severe leg cramps
 

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone ever experienced this or not and what they do for it.

For the past 18 years or so, I would get severe leg cramps, mainly the left leg, upper leg area. Rarely the right leg. It would usually occur at night while I am in bed. Can't think that it ever occurred any other time.

The cramping for lack of better words is extremely severel. When it occurs I have major trouble getting out of bed. And when I do I can't straighten my leg and have big time trouble walking. I have to clutch onto the walls or furrniture to get anywhere. It usually lasts about 5 minutes or so. And afterwards sometimes I will have this severe soreness in the leg.

In the beginning it would occur once in a blue moon then nothing for years. But it has been occurring more frequently.

A neighbor of mine years ago had the same thing and said he would drink tonic water since it had quinine in it. It did nothing for me.

It is extremely painful. And as I said it occurs more often now sometimes several times then nothing for months. Can this be related to the neuropathy that I have?

I don't know what to do for it. And I have mentioned this to the doctors but don't much in the way of a response.

Any thoughts.?

Thanks for listening.

Allan

Severe muscle cramping can be due to low magnesium.

Rubbing on a magnesium lotion or taking a good supplement (not Oxide form) may help. There is not enough quinine in tonic water to do much. And besides chronic use of quinine is toxic to the eyes, and heart, and bone marrow.

what form of magneisum should i take if it is NOT oxide and will it be noted on the label as to if it has oxide or not? And what would the normal mg be to take of magnesium

leg cramps
 

Well, from what I've read and heard...very bad leg pain is described by almost all Fibromyalgia sufferers, especially while sleeping. My mother-in-law and my husband both have Fibromyalgia and complain of this all the time! I hope this helps!

try "mag64" or "magdelay" Go to the pharmacist and ask, while it is not by prescription, it is commonly kept in the pharm dept. shop around the prices vary widely.

WalMart typically carries both SlowMag and its generic Mag64

Other options are magnesium glycinate, or gluconate.

If you use SlowMag or Mag64 one of those twice a day is often enough. Many pharmacies will special order Mag64 for you...
Costco always has it by me, for about $5.00 for 60. That is the lowest I've seen. WalMart has SlowMag for $9.99.

Examples at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...ywords=SlowMag

WalMart-- my store has this on the shelf:
http://www.walmart.com/search/search...h_constraint=0

Hi Allan,

Nighttime/nocturnal leg cramps may or may not be related to some other condition, but they are known to be associated with some, like diabetes. Risk of getting/having them increases with age, and treatments can depend on cause. MrsD has a good starting place, but some other trial & error could be in order too. There's a lot of info/suggestions on the web; google: nocturnal leg cramps treatment or since they're more often associated with calves and yours are higher, you might try nocturnal thigh cramps treatment (and check out some of the related searches).

If they seem like the charley horse type, deep massage, going from the extremities toward the heart, usually works for me; I've seen that technique recommended many times through the years.

Doc

Some pain patients find that when they restore proper magnesium levels, their pain is less.

Magnesium acts to block the NMDA pain receptors. Hence it can help nerve pain. Several of us on PN forum use it for this purpose.

Muscle craps. My specialty. I have been getting them since I was a kid who used to jump up out of bed screaming in pain as my a of my legs was bent over on other leg. Craps that would tear muscles that would leave me limping for days sometimes even longer.
During 1996 as my hydrocephalus started to cause major problems for me I was at my worst. I looked like a Hollywood special effect.
Watch the movie American Werewolf in London. When the lead character changes from a human to the Werewolf you could see the muscles twitch and run up & down under the skin of this arms. I looked just like that.
The pain was awful. My toes would cramp up like they were being pulled into my foot. Cramps in my calf's, thigh's, abdomen, chest, my finger's.
I have pictures of my toes cramped up to show the doctors.
I used Quinine which helped but not without bad side effects. Then I talked to my neurologist in Maitland Florida and we tried numerous drugs until we found what worked. Clonazapam and Cyclobenzaprine.
The only problem with Clonazapam is it's a controlled substance and I need a new hand written prescription every month. I don't know why. I get no rush or have anything happen while taking it.
I still get some muscle craps but they are minor and are easy enough to live with by taking these two drugs.
As for possible long term side effects? I've been taking them for years with no problems.
Both my daughter and my sister have the same problem as myself just nowhere near as badly as myself. Lucky for them.

Lack of Potasium can be the cause too