When exposed to nerve impulses, the charge of the cell weakens, then calcium ions enter it.
It is thanks to this substance that the cell performs its function. The muscle fiber cell contracts. Along with the penetration of calcium, sodium enters the cell and potassium is excreted. During the period when the cell is filled with calcium ions, it spasms.
About 40% of the energy produced by the cell is used to operate the pumps.
A lack of mineral salts in the body can be observed:
These factors create conditions for the deterioration of blood flow in the extremities, which already slows down during night sleep. Thus, the body suffering from disorders experiences a double load, the muscles lack nutrients and they spasm.
Many people are afraid of night cramps. Indeed, it would be a good idea to visit a doctor, because spasms can be the result of many serious diseases. First, you should go to your family doctor, who will determine more precisely which specialist is needed in a particular case. No independent attempts to eliminate seizures, which are a sign of the disease, will be successful.
Traditional medicine recommends using a decoction of birch buds, walnut leaves, black elderberry, chamomile, thyme, and hawthorn for baths for night cramps.
Some women during pregnancy lean on certain foods, completely forgetting about a balanced diet. The body does not receive what it needs.
Anemia is not uncommon during pregnancy. It also creates favorable conditions for convulsive muscle contractions.
The most common cause of toe cramps is chronic venous insufficiency or a lack of electrolyte salts in the body.
Therefore, it is necessary to diagnose the condition of the leg veins. Diagnosis includes ultrasound or Doppler. Based on the examination results, the phlebologist will determine a treatment regimen.
In order for the analysis results to be reliable, you do not need to start taking any vitamin and mineral preparations.
Taking a number of medications or dietary supplements ( for example, to cleanse the body or lose weight ) can cause a decrease in the amount of electrolytes in the blood, anemia and seizures.
And one more reason that you can try to eliminate on your own is uncomfortable shoes or weight gain.
2. If you have a night cramp, you should stand up - this will improve blood circulation and the pain will go away.
3. If the cramp has already passed, but the muscle still hurts, you should wrap your calf with an elastic bandage.
4. Drink 100 ml of brewer's yeast three times a day, 30 minutes before meals, for several months.
5. asparkam tablet once a day after meals . The course of treatment is five days. Sometimes just one tablet is enough.
6. Massage the cramped muscle with mustard oil.
7. Twice a day, treat your feet with lemon juice or rub with a piece of lemon, leave until dry and put on stockings. The duration of treatment is 14 days.
8. Treat the feet with nine percent vinegar.
9. Eat potatoes boiled in their jackets or baked with skin on.
10. Brew two tablespoons of chamomile with 200 ml of boiling water, hold for 10 minutes after boiling, pass through a sieve and consume 50 ml orally three to four times a day on an empty stomach.
11. Pour one dessert spoon of birch buds into 200 ml of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes, pass through a sieve and drink a third of a glass in the morning, at lunch and in the evening on an empty stomach.
You can normalize the level of minerals in your diet with proper nutrition or medications. So, if you have frequent cramps, you should increase the amount of food rich in calcium, magnesium and vitamin D .
In order for magnesium to be better absorbed, it should be combined with vitamin B6 , which is abundant in fish, buckwheat, walnuts, liver, and meat.
For better absorption of calcium, it is useful to drink 200 ml of slightly warmed water with a teaspoon of honey and lemon juice every day.
medications containing calcium and vitamin D closer to the night, at which time the bones “absorb” calcium faster.
1. Stand on your legs and cross them, standing on the outer edges of your feet. Stand for ten seconds, stand straight, and then repeat the exercise.
2. Sit on a chair, tuck your toes and hold the position for ten seconds. The same amount of time to relax and repeat.
3. Get to your feet and stretch on your toes. Fix the position and “fall” on your heels.
Each exercise should be repeated at least 5 times.
1. Sit on a stool, raise your legs and twist your feet.
2. Purse your fingers intensely and immediately straighten them. Move them actively.
3. Slowly walk in place, stretching the toe of your raised leg.
4. Lean on the wall with two palms, take small steps away from your back, without moving your torso.
1. Sitting on a chair, lean on the back and stretch your legs so that your shin and foot are in line, fix the position for five seconds, pull up your socks and fix the position for 5 seconds.
2. In the same position, change the position of your legs: now on your toes, now on your heels.
3. Stand near a chair and lean on its back, stand on the toes of one leg, lift the other and bend at the knee. Fix for five seconds, do a light squat and fix the position at the lowest point for five seconds.
Cramps in the feet and fingers of varying degrees of intensity have occurred in everyone’s life. Involuntary contraction of the foot muscles is often described as sharp pain. Starts from the middle of the leg, extends to the toes. If you touch painful areas of the foot, you will feel muscle tension. Sometimes the muscles are tense to such an extent that it seems that they are about to burst. A cramp can cramp muscles in a minute interval or last for several days. Let's look at the causes of foot cramps and treatment methods.
In many cases, changes in the biochemical composition of the blood lead to the development of foot cramps. When a person loses valuable substances unnoticed, his legs often begin to cramp. Common and significant causes of leg cramps:
The listed reasons contribute to the frequent occurrence of foot cramps.
Flat feet have a devastating effect on the feet, causing cramps. With flat feet, a change in the transverse arch of the foot occurs (flattening). There is a change in the toes, a curvature of the big toe. A person experiences symptoms:
Symptoms affect blood circulation in the feet and tissue metabolism. Pathological changes in the foot lead to cramps.
People with diabetes are at high risk for foot cramps. Those who are sick need to pay special attention to their feet. Elevated sugar levels contribute to diabetic damage to the skin, nerves, blood vessels and joints. Skin damage leads to the patient developing non-healing ulcers that are difficult to treat. Patients feel pain worse. This in many cases leads to the formation of muscle cramps.
Diabetes worsens the condition of small arteries and capillaries. They become clogged with tiny particles of glucose. The processes are directly related to disturbances in blood supply to the tissues of the foot and the formation of spasms. The same can be said about diabetic nerve damage. Patients with diabetes more often than others feel tingling in the foot, “crawling goosebumps.” The skin of the feet is pale and cold to the touch. Nerve damage contributes to involuntary contractions of the foot muscles due to poor innervation.
Finally, joint damage leads to increased stress on the foot. The leg gets tired faster, fatigue becomes the main reason for the formation of involuntary contractions of its muscles with the resulting symptoms.
The main symptoms of the phenomenon:
Finger cramps occur unexpectedly, as is the case with other muscles. Often the phenomenon occurs while wearing uncomfortable shoes, if a person is in an uncomfortable position for a long time or stands on his feet. A cramp is felt in one finger or several at the same time.
Cramps at night or in the morning are the most unpleasant and painful for a person. At night, sharp pain inevitably leads to awakening. Sleep is disturbed, and it is difficult for a person to fall asleep later. The tense muscle gradually stops hurting. In children, night cramps lead to fear. The child becomes nervous, excited, and often cries.
Sometimes a person experiences night cramps simply from sleeping in a certain position. The condition leads to insomnia, nervousness, and inability to concentrate. Remember that during puberty, children may experience frequent cramps. The process affects psycho-emotional development. The child studies worse, becomes whiny, nervous, and the teenager has trouble sleeping due to fear of recurring pain.
Diagnostics is needed: a full medical examination will determine the true cause of involuntary contraction of the muscles of the feet. You will need to visit a therapist to treat muscle dysfunction. In addition to the examination, the doctor will order the necessary tests and prescribe treatment. As a rule, you are required to undergo general blood tests, urine tests, blood biochemistry, and x-rays. In some cases, an MRI is prescribed to refute or confirm a questionable diagnosis.
Based on the test results, the doctor will refer you for consultation and examination with a neurologist, cardiologist, endocrinologist, or psychiatrist. Based on the results of tests and examinations by specialists, appropriate treatment is prescribed. If no pathologies are found in the body, prevention plays an important role.
To do this, you will need to eliminate the cause of the appearance. Advice for those who want to get rid of unpleasant spasms.
The measures listed above will help get rid of unpleasant foot spasms.
First of all, try to relax. If a cramp occurs at night, do not panic. Try to breathe deeply: gas exchange will saturate the tissues and muscles of the ankle with oxygen and help relax the muscles. Try to carefully (so as not to provoke injury) stand on your feet. Place your feet together and straighten your back - the exercise will help your muscles relax.
Pull your foot towards you. The action will cause pain, you will have to be patient. The muscle will stretch, which will relieve the spasm. If the violation does not go away, try pinching the foot, massaging it - do it immediately. A warming ointment will help. When the attack passes and the pain subsides, it is recommended to lie down and raise your legs above your head.
It happens that a leg cramp appears while swimming in a pool, river, or sea. The phenomenon is dangerous due to its unpredictability. If the injury occurs in the pool, stop swimming. If a cramp seizes your foot in the sea or river, take decisive action:
It is not recommended to swim in water that is too cold. The temperature should be above 18 degrees. If cramps occur frequently, and a person feels unpleasant and suspicious symptoms, it is necessary to treat the underlying disease leading to cramps. It is important not to self-medicate and use medications as prescribed by a doctor.
Foot cramps are an unpleasant symptom from which it is quite possible to get rid of it. Timely and comprehensive prevention will help keep your feet healthy.
The term “leg cramps” in common parlance refers to a contraction of individual muscles that is excessive in strength and duration and uncontrollable by the will, which occurs for no apparent reason at first glance and mainly at night.
Most often, cramps occur in the muscles of the lower extremities (calf muscle cramps), less often - in the muscles of the back or front of the thigh. The muscles of the chest and abdomen, upper limbs and neck are involved much less frequently in the process of contractions of this type. As a rule, cramps are quite painful, unpleasant and deprive a person of the ability to move independently or perform complex coordinated motor acts.
Important! Convulsive contractions of the described type are tetanic, that is, strong and prolonged, without periods of relaxation.
For this reason, leg cramps at night should be distinguished from processes that are similar in appearance, but have different origins in nature, which include:
Note! Night cramps in the legs are one of the manifestations of a fairly wide range of diseases, abnormalities, functional changes, and responses in the body.
The cause of the convulsive syndrome and night leg cramps we are considering may be:
As a rule, the main cause of leg cramps lies in the lack of micro- and macroelements such as calcium, magnesium and potassium, which take part in the transport of nerve impulses from the central nervous system directly to the muscle tissue itself. The situation in this case is aggravated by a lack of vitamins D and B.
All of the above reasons provoke certain changes both in the body itself and in certain parts of it, which contribute to the spontaneous occurrence of seizures.
Thus, as a result of excessive load and muscle fatigue, a decrease in energetically important compounds occurs, mainly ATP. At the same time, certain metabolites accumulate in the tissues, primarily lactic acid. As a result, the process of relaxation of muscle fibers is disrupted, which, against the background of a reduced threshold of excitability, leads to spontaneous cramps in the legs at night.
Another mechanism for the development of night leg cramps is a violation of the nervous regulation of muscles, which can occur as a result of general fatigue, taking certain medications, or endocrine disorders. The result of such conditions is a decrease in the threshold of muscle excitability and their contraction in the presence of even weak nerve impulses.
In the presence of varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, diseases of the cardiovascular system, various inflammatory processes and frequent trauma, a change in the metabolism of muscle tissue occurs in conditions of lack of oxygen and nutrients. This contributes to the occurrence of spontaneous cramps of the calf muscles.
In the vast majority of cases, cramps in the toes, as well as cramps in the muscles of the lower extremities, appear in a person at night.
The reason for this phenomenon lies in the fact that during this period of the day all processes in the body are slowed down, the body rests after a busy day. The organs that continue to be supplied with blood at the same level are the non-resting heart, lungs, diaphragm and brain. Everything else, especially the muscles, are in a relaxed state.
If for a number of reasons the local blood supply was initially reduced or there were metabolic disorders, then under conditions of even greater hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the tissues) spontaneous convulsions can easily occur at night.
In addition, during sleep, brain activity increases, which is manifested by the rapid phase of sleep with motor activity. Under unfavorable conditions, even slight excitation and activity of nerve cells leads to muscle contraction and spasm.
In general, night cramps in the limbs in completely healthy people quite often occur spontaneously and without any apparent reason. This type of seizure does not require special measures other than stopping the seizure at the time of its occurrence. At the same time, a significant number of cases requiring human help did not appear out of the blue - they were preceded by a certain unfavorable background.
Such harbingers include:
Many women during the period of bearing a child complain of the appearance of painful uncontrollable contractions of certain muscles of the legs. As we said earlier, the main cause of cramps is a lack of magnesium, potassium and calcium. The leaching of these elements from the body of a pregnant woman during the first trimester is due to toxicosis, accompanied by eating disorders and vomiting. Leg cramps in the second and third trimester of pregnancy are most often associated with increased consumption of vital microelements by the developing fetus.
In addition, in the later stages, the cause of cramps in a pregnant woman is an enlarged uterus, which compresses the inferior vena cava, which complicates the outflow of venous blood from the legs. The condition worsens especially when lying down.
An improper diet and the increased energy needs of the unborn baby lead to a decrease in glucose levels in the pregnant woman’s body, which can also become a trigger for the development of leg cramps. That is why, as a preventive measure for convulsive syndrome, the expectant mother must carefully observe her daily routine and ensure that her diet is complete and balanced.
Many people ask the question “What to do if a cramp cramps your leg?” Despite the surprise, discomfort or pain caused by a cramp, you should not panic, as excitement and anxiety contribute to increased contraction.
As a first aid for toe and calf cramps, you need to pull yourself together as soon as possible and follow these steps:
If the cramp affects the front of the thigh, take an upright position, grab the ankle of the leg bent at the knee and pull the foot towards the buttocks. If you have a muscle spasm in your foot, sit down, straighten your leg, and pull your big toes towards you. If the muscles of the back of the thigh are cramping, take a vertical position, take one step forward and place the sore leg on the heel, bend the healthy leg at the knee and lean on it with your hands. Move your pelvis back and gently stretch the patient. The movements should resemble an attempt to remove a shoe from a sore leg.
In a healthy person, in most cases, such single nighttime leg cramps can occur spontaneously and, apart from stopping them, nothing usually needs to be done.
It is important to know! If such conditions begin to appear repeatedly in you, then this is a serious reason to consult a doctor for consultation and further examination to determine the cause of the seizures. In the process of finding out the cause of your condition, you will have to consult with a wide range of specialists, as well as undergo a series of laboratory and instrumental examinations.
If night cramps begin to appear after starting treatment prescribed by a doctor for an existing disease, then it is possible that night cramps in the legs are associated with the effect of one or more medications taken. In this situation, it is necessary to contact the attending physician as quickly as possible and explain the situation - a review of drug therapy or a change in dosage of prescribed drugs is not excluded.
There are a number of recommendations that you can follow to reduce the risk of cramps at night. Basically, preventive measures are aimed at the general strengthening and healing of the body and at improving the condition of the muscles of the limbs.
The list of measures to prevent the development of leg cramps includes:
As a rule, the listed measures help prevent the occurrence of convulsive syndrome. However, if even after this you continue to be bothered by muscle cramps, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible to undergo an examination and find out the exact causes of the disease, as well as select the appropriate treatment for calf muscle cramps.
You can get more detailed information about leg cramps by watching this video review:
General practitioner, Sovinskaya Elena Nikolaevna
21,240 total views, 1 views today
The muscles of the legs and feet are subject to involuntary contractions called spasms or tonic cramps. This condition is accompanied by acute pain, which can last 3-5 minutes, and a feeling of severe tension, “petrification” of the muscles. Coping with cramps is easy if you know their causes and several effective treatment methods.
Muscle contractions can occur in both healthy people and people suffering from serious chronic diseases. In the first case, the causes of seizures are as follows:
In healthy adults, leg cramps occur rarely and pass quickly without recurring in the future. If tonic spasms appear regularly and are characterized by a duration of several minutes, it is necessary to look for provoking factors in disorders of the internal organs and systems. There are 3 possible dangerous causes that cause leg cramps:
Finding out on your own why muscle contractions occur is difficult. To make a diagnosis, you will have to visit a specialist, describe in detail the clinical signs accompanying seizures, and take the prescribed tests. During the consultation, it is important to indicate at what time of day the problem occurs, how often, and name the muscle group that hurts more.
Intense spasms in soft tissues indicate the accumulation of lactic acid in them. Its amount increases if a person sleeps in a hot and cramped room with a lack of oxygen. Another common reason why legs cramp at night is vascular disorders in combination with muscle overload the day before. Due to their overstrain, the outflow of venous blood during sleep is reduced, and the influx of biological fluid in the arteries is slowed down. This causes spastic phenomena, pain and a feeling of “petrification” of the limb.
The lower legs are subject to involuntary contractions more often than other muscles, as they experience greater stress during the day. Tonic leg cramps can occur for the following reasons:
Brief leg muscle cramps are also observed in pregnant women, especially in the second and third trimester. For full growth and formation of bone structures of the fetus, an increased supply of calcium and potassium is required, therefore, in many expectant mothers, the concentration of these microelements in the body drops and short-term cramps occur.
Contraction of the muscles of the feet appears either due to deterioration of blood circulation in small arteries and capillaries, or against the background of abnormalities of the ligaments and joints. Cramps of the foot and toes are observed due to the following factors:
Emergency methods for stopping spastic contractions:
Sometimes the attack is felt in advance. A person feels tension, numbness and increasing nagging pain in the legs - cramps begin with these symptoms. If the following symptoms appear, you must:
The fastest way to combat cramps involves stretching the muscle. To eliminate night cramps in the legs, use your hands to pull your toes towards you. At the same time, you should try to fully straighten your knee so that the soft tissues relax. Too frequent leg cramps at night also happen - what to do:
Emergency treatment options for tonic spasms include firm pinching of the contracted muscles and pricking with a pin or needle. These methods instantly relieve nighttime leg cramps and sudden attacks during the day. If a tense limb is sharply pinched, bitten or pricked, the activated nerve endings will reflexively switch to another stimulus and the muscle will immediately relax.
Regular or daily spasms of the legs and feet must be treated comprehensively. The constant use of the above-described emergency methods allows you to cope only with the symptoms of the pathology. To find out how to relieve leg cramps for a long time, you need to undergo diagnostics and determine the causes of tonic muscle contractions and consult with doctors.
A single therapeutic regimen to get rid of tonic spasms has not been developed. You can choose the best way to treat leg cramps after identifying all the factors that provoke the pathology. First, you need to see a therapist and take a general blood test to assess the general condition of the body, muscles and circulatory system. Once a diagnosis has been made and the cause of seizures has been identified, further consultations are carried out by specialized specialists. Treatment is carried out by a cardiologist, neurologist, phlebologist or endocrinologist.
Home therapy for leg cramps involves following several important rules:
If spasms occur during sleep, you should contact a cardiologist or vascular surgeon and do a Doppler ultrasound. The doctor will help identify and eliminate the causes of stagnation of venous blood and deterioration of blood circulation in the arteries. You can relieve and prevent leg cramps at night through the following measures:
There are no special medications designed to treat sudden muscle contractions. Any medications are selected by a specialized doctor based on the diagnosis and research performed. The only common cure for leg cramps is tablets containing mineral and vitamin complexes. Additionally, the doctor may recommend taking magnesium supplements and muscle relaxants to relax muscles.
Effective vitamin and mineral complexes:
Effective magnesium preparations to prevent leg cramps:
There are also no special local medications for spastic muscle contractions, so pharmacies do not sell ointment for leg cramps. Any drug with a warming and irritating effect will help relieve the symptoms of the pathology. The exception is situations when the problem arises due to varicose veins. With this diagnosis, the phlebologist prescribes special local remedies that restore blood circulation, prevent the formation of blood clots and the appearance of muscle cramps.
Cramps in the lower extremities periodically bother almost everyone. However, not everyone thinks about the reason for their appearance. And only when the muscle spasm reaches its maximum: severe pain pierces the leg for several minutes, the person decides to visit a doctor. How to treat leg cramps - this is the most popular question when contacting a specialist. But you shouldn’t hope that you will get an answer right away. Before starting treatment, the doctor must determine the exact causes of their occurrence.
A distinctive feature of cramps in any part of the leg is the complex reaction of the body to internal or external stimuli . A painful spasm in skeletal muscles is a sudden attack that can unsettle any person. Their main differences are in the zone of occurrence, frequency of occurrence and duration. Cramps appear in various areas of the lower limb: in the thigh, foot, fingers or calf muscles. Therefore, it is impossible to say exactly which part of the leg is most susceptible to this pathology. But it should be noted that each case has its own specific causes and its own treatment therapy. Experts classify seizures as follows:
Most often, painful spasms in the lower extremities are of the tonic type. At what point they will occur is very difficult to predict. The cramp comes on suddenly and lasts for several minutes, which can seem like an eternity. Elderly people are more prone to this pathology. However, even in younger people it can begin simply because the leg is not positioned quite comfortably. In this regard, the nerves and muscles are compressed, which causes them to become numb.
The mechanism of spasm development begins with the occurrence of tension in any muscle group. At the same time, there is a feeling that she is “jammed” and there is absolutely no way to relax. This condition leads to decreased blood circulation in this area and causes ischemia of muscle fibers. Severe tension in the muscle causes acute nagging pain.
As a result, a vicious circle arises: a person cannot relax a muscle because it is tense. The body, in turn, also does not have the ability to release it, since blood circulation in this area has been disrupted and the supply of nutrients necessary for metabolic processes within the muscle fibers has stopped.
In some cases, the causes of spasms may not always be clear. This applies more to night attacks. Experts tend to explain this pathology by an error in the impulse, which orders a muscle that is already in this state to contract. In such situations, you should not worry too much. Regularly performing special exercises helps to forget about such spasms forever.
But frequent seizures that have secondary causes require specialist consultation . Most often they are symptoms and indicate serious disorders within the body:
Also, the causes of spasms may be associated with diseases such as:
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Treatment of cramps in the calf muscles , in the thigh area or in the foot area will be effective if the factors that provoke them are precisely established. To do this, the patient needs to contact a therapist, who, first of all, will give a referral for laboratory diagnostics. After identifying deviations, you can judge which specialist you need to contact. It is he who will become the primary attending physician of the patient.
Diagnosis of seizures usually includes:
Dehydration of the body can begin both with insufficient fluid intake and as a result of prolonged exercise. Such stress and hot weather lead to increased sweating and the excretion of large quantities of potassium and calcium. It is their deficiency that leads to severe spasms in the calf muscles.
In order to get rid of cramps, medications are needed that include magnesium, calcium citrate and water-soluble vitamin D. One of these drugs is “Orthocalcium + magnesium”. The effectiveness of the medicine will depend on how quickly the body replenishes its balance with the necessary microelements.
You can also recommend another drug - Ortho Taurine Ergo. It contains medicinal components such as succinic and lipoic acids, zinc and vitamins E and B. Preparations of this type perfectly eliminate spasms of muscle tissue in patients suffering from diabetes or hypertension. They have a good effect in relieving fatigue after physical exercise and mental stress. Their action is aimed at protecting muscle fibers from damage and speeding up their recovery process.
In some cases, asparkam can help. The presence of potassium and magnesium in it has a beneficial effect on the functioning of all organs and muscle tissue of the body. However, before taking the drug, you must read the instructions, since the medicine has some contraindications.
Frequent spasms that occur due to a lack of potassium, calcium or magnesium require a detailed review of the diet. Therapeutic therapy should include not only special vitamin preparations, but also diet therapy. The patient's diet should contain:
When a spasm begins, experts advise:
As a preventive measure, experts advise refraining from smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages. You should also avoid black coffee and strong tea. To improve blood circulation in the muscles, it is recommended to move and jog more.
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