Muscle Spasms, Cramps, and Charley Horse You could be out for a run or drifting off to sleep when it happens: The muscles of your calf or foot suddenly become hard, tight, and extremely painful. You are having a muscle cramp.
Sometimes called charley horses -- particularly when they are in the calf muscles -- cramps are caused by muscle spasms, involuntary contractions of one or more muscles. In addition to the foot and calf muscles, other muscles prone to spasms include the front and back of the thigh, the hands, arms, abdomen, and muscles along the rib cage.
Almost everyone experiences muscle cramps, which come without warning. What causes them, and what can you do to relieve them?
Possible Causes of Muscle Cramps Muscle cramps can have many possible causes. They include:
Poor blood circulation in the legs Overexertion of the calf muscles while exercising Insufficient stretching before exercise Exercising in the heat Muscle fatigue Dehydration Magnesium and/or potassium deficiency Calcium deficiency in pregnant women Malfunctioning nerves, which could be caused by a problem such as a spinal cord injury or pinched nerve in the neck or back Muscle cramps can also occur as a side effect of some drugs. Medications that can cause muscle cramps include:
Lasix (furosemide), Microzide (hydrochlorothiazide), and other diuretics ("water pills") used to remove fluid from the body Aricept (donepezil), used to treat Alzheimer's disease Prostigmine (neostigmine), used for myasthenia gravis Procardia (nifedipine), a treatment for angina and high blood pressure Evista (raloxifene), an osteoporosis treatment Brethine (terbutaline), Proventil and Ventolin (albuterol), asthma medications Tasmar (tolcapone), a medication used to treat Parkinson's disease Statin medications for cholesterol such as Crestor (rosuvastatin), Lescol (fluvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin), or Zocor (simvastatin).
Treatment of a Muscle Spasm When muscle cramps occur, there are several things you can do to help ease them, such as massaging, stretching, or icing the muscle, warming the muscle, or taking a bath with Epsom salt.
For a charley horse in the calf or a cramp in the back of the thigh (hamstring), try putting your weight on the affected leg and bending your knee slightly, or sit or lie down with your leg out straight and pull the top of your foot toward your head. For a cramp in the front of the thigh (quadriceps), hold onto a chair to steady yourself and pull your foot back toward your buttock.
To help reduce the risk of cramps in the future, try the following:
Eat more foods high in vitamins and calcium. Stay well hydrated. Stretch properly before exercise. In most cases, self-care measures are sufficient for dealing with muscle cramps, which typically go away within minutes. But if you experience them frequently or for no apparent reason, you should speak to your doctor. They could signal a medical problem that requires treatment.
We asked Dr. Barbara Lock, Emergency Physician and co-founder of MedPie.com about something that keeps us up at night: leg cramps.
Q: Both my husband and I get leg cramps sometimes at night, so painful they wake us up. Why are we getting them and is there anything we can do about it?
Dr. Lock: Leg cramps sure are a pain. They affect young and old, wrenching us out of sleep with such persistence that we sometimes stay awake for half an hour. but while leg cramps affect all kinds of people, they are not all caused by the same problem. Let's get some more information.
1) Do you have diabetes? Diabetics, whether type 1 or type 2, whether diet controlled, on oral medication or on insulin, are all prone to leg cramps. Sometimes these leg cramps start out as foot cramps, or even a burning/tingling pain in the sole or top of the foot or in the toes. If you are a diabetic and you get leg or foot pain, you MUST discuss this finding with your doctor, preferably within a few days, sooner if your fingerstick glucose is high. This is because that leg or foot pain or cramps in a diabetic can be a sign of chronically elevated blood sugars causing damage to the nerves. Yes, if you do nothing and wait long enough, the pain will go away, but this will be because the nerves will have become so permanently damaged that they will have become numb. This is a very serious and dangerous problem that can eventually lead to a loss of limb. Alcoholics and persons exposed to certain types of chemicals can also develop similar type of pain.
2) Do you have poor circulation? People who smoke, are overweight, have high cholesterol, or have heart disease often have an accompanying problem: poor blood flow to and/or from the legs. This type of pain causes a crampy/burning pain that some people find improves when they dangle their feet over the side of the bed. This type of pain is called rest pain. In some cases, surgery is recommeded to improve leg circulation. A sudden severe pain in the foot or leg accompanied by a cool, pale or gray/mottled extremity would be considered an emergency that would require immediate medical attention. In less severe cases, circulation can sometimes be improved by medication and exercise. Exercise improves circulation by stimulating your body to produce alternative pathways of blood flow to the area affected by poor circulation. This alternative circulation is called collateral circulation. Some people have poor circulation that is based on spasm of the blood vessels. This is usually managed by preventing the extremity from getting cold, and of course eliminating smoking.
Muscle Spasms, Cramps, and Charley Horse
ReplyDeleteYou could be out for a run or drifting off to sleep when it happens: The muscles of your calf or foot suddenly become hard, tight, and extremely painful. You are having a muscle cramp.
Sometimes called charley horses -- particularly when they are in the calf muscles -- cramps are caused by muscle spasms, involuntary contractions of one or more muscles. In addition to the foot and calf muscles, other muscles prone to spasms include the front and back of the thigh, the hands, arms, abdomen, and muscles along the rib cage.
Almost everyone experiences muscle cramps, which come without warning. What causes them, and what can you do to relieve them?
Possible Causes of Muscle Cramps
Muscle cramps can have many possible causes. They include:
Poor blood circulation in the legs
Overexertion of the calf muscles while exercising
Insufficient stretching before exercise
Exercising in the heat
Muscle fatigue
Dehydration
Magnesium and/or potassium deficiency
Calcium deficiency in pregnant women
Malfunctioning nerves, which could be caused by a problem such as a spinal cord injury or pinched nerve in the neck or back
Muscle cramps can also occur as a side effect of some drugs. Medications that can cause muscle cramps include:
Lasix (furosemide), Microzide (hydrochlorothiazide), and other diuretics ("water pills") used to remove fluid from the body
Aricept (donepezil), used to treat Alzheimer's disease
Prostigmine (neostigmine), used for myasthenia gravis
Procardia (nifedipine), a treatment for angina and high blood pressure
Evista (raloxifene), an osteoporosis treatment
Brethine (terbutaline), Proventil and Ventolin (albuterol), asthma medications
Tasmar (tolcapone), a medication used to treat Parkinson's disease
Statin medications for cholesterol such as Crestor (rosuvastatin), Lescol (fluvastatin), Lipitor (atorvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin), or Zocor (simvastatin).
Treatment of a Muscle Spasm
When muscle cramps occur, there are several things you can do to help ease them, such as massaging, stretching, or icing the muscle, warming the muscle, or taking a bath with Epsom salt.
For a charley horse in the calf or a cramp in the back of the thigh (hamstring), try putting your weight on the affected leg and bending your knee slightly, or sit or lie down with your leg out straight and pull the top of your foot toward your head. For a cramp in the front of the thigh (quadriceps), hold onto a chair to steady yourself and pull your foot back toward your buttock.
To help reduce the risk of cramps in the future, try the following:
Eat more foods high in vitamins and calcium.
Stay well hydrated.
Stretch properly before exercise.
In most cases, self-care measures are sufficient for dealing with muscle cramps, which typically go away within minutes. But if you experience them frequently or for no apparent reason, you should speak to your doctor. They could signal a medical problem that requires treatment.
http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/muscle-spasms-cramps-charley-horse
We asked Dr. Barbara Lock, Emergency Physician and co-founder of MedPie.com about something that keeps us up at night: leg cramps.
ReplyDeleteQ: Both my husband and I get leg cramps sometimes at night, so painful they wake us up. Why are we getting them and is there anything we can do about it?
Dr. Lock: Leg cramps sure are a pain. They affect young and old, wrenching us out of sleep with such persistence that we sometimes stay awake for half an hour. but while leg cramps affect all kinds of people, they are not all caused by the same problem. Let's get some more information.
1) Do you have diabetes? Diabetics, whether type 1 or type 2, whether diet controlled, on oral medication or on insulin, are all prone to leg cramps. Sometimes these leg cramps start out as foot cramps, or even a burning/tingling pain in the sole or top of the foot or in the toes. If you are a diabetic and you get leg or foot pain, you MUST discuss this finding with your doctor, preferably within a few days, sooner if your fingerstick glucose is high. This is because that leg or foot pain or cramps in a diabetic can be a sign of chronically elevated blood sugars causing damage to the nerves. Yes, if you do nothing and wait long enough, the pain will go away, but this will be because the nerves will have become so permanently damaged that they will have become numb. This is a very serious and dangerous problem that can eventually lead to a loss of limb. Alcoholics and persons exposed to certain types of chemicals can also develop similar type of pain.
2) Do you have poor circulation? People who smoke, are overweight, have high cholesterol, or have heart disease often have an accompanying problem: poor blood flow to and/or from the legs. This type of pain causes a crampy/burning pain that some people find improves when they dangle their feet over the side of the bed. This type of pain is called rest pain. In some cases, surgery is recommeded to improve leg circulation. A sudden severe pain in the foot or leg accompanied by a cool, pale or gray/mottled extremity would be considered an emergency that would require immediate medical attention. In less severe cases, circulation can sometimes be improved by medication and exercise. Exercise improves circulation by stimulating your body to produce alternative pathways of blood flow to the area affected by poor circulation. This alternative circulation is called collateral circulation. Some people have poor circulation that is based on spasm of the blood vessels. This is usually managed by preventing the extremity from getting cold, and of course eliminating smoking.
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