Leg cramps are painful spasms that can disturb you both in broad daylight and wake you up at night. Most often, cramps can occur in the calves, but other leg muscles can also cramp.
Leg cramps can catch you while running or, even worse, swimming, warns estet-portal.com. You feel how your muscles harden, become tense, and all this is also accompanied by hellish pain - this, in fact, is the definition of a muscle cramp. How to get rid of leg cramps?
- Main causes of seizures
- Medicines that cause seizures
- How to get rid of cramps in the legs and other parts of the body
- Preventing seizures at the feet
Main causes of seizures
The cause of leg cramps is muscle spasms, i.e. involuntary contractions of one or more muscles. In addition to the muscles of the feet and calves, spasms can also occur in:
- in the front and back of the thigh,
- hands,
- stomach,
- chest.
Muscle cramps cause inconvenience to some less often, to others more often, but, as a rule, every person experiences them at least once in their life.
Muscle spasms can be caused by a number of reasons, including:
- impaired blood circulation in the legs;
- overstraining the calf muscles during training;
- insufficient stretching before performing exercises;
- playing sports in hot weather;
- muscle fatigue;
- phlebeurysm ,
- dehydration;
- hypothermia,
- deficiency of magnesium and/or potassium, vitamin D;
- calcium deficiency in pregnant women;
- nerve damage, which may be caused by injury to the spine or a pinched nerve in the neck or back.
Medicines that cause seizures
Also, muscle cramps can be a side effect of some medications, emphasizes estet-portal.com.
Among the active substances of these drugs are:
- furasemide, hydrochlorothiazide and other diuretics that are used to remove fluid from the body;
- donepezil, which is used to treat Alzheimer's disease;
- neostigmine – used to treat myasthenia gravis;
- nifedipine - a medicine for sore throat and high blood pressure;
- raloxifene, which is used to treat osteoporosis ;
- terbutaline, proventil and albuterol - asthma medications;
- tolcapone, which is used to treat Parkinson's disease ;
- statins to lower blood cholesterol, such as rosuvastatin, fluvastatin, atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin or simvastatin.
How to get rid of cramps in the legs and other parts of the body
If a muscle spasm occurs, you should know how to get rid of leg cramps. You can resort to:
- massage,
- muscle stretching,
- put ice on it
- prick with a pin or needle,
- warm up the muscle
- Take a bath with Epsom salts.
If a cramp occurs in your calf or hamstring, try to shift your body weight onto the leg where the cramp occurs and slightly bend your knee, squat or lie down and extend your leg, the concept of the foot towards you.
Read also: Prevention of cramps: how to protect yourself from muscle spasms
If the cramp is in the front of your thigh (quadriceps), grab a chair/bench to maintain your balance and pull your foot back to direction of the buttocks.
Preventing leg cramps
To reduce your risk of muscle cramps in the future, try to follow these tips:
- Eat more foods containing vitamins, magnesium and calcium .
- Maintain proper hydration levels in your body.
- Before performing exercises or training, be sure to stretch - warm up your muscles.
- Choose the right shoes (high instep and tight ankle).
In most cases, self-help is enough to get rid of leg cramps, usually within a few minutes.
Do exercises, as Dr. Bubnovsky advises , and then your body will always be in excellent physical shape!
However, if leg cramps torment you frequently or occur for no apparent reason, be sure to consult a doctor, advises estet-portal.com.
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