Anyone ever have this? Totally new symptom for me if its caused by the MS. Starts for no apparent reason and can last for 10-45 minutes. Very painful to say the least!Feels like my tongue kinda rolls back and gets a cramp..I can workd the cramps outta my legs but gee, hard to get hold of my tongue to work out the spasms! oh how I hate MS!!

wow thats a new one! i'm sorry you are experiencing this, mayb some muscle relaxer would help?

Wow, no, That's awful. clenching jaw and grinding teeth nut no spasms in tongue.

Clark is right, sounds like you need some robaxon or something.

Thanks ya'll...but I don't think I could swallow a pill when this happens. It starts quickly so no advance warning and I hate to take muscle relaxers as a precautionary measure. They kinda zonk me out and I have Mom to take care of. Just wondered if anyone else ever had this happen. I've had swallowing issues but never this.

I suggest you take some "pine bark extract" PYCNOGENOL to PREVENT cramps. 50 mg 4 times a day (Total 200 mg per day) could help. I take 100 mg twice a day.

It is good for your MS also because it lowers MMP-9 levels.(mmp-9s make holes in BBB Blood Brain Barrier and then enter brain and cut up myelin) http://home.ix.netcom.com/~jdalton/Yongrev.pdf
(see page 505 figure 2)

It also helps blood flow in some very positive ways.(CCIV thingie)

jackD

p.s Taking some EXTRA MAGNESIUM also helps.

Phytomedicine. 2010 Sep;17(11):835-9. Epub 2010 Jun 25.

Improvement of signs and symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency and microangiopathy with Pycnogenol: a prospective, controlled study.

Cesarone MR, Belcaro G, Rohdewald P, Pellegrini L, Ledda A, Vinciguerra G, Ricci A, Ippolito E, Fano F, Dugall M, Cacchio M, Di Renzo A, Hosoi M, Stuard S, Corsi M.

Department of Biomedical Sciences, G D'Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara University, Faculty of Motory Sciences, L'Aquila University, Italy.

Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of standardized French maritime pine bark extract Pycnogenol in patients with severe chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). 98 subjects with symptomatic CVI and edema were randomly assigned to one group treated with 150 mg Pycnogenol a day only, another group with stockings only and a third group with both Pycnogenol and elastic stockings. The average ambulatory venous pressure (AVP) at inclusion was 58+/-7 mm Hg (range 48-60 mm Hg) with a refilling time (RT)<12 s (average 7+/-2 s). The duration of the disease was on average 6.0+/-3.1 years. There were no differences in AVP or RT among the 3 groups at inclusion and microcirculatory and clinical evaluations were comparable. After 8 weeks treatment there was a significant decrease of rate of ankle swelling, resting flux, transcutaneous pO(2) and clinical symptom scores in all groups with significantly better results for the combination treatment. Pycnogenol alone was more effective than compression alone for all parameters (p<0.05). No side-effects were observed; compliance and tolerability were very good. This study corroborates a significant clinical role for Pycnogenol in the management, treatment and control of CVI also in combination with compression.

Copyright 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
PMID: 20579863 [PubMed -

Angiology. 2006 May-Jun;57(3):331-9.

Cramps and muscular pain: prevention with pycnogenol in normal subjects, venous patients, athletes, claudicants and in diabetic microangiopathy.
Vinciguerra G, Belcaro G, Cesarone MR, Rohdewald P, Stuard S, Ricci A, Di Renzo A, Hosoi M, Dugall M, Ledda A, Cacchio M, Acerbi G, Fano F.

Irvine 2 Vascular Laboratory and Physiology Department of Biomedical Sciences, G. D'Annunzio University, Chieti, Italy. cardres@abol.it

Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the preventive action of Pycnogenol (Horphag Research Ltd, UK) on cramps and muscular pain in different groups of subjects and patients. The study included a 5-week observation period (4 weeks treatment and one follow-up week after the suspension of treatment) to evaluate the efficacy of Pycnogenol after its withdrawal. Four 50 mg capsules (total dose 200 mg/day) were prescribed with suggestion to drink at least 1.5 liters of water every day. In the first part of the study 66 healthy subjects completed a 5-week follow-up period. The difference between number of cramps attacks recorded within the 2 weeks before inclusion and the number of episodes during the fourth (p <0.05) and fifth (p <0.05) week were statistically significant. In normal subjects the average number of episodes was reduced from 4.8 (1.2) events per week to 1.3 (1.1) at 4 weeks (p <0.05). In venous patients the decrease in events was from 6.3 (1.1) to 2.6 (0.4) per week (p <0.05). In athletes the number of episodes decreased from 8.6 (2) to 2.4 (0.5) (p <0.05). The decrease was still present at 5 weeks in the 3 groups, to levels significantly lower than inclusion values (p <0.05). In the second part of the study, patients with intermittent claudication and diabetic microangiopathy were evaluated and treated (4 weeks). The groups treated with Pycnogenol and the control, placebo groups were comparable. There was a significant decrease in the number of cramps episodes (p <0.05) and in the score concerning muscular pain (p <0.05) in claudicants and diabetics. No significant effects were observed in the placebo groups. In conclusion, cramps and muscular pain, common in these 2 types of patients, were decreased by the use of Pycnogenol. Globally, these results suggest that the use of Pycnogenol prevents cramps, muscular pain at rest, and pain after/during exercise in normals, in athletes prone to cramps, in patients with venous disease, in claudicants, and in diabetics with microangiopathy. The difference is statistically significant considering objective observations (cramps episodes) and evaluating more subjective aspects (score). This indicates that Pycnogenol is effective in reducing pain and cramps during retraining and rehabilitation increasing its efficiency. In starting any physical rehabilitation program, particularly in vascular subjects, the limitation in mobility associated with muscular pain and with cramps tends to be relevant, and controlling these symptoms is useful to speed up the retraining process.

PMID: 16703193 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

J Inflamm (Lond). 2006 Jan 27;3:1.

Inhibition of NF-kappaB activation and MMP-9 secretion by plasma of human volunteers after ingestion of maritime pine bark extract (Pycnogenol).
Grimm T, Chovanová Z, Muchová J, Sumegová K, Liptáková A, Duracková Z, Högger P.

Institut für Pharmazie und Lebensmittelchemie, Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, Germany. hogger@pzlc.uni-wuerzburg.de

Abstract
French maritime pine bark extract (Pycnogenol) displays a variety of anti-inflammatory effects in vivo. Aim of this study was to determine whether human plasma after oral intake of Pycnogenol contains sufficient concentrations of active principles to inhibit key mediators of inflammation. Blood samples from seven healthy volunteers were obtained before and after five days administration of 200 mg Pycnogenol per day. Plasma samples statistically significantly inhibited matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) release from human monocytes and NF-kappaB activation. Thus, we provide evidence that bioavailable active principles of Pycnogenol exert anti-inflammatory effects by inhibition of proinflammatory gene expression which is consistent with documented clinical observations. We suggest that our ex vivo method is suitable to substantiate molecular pharmacological mechanisms of complex plant extracts in a more focussed and rational way compared to in vitro studies by taking into account the processes of absorption and metabolism.

PMID: 16441890 [PubMed]PMCID: PMC1413525Free