to prescribe it, and ongoing medication after it has gotten so bad nothing else helps. It seems medical assistance only wants to help once I've gotten so sick that it takes a massive amount of money to try to fix things instead of preventing them! Go figure.

Maybe the new administration will change that. I sure hope so!
 
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