Very familiar.

Getting old is an absolute horror, but I guess it beats the alternative.

Are you taking vitamins? I was getting Charlie horses on a regular basis and realized that it was because I wasn't getting enough B vitamins (vegetarian). Once I started taking them, they went away.

I forget to take prescribed meds (prolly because I'm on here all the time, and I'm getting old and forgetful), but I'll check out the Bs next time I'm at the store.

eat bananas or drink milk

but I still get leg cramps at night.

potassium can trigger leg cramps. There's probably more but those are the ones that I can remember from when I was going through nightly leg cramps. Man, that was excruciating. Now I just take a daily vitamin because truthfully I'm not that great about mixing up my diet enough. Do you take a multi?

I get cramps when I do not get enough magnesium, manganese, potassium,and Vit. C. There are other trace minerals that can cause problems.

Also, when the muscle starts cramping, I start lengthening the calve muscle by pointing my entire foot and toes toward my head (opposite of ballet dancer dancing en point).

It is a bitch when you are in a sound sleep and then have to get out of bed around 3 a.m. and walk off the cramp.

saves me from getting up. I refuse to leave my best friend (my bed).

Hurts like hell, but it passes after about 10 seconds ( a LONG 10 seconds ) and I'm fine after that. Fear of the pain has trained me to stretch only so far.

At least I know I'm not the only one.

I don't know if it gets worse when you get old (I'm 61 and everything is falling out/down/off), however you're in this blissful state of semi-sleep and you'd think stretching would be a good thing. But POW!

Why don't we get Charlie horses in our arms? Not that I want that.

The things you reflect on...

6:00 AM sleeping on mom's couch with nothing to press my leg against and waking her up with agonized screams to uncurl the foot

Maybe I will. But day-um!

Have you ever had a back spasm? I was leaning over to open a desk drawer at work (long, long ago) and it hit me like a poleaxe. I went to the doctor after work and the nurse had to shrug my uniform (airline employee) jacket down my arms. The doctor had a hard time getting the (whatever) syringe into my back muscle because it was so rigid.

A couple of decades earlier, my uncle had a back spasm in his driveway. His wife brought him dinner in the car, along with a portable TV so he could watch the football game.

I miss him so much.

I get cramps all the time, but if I remember my daily banana it really helps.

I just may have to choke some down.

So I should stash some away for self-defense.

rather, cramp.

Try Banana!!! (Potassium.)

I love bananas, but potatoes have a longer shelf life.

Must have my carbs.

OK if a potassium-enriched potato!

Looks kind of OK, but kind of difficult to grab a baked potato at the moment of a cramp!!!
http://potassiumrichfoods.com/potassium-rich-foods-list/

Have gotten really lazy over the past 1.5 years and determined to use up what's in the pantry (used to be a really healthy eater).

I get 'em too, when I work out too hard and don't drink enough water. (and tell me why it's always easier to chug coffee and wine than choke down those 64 oz's of H2O?) it's so painful and such a rude awakening!

Worst time 4 me was when I was swimming in the ocean in Maui and got cramps in BOTH legs! I couldn't touch the ground and had to swim to shore basically paralyzed. Believe me, I downed a whole lake's worth of agua after that!

in the scene after Rhett Butler sweeps her up that red carpeted staircase for a passionate case of you-know-what.

They cut to a scene of the morning after with her stretching in bed in obvious bliss. Now I picture her writhing in agony with a major cramp.

I'm such a romantic.

Tried taking Vitamin E which is supposed to help leg cramps at night. It works until I stretch out and then I get a cramp in my calf.

And you can't extend yourself a bit, feel some pain, and then readjust. It's Whammo - total teeth grinding pain.

I don't understand bodies.

I used to get leg cramps at night occasionally when I was younger, but now it is every night. I do not dare stretch my legs otherwise they cramp up. Yes, it is murder and hell.

but I know I'm clumsy, forget things, can't drink milk anymore, don't recognize the old face looking back from the mirror. What are you going to do?

And now the legs cause screaming torture.

Need I add that my cursed Droid won't hold a call for more than 10 seconds. (Same provider - different hardware). I don't know where the Droid is because I was so outraged after having 3 dropped calls in a row that I threw it on the floor and it bounced under the bed or to Hades or something. I'm going back to my flip phone, which actually worked.

Over the counter leg cramp pills. Dissolve under the tongue. And LOTS of water.

I get them all the time when I work outside and don't hydrate.

Sometimes I get up at night screaming in pain.

I'll have to go check.

Homemade Gatorade: all-natural, no refined sugar, no chemicals

Recipe: Homemade “Gatorade”
Ingredients

2 lemons + 1 lime, juiced (can use all lemons or limes, should have about 1/3 cup juice)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dolomite powder, or 1 calcium tablet, crushed (optional, adds calcium)
3+ cups filtered water

Instructions

Combine juice, honey, salt, and optional calcium in a quart-sized (32-oz) jar with a tight-fitting lid.
Add enough water to make 1 quart. Shake well, enjoy. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Sounds tasty too!

There is even an actual product called Pickle Juice Sport and sold mostly to athletes


"Dr. Kevin Miller, the lead author of the study, told the Times he thinks pickle brine helps cure cramps because it triggers a nerve reaction.

In fact, pickle brine seemed to ease cramp pains so quickly that he doubts it even had time to leave athletes' stomachs before it started to work.

Instead, Miller and the other researchers argued that pickle juice might spark some kind of "neurally mediated reflex" that helps give the right cues to misfiring muscles, which are thought to cause cramps"


http://www.aolnews.com/2010/06/14/suffering-from-muscle-cramps-pick-pickle-juice/

That will knock the cramp dead in its tracks. You have to be quick.

If you don't have someone handy to help, do the runners stretch against a wall. But having someone push your toe toward your nose is faster/easier.

Learned that in football. Fist time I did it for my dad he thought it was magic.

The lower outstretched leg would be the cramp leg in this photo.



Here is a better pic of an actual cramp being cured:

I had no idea this thread would create so many helpful responses.

Clearly there are a lot of people with this issue.

I find the ones in the calves very easy to get rid of by pulling the bottom part of the foot towards you.
Magnesium is also helpful.
Statins (cholesterol drugs) may cause very bad muscle cramps.

Just rub apple cider vinegar on it.

All the other suggestions are probably good, too, but this one works in a heartbeat.

In fact, last night I had a marathon of muscle cramps in my legs because I worked so hard that day. Once again, this solution solved the problem instantly and I was able to get some sleep.

See the comprehensive post (with links to stories and products) about leg muscle cramps that I put in the Gardening Forum earlier this season.


Cher