Doctors' Research on Home Remedies for Leg Cramps

The short story: soap under your sheets will probably prevent leg cramps. If that doesn't work, a teaspoon of mustard, pickle juice, and hot chile peppers will very likely get rid of them. Click the link below to see how the doctors think it works.

Really, you need read no further. That is the gist of this entire post. The following, however, is how I found out about this.

The long story:

Seven years ago I was told by a highly regarded herbal expert to put soap under my sheets to alleviate leg cramps. I laughed. I thought it was so stupid I never even gave it a shot. Instead, for 7 years, I've been getting out of bed early in the morning to walk off the cramps. This is after I apply vinegar to the cramp, which helps a lot. But combine vinegar and walking off a cramp and it's a serious sleep disturbance. It takes at least 15" to walk off the cramp.

Finally I thought WTH, I'll give the soap thing a shot. Seriously: the minute I put that soap under my sheets I knew my leg cramp problems were over. I know that sounds weird but there was something in the aroma of the soap that changed something in my muscles. And sure enough, that night there were no leg cramps.

Fluke, I thought. But I haven't had a leg cramp since (it's been 7 weeks), except for one night when I changed the sheets and forgot to put the soap back under the sheets.

I decided to research it. Here's what I found:

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From an article in The People's Pharmacy:"

Several years ago an anesthesiologist by the name of Dr. Ough actually did some research on soap to relieve cramps. At that time he was working at Beloit Memorial Hospital in Beloit, Wisconsin. He reported his findings in the Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Sept. 2, 2008):

“…I assembled a skin patch made of crushed bar soap, and achieved successful results in regards to relief of muscle cramping and pain. I further experimented with the use of this soap patch for various other painful medical conditions.

“It was noted that the soap patch was successful in relieving pain from muscle cramps, knots, and even the trigger point pain associated with chronic myofascial pain syndrome. The soap patch also is effective for smooth muscle spasms, relieving the pain from menstrual cramps, intestinal cramps, and kidney stone.

“Hypothesizing that the scent of the soap was the active ingredient responsible for alleviating pain, I have since assembled the skin patches with a soap-scented oil (SSO), rather than bar soap itself, and hope to continue to expand its applications to other disease states…"


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The article goes on to say that it is the scent itself that is absorbed through the skin and NOT the olfactory system. That's why you want to put it under the sheet toward the end of the bed. Actually, I think they recommend all four corners. I carved some chips off Irish Spring and put them in a net bag used for washing delicates and safety pinned it to the mattress cover, then the sheet went on top.

You can read more at the link. Scroll down to the boldfaced part.

The information on the mustard et al mixture is at the same site, different link.

Also, I tried this on that disorder where your finger cramps up and you can't straighten it out. It helped and I was able to bend the finger.