please advise re: cramp

Hi Ange

22 views and no answer, what has happened there?!

Ok, sometimes cramp is due to some vitamin/mineral deficiency, esp magnesium deficiency, sometimes (often?) diabetics, esp if they are also taking medication, are more prone to vitamin/mineral deficicencies, so that is one possibility and you could try adding magnesium salts to your bath water and this will help relax the muscles also and help your body with magnesium absorption?

Also what do you eat, do you eat lots of vegetables, some fruit, good protein, etc? You could dry to boost your vit/min intake with a good supplement, not overdose of course, maybe just take a supplement every other day or 5 days a week and leave out 2?

Make sure that you have good circulation, do exercises, even gentle exercise will help increase circulation and of course walking, cycling, swimming, whatever you enjoy doing.

And if you are really worried and symptoms dont improve please go and seek medical advice.

I hope some of this helps.

All the best

Karen x

Tonic water,which contains quinine, also helps but really you want to get to the bottom of why you have started getting these cramps.

Not a common side effect I don't think, but worth telling your doctor about anything like this which appears to be connected to medication changes, something may be affecting your electrolytes

You don't mention it but you are not on Simvastatin by any chance?

I get terrible cramp sometimes and i've tried, Tonic Wate, vitamins, mierals. You name it.
I don't get it if I "forget" the Simvastatin.

My understanding is that cramp occurs when the levels of salts (Sodium Potassium etc) in your body drop. Try eating bananas they are high in Potassium. But remember they have a CP value of 2 per 100g so you will have to take account of this in your CHO intake.

JER said:

My understanding is that cramp occurs when the levels of salts (Sodium Potassium etc) in your body drop. Try eating bananas they are high in Potassium. But remember they have a CP value of 2 per 100g so you will have to take account of this in your CHO intake.

Click to expand...

Be wary of potassium interracting with some BP meds and diuretics, read the small print!

I was lucky I guess, having not had cramps for a long time I got some after taking bicarb to soothe my acid reflux, so I calculated that if sodium was causing them I'd add some potassium and magnesium (I already get masses of calcium from the water) which fixed the cramps and when I subsequently had my electrolytes checked they were spot on.

The A answer is to get the electrolytes checked first!

There's some helpful answers there, my mum gets night cramps as well. Guess what, she's on Simvastatin!

If I have high blood sugars I get really bad cramp, usually in the middle of the night. This has always happened to me and was one of the first things that started before I was diagnosed! Hope you get to the bottom of it.