• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diabetes and Cramp

Kirstine

Kirstine

Member
Messages
19
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
Insulin
My son often gets quite bad cramp in his legs/feet - only had problems with it since being diabetic but could be his age (teenager). Anyone else have problems with cramp?
 
Yes absolutely! I'm type 1 (diagnosed 4 months ago) and I had horrific cramp in my legs before my diagnosis, my dsn told me it was because I had such high blood sugar that my blood was struggling to reach my extremities because it was so thick so my muscles were cramping to help it get there! She thinks I'm probably just more prone to it now, I still get it every now and then, usually when I'm dehydrated!
 
Does he use Lantus? I experience leg cramps occasionally and my sugars are very tightly controlled. There have been lots of reports of Lantus causing this issue and I think it is Lantus that is cause for me.
 
@Kirstine yes, I had agonising, crippling cramp in my feet and legs before I was diagnosed aged 11. Thick and claggy blood from all the sugar.

I do these days sometimes get cramp at night, but I don't think it's related to blood sugar - at least I don't think so.
 
Not a type 1, but I believe I read recently that higher glucose levels require more magnesium. Most of us are already deficient. Having diabetes makes this problem worse. A commonly used supplement is magnesium glycinate. I personally take 450 mg magnesium citrate a day, but it causes loss stools in some people. I encourage you to do a search on "diabetes magnesium" to learn more. I had horrible cramps as a kid, as an adult too. That problem went away with supplementing my magnesium. :)
 
I got diagnosed 2 years ago now (at age 21), but, around a month before diagnosis I had the worst leg cramps of my life. I'll never forget on one occasion I woke up at 3AM screaming in agony because of a calf cramp in my right leg, I couldn't physically walk for 2 days because my muscles hurt so much.

Once diagnosed this made sense in my mind but my gp told me it wasn't a symptom and unrelated. My lovely DSN told me that it's very common with newly diagnosed Type 1, due to extreme dehydration which comes along with the high blood sugars!

The plus side is, as soon as my blood sugars came into normal range, and I stopped feeling thirsty every second of every day, they stopped without the need of any vitamins etc. I did request a full vitamin test around that time as a veggie and personally wasn't deficient in anything! So definitely believe mine was down to dehydration at the time!
 
pinewood said:
Does he use Lantus? I experience leg cramps occasionally and my sugars are very tightly controlled. There have been lots of reports of Lantus causing this issue and I think it is Lantus that is cause for me.[/QUOT

Yikes !!! So happy to know that. I couldn't figure it out. Thinking nightshade veggies, dairy, dehydration etc

Goes to show it NOT ALWAYS FOOD. haha but not really funny
Click to expand...
 
Kirstine said:
My son often gets quite bad cramp in his legs/feet - only had problems with it since being diabetic but could be his age (teenager). Anyone else have problems with cramp?
Click to expand...

This was one of the issues which took me to the docs in the first place just prior to diagnosis.

It was when manoeuvring a large vehicle with even larger trailer using a balanced clutch that my leg muscles cramped up to the point of extreme pain and unable to walk - all pretty alarming at the time. My hba1c at diagnosis was 101; the highest my GP had seen and at a dangerous level for me.

Thankfully, there has been no recurrence of this since my BGs are now tightly controlled through use of low carbing. (I did need insulin immediately on diagnosis to bring my sugars down to a survivable level, though not currently needing any these last 20 months or so.)
 
Horrendous cramps prior to diagnosis. Regular cramp during the night post diagnosis. Also, whilst swimming, which I'd never had previously.
 
I also had horrible leg muscle cramps in the months leading up to the diagnosis. Now that my blood sugars have come down considerably, the cramps have subsided. When my blood sugar elevates, I do feel some minor cramps, which leads me to believe the cramps are related to blood sugar levels.
 
Hey, Phil in Shanghai here.
I was going to create a new post, but this pretty much covers what I wanted to discuss!

I’m one year since my T1D diagnosis (tomorrow!) and remember having tingling and cramping calves waking me up at night before I knew what was wrong with me.
It’s happening again, even though my HBA1c is good (5.9%) and I spend the most nights between 4.3-5.5 and exercise 4/5days a week and walk on average 9k steps/day!
It only happens that I am 10+ over night if I’ve eaten particularly poorly, once a month or something. But I don’t get the cramps on those nights exclusively, just comes randomly. And recently it’s been every night for the past week.
I also wake up with numb thumb and fore finger if I’ve been sleeping on that side.

So...
1. I understand the reason for it happening before diagnosis (when my BS was 22 fasted and my HBA1c was 11.5), since the thickening of the blood would cause the extremities not to be reached.
2. would also understand it if I had abused my body for decades and had Diabetic Neuropathy.

But... I haven’t. And bar the maybe 1-3months pre- diagnosis where my blood was possibly a similar composition to Coca-Cola, since then I’ve been good.

I’m hungover today - and Pushed myself in the gym yesterday - so maybe I can blame it on dehydration and over-exercise.

To list the possible reasons I find from this post and Google:
- dehydration (usually I am good with water intake)
- magnesium or potassium sufficient (maybe)
- diabetic neuropathy (surely not!)
- .... just “one of the blessings of diabetes” to have to put up with?
 
Another who would add Lantus to the list of reasons. I felt like a different person within 5 days of changing to Tresiba
 
Talked to my consultant about this a couple of weeks ago. Have good control and a good HBA1C but still suffer. The only advice was to drink a tonic water before bedtime as the quinine might help.
 
Thanks- both good ideas. Would be interested in the science behind it. Maybe it’s a side affect of synthetic insulin use...
I’ll have to book in for an appointment soon to get it changed over. I’ve got a lot of Lantus left, maybe 6-8 vials, so should probably use that up first!
 
becca59 said:
Talked to my consultant about this a couple of weeks ago. Have good control and a good HBA1C but still suffer. The only advice was to drink a tonic water before bedtime as the quinine might help.
Click to expand...
Do you know what your potassium levels are on your annual blood test results?
You may need more potassium. Some people do. Do you eat a banana regularly?
 
harrisphil said:
Hey, Phil in Shanghai here.
I was going to create a new post, but this pretty much covers what I wanted to discuss!

I’m one year since my T1D diagnosis (tomorrow!) and remember having tingling and cramping calves waking me up at night before I knew what was wrong with me.
It’s happening again, even though my HBA1c is good (5.9%) and I spend the most nights between 4.3-5.5 and exercise 4/5days a week and walk on average 9k steps/day!
It only happens that I am 10+ over night if I’ve eaten particularly poorly, once a month or something. But I don’t get the cramps on those nights exclusively, just comes randomly. And recently it’s been every night for the past week.
I also wake up with numb thumb and fore finger if I’ve been sleeping on that side.

So...
1. I understand the reason for it happening before diagnosis (when my BS was 22 fasted and my HBA1c was 11.5), since the thickening of the blood would cause the extremities not to be reached.
2. would also understand it if I had abused my body for decades and had Diabetic Neuropathy.

But... I haven’t. And bar the maybe 1-3months pre- diagnosis where my blood was possibly a similar composition to Coca-Cola, since then I’ve been good.

I’m hungover today - and Pushed myself in the gym yesterday - so maybe I can blame it on dehydration and over-exercise.

To list the possible reasons I find from this post and Google:
- dehydration (usually I am good with water intake)
- magnesium or potassium sufficient (maybe)
- diabetic neuropathy (surely not!)
- .... just “one of the blessings of diabetes” to have to put up with?
Click to expand...
Me and none diabetic son hv bananas regularly which does help us.
 
@ickihun yes potassium levels very good. No to the bananas as I find them too sweet now, but lots of other potassium rich foods. My father a non diabetic has had cramp problems all his life, and I fear I have taken after him.
 
ickihun said:
Do you know what your potassium levels are on your annual blood test results?
You may need more potassium. Some people do. Do you eat a banana regularly?
Click to expand...
Bananas aren’t the highest in potassium, google will show a list of lots of high potassium foods. I find effervescent electrolyte tabs to be the best source though, they’re usually pretty cheap too depending where you buy them!!
 
Back
Top