Leg Cramps

Hi there daisy1, yes i have tried all of those thing, it cannot be salt because i puor in the salt with everything i eat nearly, im on magnesium tablets at the moment because potassium didnt work for me and tonight i have just had terrible cramp leaving me frustrated and scared it will happen again later. blagh it just sucks

igbandy said:

Tonic Water can help, as can Bitter Lemon and Irn Bru, as they both also contain Quinine. I am not sure if it works, but if I dont have a drink containing Quinine for a couple of days my cramps come back. If I keep on top of it they are no where no so bad.

Click to expand...

Hi I suffer badly from Leg cramps and Indian tonic water DOes help a lot. I seem to get them badly when my BG is high - am not on simvastin so I put it down to bad sugar levels. Might be worth getting out of bed and taking a reading when you have a cramp - at least it will get you moving

Hi bremma123
Quinine is an effective muscle relaxant
Have you asked or been Offered Quinine Tablets for your camps ?
As Quinine is often prescribed for cramps

I have been prescribed Quinine tablets I take them every day and no longer suffer from cramps
I also drink schweppes Indian diet tonic water also has Quinine in it

Ask your GP or HCP for advise


Just interest see :
http://www.patient.co.uk/medicine/Quinine.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_water

bremma123 said:

Hi there, my name is Emma, im from new zealand. i have type 1 diabetes andn it is very out of control. I try hard to do everything right and i cant. Im very depressed about my diabetes and lack lots of motivation to do anything eg, doing my injections, regularly checking my sugar levels and eating the right things. I really need help because i get cramp alot and bad things happen to me like ending up in hospital for lancing boils and getting kidney infections due to cramps. I am only 17 years old and feeling like this is too much for me to go through. Im scared to live my life with this disease. Im the first inmy family for generations to ever have this and it really makes me feel down about myself. i feel restricted to everything i try to do.

Please help me,
Scared

Click to expand...

Hi Emma,

You really need to discuss these issues with your diabetes consultant, diabetes is for life but it is a condition you can live with quite happily once you know how to get the balance right between injecting, testing and eating. Here in the UK we have carb counting courses for type 1's such as DAFNE (dose adjustment for normal eating) should you have similar ones in NZ then I suggest you enquire and enroll on one soon.

I can't really comment on the cause of your leg cramps but the boils and kidney infections do point to uncontrolled diabetes, as I say you really need to work with your health care team and try and establish good control, I know it's not easy ( I was 18 when diagnosed) but once you get the balance right you will begin to feel much healthier and those hospital visits will become less frequent.

Best wishes

Nigel

Hi, I have suffered with calve cramps for years , used to be a hairdresser n spent 12-13hr days on my feet mainly stood rooted to same spot for our days spent in the salon, all us girls used this bunch of tricks n tactics to overcome the agonies of calves n legs cramps. We always had sugarfree indian tonic water with lemon slices on the shop floor to guzzle n drink great thirst quencher, plus we did calve n leg excersise's that a physiotherapist showed us, sit down get a bath towel [large sized one!] hold towel in both hands place foot on middle of it and stretch leg till straight out hold towel firmly and pull against the foot thus stretching your leg and calves properly. Repeat with other foot n leg exactly the same way. Do this for 10mins each leg... Some of us DID need n require the quinine tablets from our GP's 200 or 400mg quinine sulphate taken prior to retiring to bed. All this guaranteed us to be free of the agonising pain of leg n calve cramps. Since I have been diabetic n take simvastatin my chemists prewarned me of leg pain n cramps possible. So I now drink sugarfree tonic water n do my towel n leg excersises [promise it works!] take my quinine meds n bingo!!! blissful painfree sleep..... Hope this helps? Anna.x

I'm glad to have hit on this thread - recently started getting night leg cramps; two painful bouts last night.

I thought it was due to my increased walking, now the longer evenings have arrived, but I've noticed that my BGs have been lower than through the winter.

Haven't tested often in the last month, but always between 3.9 and 4.4 for each of fasting, 2hr PP and night time (and I'm entirely happy with that!). Due an A1c next week, so will be interested to see if reflected in that.

Just picked up a couple of bottles of slimline tonic from M&S and, having adulterated it with a small amount of gin, will take a bottle before bed to see what effect it might have.

Interestingly, when I googled for 'cramps diabetes' (not knowing if there was any connection) it led me straight to this page!

Mark.

OK, one data point - bottle of slimline tonic water from M&S consumed yesterday evening and no cramp last night. Felt twinge or two when I changed position once, but didn't develop.

Not exactly statistically significant, but interesting. I'll try a week like this and see what happens.

Mark

I am going to have to give tonic water a try before going to the docs for tablets. Really hate the sore legs I get at night. Although from what I read one of the most common causes is lack of vitamins and minerals from a poor diet.

I have a terrible diet practically no fruit and veg. Wondering if a multivitamin might be worth a go.

Leg cramps can be due to a lack of magnesium - and we are very deficient in that - undoubtedly because of the low salt diets we are encouraged to follow. The fact that people often get cramps at night is probably because the body uses more then as it does its cleansing and healing work and because a lot of people sweat in bed at night. Runners often get cramps because the muscles have used all the available magnesium in the body or it has been sweated out.

http://www.mg12.info/articles/cramps.html (I don't agree with the advice to cut dietary fat - most people already cut too much of that out of their diet, but the other advice seems pretty good. I eat high fat, yet I take both salt and extra magnesium (if you take magnesium it should be taken with an equal amount of calcium to keep the balance right) and don't suffer with cramps any more at all)

But just taking more salt isn't necessarily the key. Most of the salt that is sold now is cheap Table salt which is just sodium choride with a few added chemicals to make it flow easier (like sodium ferro-cyanide!).

What you need to take is Celtic Sea Salt which still retains the full quota of other minerals (including magnesium) and trace elements. They may only make up 2% of the salt's constituent parts, but they are necessary as the body uses them all in different processes. As all the elements that make up the Human body work in harmony, a shortage of any one of them can impact on it.

http://www.tjclarkdirect.com/humanbodyelements.htm This contains a list of the 'known' elements in the Human body but there are undoubtedly considerably more. Whilst the other minerals and trace elements in whole salt are only in miniscule amounts, they are still necessary to help in bodily processes and to support the body's use of the elements we get from our food.

Some people will dismiss that 2% as being of no importance, but because so little is known or understood about what is used where, it is difficult to make a judgement call on it. But whole salt has been highly prized for thousands of years for many reasons - not just because it is a great healer (and the trace elements contribute to that) and it is only comparitively recently that salt has been broken down in to its component parts. Cheap Table salt is what is left after all the valuable minerals and trace elements have been extracted and sold for profit.

Without the other elements the body cannot use the sodium chloride properly, and it will unbalance the body chemistry causing all sorts of problems.

I would suggest trying some Celtic salt first - a maximum of a teaspoonful per day (less if you are getting salt from any other source) and see if that helps. It may take a little while to correct, but you can't lose anything by trying. I buy Danival 'Sel Marin' sea salt from my local health shop at just over £2 for a 1 kilo bag so it isn't expensive. If they haven't got any, an independent retailer should be able to order it in. You should be able to get it online.

Since I have been 'taking the salt', my body has been healing all sorts of things and it hasn't impacted on my BP at all - in fact, it's gone down!

Four nights on the tonic water (with just a tiny splash of gin to make it palatable) now and still no cramps - not even any twinges the last two nights, though there were a couple on the first two.

Fasting BG steady between 4.2 and 4.6 this week.

Nark

I also take all my tablets with diet tonic water

I keep a bottle by the bed side for the odd night time slurp :mrgreen:


Bob

I take Quinine Sulphate for leg cramps. Ask your GP. I also wear Kilt socks all the time - keeping my legs warm helps to prevent the cramping.

Note: Many medications have a detrimental affect of the heart and or kidneys. Try to keep medications to a minimum.

I was on Quinine Sulphate for over 8 years for uncontrollable waist down body cramps. This was prescribed for me without any warning by a UK GP years after the drug had been banned in the US for causing the death of 90 users. Now I have chronic kidney disease (CKD) which has been attributed to over use of QS

Stick with MAGNESIUM and take salt on the tongue in emergency which should reduce the cramp within about 20 minutes or less.

I've noticed a definite link, in my own case, between drinking alcohol having leg cramps. I'm not a regular drinker, I just have the odd drink when I fancy one. Could be once a month, or once in six months to a year. And that's why I've noticed link with cramps and alcohol in my case. I would have thought, if anything, alcohol would relax my muscles, not make them contract.

Hi

I have only recently started having leg cramps during the night and at first thought it may be due to all the gardening I have been doing. Also my bg's have been very low at night this past month or so.

I have started wearing slipper socks in bed which make my feet more comfortable and also read that drinking water before bed helps.
I think I may be a bit dehydrated perhaps due to the unusually hot weather and don't drink much other than herbal and green tea and coffee. Avoiding fruit drinks which increase my bg's. I am making a real effort to drink more water during the day .

The cramps are crucially painful, and almost nightly and hope they go away sometime soon.

pollyr

Dear Pollyr,

Please DO take notice of my advice regarding Magnesium Malate/Citrate/Chloride and the tip about placing salt on the tongue in emergencies. Nobody could have been more afflicted than me with legs cramps - I have so benefited from the advice from others on this site before me. Private sms me if you wish.

Rob

Hi Rob

I Will take your advice and certainly try to get to the bottom of this as it is so painful and the fact that I know I will wake with the pain disturbs my sleep. I will contact you if I need to. Thank you
Pollyr

Hi all I too suffer from terrible leg cramps and (funnily enough) it has only started since I started taking Simvastatin. I come in from work and try to relax by putting my feet up and then fall asleep. When I do get up the pain is terrible and makes me want to scream. Finding all the information you have put on here has been really useful and I will be going out to buy some tonic water tomorrow as I don't know how much more of this I can take. I have to say though when I go to bed I don't tend to suffer but it could be because I lie on my side and because I suffer from sciatica too, use a pillow to lean on so I don't lean on the sciatic nerve so maybe that is why I don't suffer at night-time

I actually wonder now as to how many people are getting restless leg syndrome from diabetes and / or statins and GP's just not listening enough to the distress of the pain it can cause.

I've had chronic disabling pain in legs over 6 years off and on and only thanks to a **** good pain clinic consultant and GP have I now had good treatment given.