Pain!

Have you ever been sleeping soundly and then wake up suddenly in pain? All because you have cramps in your feet, and they are running up your calves making your feet stand at attention in a strange way? This was happening to me because I had become quite a bit more active on a daily basis (or was it?) than I had in the past few months prior to this. I had never had cramps this painful before. Sure I've had cramps in my legs before and in lots of other places in my body, but these ones lasted longer and seemed more painful. I used to wake up and shake them out and then they'd stay out, but these ones didn't shake out or even leave when I would try to walk them out.

My mom's remedy for cramps was always water. She gets cramps as well and she always drinks a big glass of water. So that's what I usually would try, but in the night, if I drink a big glass of water; then it won't be cramps keeping me awake but a full bladder. It seemed her remedy wouldn't work for me at this time.

I thought that they came only because I increased my activity and once my body got used to this then they would just naturally go away. Well how wrong I was. Then I remember telling an old client of mine about my cramps. This client happened to manufacture his own natural supplements; he was a naturopath. Apparently I had complained about my ailment to the right person. He then told me to take calcium supplements which they supplied me with. Well to my surprise, they worked. I don't know why I thought, "Now why would those work on cramps?" I always just thought about calcium and bones, not calcium and cramps. I like it when I learn something useful.

So after the calcium worked on my cramping problem, I wondered why. I decided to do a bit of research.

I learned quite a bit when looking up muscle cramps - sudden, involuntary muscle contractions. True muscle cramps can be caused by dehydration (which is why water worked for my mom most likely), some medications (I don't take any so that isn't the cause), vigorous activity, injury, body fluid shifts, low blood calcium and low potassium muscle cramps.

I thought maybe I fell into this category. Since I am not a doctor I was thinking afterwards maybe I had a bit of a calcium deficiency, was increasing my activity level and aging, so maybe all wrapped up together equals cramps.

A couple of the cramping reasons need a little more of an explanation because I didn't know what they meant - body fluid shifts and low blood calcium muscle cramps.

The body fluid shifts are said to occur when your body has an unusual distribution of body fluids. An example of this would be cirrhosis of the liver as it leads to an accumulation of fluids in the abdominal cavity.

Low blood calcium can be caused by taking diuretics, excessive vomiting or just not having enough calcium in your diet to name a few. Poor calcium absorption can also cause this and this may be due to a lack of vitamin D although there are other reasons, but this one seemed the most common.

In addition the true muscle cramps there are three other main cramps - tetany, dystonic and contractures.

Healthline states that "tetany" is a symptom that involves overly stimulated neuromuscular activity that can lead to cramps.

From the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke information sheet - distonia is a disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that cause slow repetitive movements or abnormal postures.

And finally contracture - a condition of shortening or hardening of joints, tendons or other tissue often leading to deformity or rigidity of joints. Apparently this can be caused by a variety of reasons such as brain and nervous system disorders (cerebral palsy or stroke), inherited disorders (muscular dystrophy), nerve damage, reduced use (from lack of mobility or injuries) and more.

After looking at cramps and calcium I found out much more than I had ever thought. Each of these reasons have so much more in each category of causes. I just picked out the category I believed I fell into. Obviously if you have major cramps that don't go away, your best source of information is your doctor. I just thought it was interesting that I never paired up calcium and cramps before.