You don't need to graduate from medical school to understand what a seizure is. In fact, if a muscle or group of muscles contracts involuntarily, causing sharp, sometimes unbearable pain, then this is a cramp.
Most often, such manifestations occur in the legs, and to be even more precise, in the calf muscles, which are located on the back of the lower leg. Involuntary and painful muscle contraction is a cramp.
The consequence of such a spasm is the involuntary extension of the foot, and the maximum possible, creating the feeling that the person who feels the spasm wants to stand on tiptoes in order to reach something lying high or far away. In a word, if at least once in your life you have felt a spasm contracting a muscle, you will not confuse this feeling with anything.
The cramp itself, other than pain, does not have any negative consequences. Especially if it is isolated, occurs randomly and passes quickly enough. But if you experience such symptoms often, with enviable regularity and frequency, then it is worth thinking about what caused such phenomena in order to eliminate them.
There may be several answers to the question of why leg muscles cramp, and only a doctor can give a definite answer in this case. Similar phenomena are observed both in absolutely healthy people (for example, in athletes during intense training) and in people experiencing certain health problems.
Among the reasons are even psycho-emotional stress and chronic lack of sleep.
Seizures can occur in completely healthy people.
However, first things first.
The first and probably the most common source of such phenomena is a banal muscle overstrain.
It may occur if:
In addition, seizures can be triggered by a deficiency of certain nutrients in the body. Cramps can be caused by a decrease in the level of potassium, calcium or magnesium, a lack of B vitamins, as well as a low content of vitamins E, D and A. In this case, the answer to the question of how to relieve muscle spasm is quite simple: the balance of microelements should be restored, and this the problem will stop bothering you.
A frequently recurring spasm can become a bright, screaming sign of varicose veins or thrombophlebitis. In this case, it is not necessary that the veins in the legs appeared and were visible to the naked eye; at this very last stage, the disease is very difficult to control and fight.
Repeated cramps may be a warning sign of varicose veins.
If, in addition to cramps, you begin to notice that your legs and ankles are swelling, your legs quickly get tired from even simple and short movements, and spider veins appear on your hips, then you should visit a doctor and consult about this disease.
However, very often a cramp can be a symptom of serious problems, including:
All actions that a person who feels that a cramp has cramped his leg should take can be divided into two parts:
The answer to the question of how to relieve muscle spasm is actually very simple. If you anticipate the appearance of a spasm (and many people are capable of such “predictions”), immediately relax your leg.
If you successfully miss this moment, pull the toe towards you, loosen your leg, and then pull again. If this doesn't help, get up and walk around, slowly and without tension. It is better if you walk on a cold floor rather than on a warm carpet.
A light muscle massage effectively solves the problem of relieving cramps. For these purposes, you can also use a warming ointment. And finally, if all these methods did not bring the desired result and the pain does not go away, pinch the site of the spasm or lightly prick it with a needle. As a result of all the above actions, you should feel how the site of the spasm relaxes and the muscle becomes soft.
Light massage and pinching help relieve cramps.
Don't expect the pain to go away immediately after the spasm is released. It may be unpleasant for some time - from a few minutes to half an hour. But you will no longer feel such sharp pain. To make the pain go away as quickly as possible, try to raise your legs above body level.
As for diagnosing and identifying the causes of cramps, we repeat once again: deep digging and analysis of the state of your body, as well as visits to the doctor and tests are necessary only if muscle spasms are regular and there are no visible reasons for which we talked above.
However, before you seek the help of doctors, pay attention to how to relieve muscle spasms yourself:
Statistics accumulated at the present time regarding women in an interesting situation say: almost every one of them at least once encounters a similar phenomenon at different stages of pregnancy.
The answer to the question of why muscles cramp in pregnant women is, in most cases, quite simple; this is due to the additional load on the body that occurs as a result of bearing a fetus.
The additional stress on the body as a result of bearing a fetus causes muscle spasms in pregnant women.
Here, most likely, it makes sense to talk about a lack of microelements and vitamins, which have already been mentioned as causes of seizures. If everything is in order with this, then it is worth checking the iron level, a decrease in blood sugar levels at night and in the morning, as well as inferior vena cava syndrome, which becomes especially important in the last months and goes away on its own after the baby is born.
In order not to miss the serious consequences that can be signaled by cramps in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, you should definitely tell the doctor who is seeing the pregnant woman about such problems. He will help you figure out why your leg muscles cramp during sleep and prescribe the necessary therapy.