Leg Cramp Site

Many people suffer from leg cramps more during the summer months than during the winter months. They complain that their leg cramps are more frequent and less predictable when it is warmer outside than when it is cold. And while there is no single cause for leg cramps, there are some definite reasons for why you might suffer from more leg cramps in the summer.

Dehydration: This is one of the most common causes of all sorts of ailments during the summer months. When the temperature rises our bodies lose water and other minerals through sweat, which can quickly cause us to become dehydrated. That dehydration can lead to muscle cramping and leg cramps, but they don’t only have to occur at night. During the summer months athletes find that they will often have more leg cramps simply because they are burning so much energy and losing so much water through sweat that they can’t keep enough liquid in their bodies. If you feel a leg cramp or other muscle cramp coming on you can quickly drink some water or a specially designed sports drink (though those are often high in sugar). One tried and true way to hold off most muscle and leg cramps is to drink quinine water. The water will help with dehydration and the quinine will help calm down a cramping or twitchy calf muscle.

Electrolyte or Chemical Imbalance: When you are sweating in the heat of summer your body isn’t just losing water. It’s also losing vitamins, minerals and lots of vital elements. Again, sports drinks will help but you may want to also try eating some foods that are high in potassium or even taking a potassium supplement to prevent leg cramps in the summertime.

Over-Exertion:Obviously, most people enjoy spending more time outside in the summer than in the winter. Sometimes it’s easy to lost track of time when you’re outside enjoying sports or walking or whatever it you’re doing during the summer months. It’s hard to always know the signs of when you’ve “done too much” and given your body a reason to start clenching those leg muscles.

Even if you’re cool and in a swimming pool you can get serious leg cramps which can impede your ability to swim or stay safe. Monitoring your activity, paying attention to how you feel and keeping yourself hydrated are three ways to keep those summertime leg cramps at bay.

Many people who have suffered from painful night time leg cramps have gone looking for a natural, homeopathic remedy to their muscle spasms and found Hyland’s Leg Cramp Tablets with Quinine.

Hyland’s Leg Cramp Tablets with Quinine

While some people are able to get leg cramp relief from quinine tablets or foods with quinine in them, it’s a chemical that is no longer readily available in the United States. Hyland’s Leg Cramp Tablets are now one of the very few pills you can actively find that contain small amounts of quinine as well as a number of other herbs for help with all sorts of muscle cramps, including those in the lower back, feet, joints and calves. Some people with arthritis and joint stiffness have also reported relief with Hyland’s Leg Cramp pills.

Hyland’s does not actually recommend using their leg cramp tablets or pills as a way to prevent leg cramps, but rather, they are meant to relieve the symptoms of a cramped muscle once it starts to spasm. That being said, there are very few people out there who want to purposely wait for a leg cramp to wake them up before popping a pill and waiting for relief.

When I first started getting regular leg cramps I learned that if I paid attention I could detect that my leg muscles were tighter before going to bed on the nights that I often had leg cramps. I was eating high potassium foods and I was doing what I could to avoid leg cramps, including staying hydrated and stretching regularly. But I was still having leg cramps several times a week and it was getting old fast.

So I tried some Hyland’s Leg Cramp tablets out of desperation. The next time I felt my calf muscles grow tense I took one tablet before going to sleep. I did nothing else out of the ordinary, but that first night I never woke up with a muscle cramp. My legs have some close to cramping a few times, but when I recognize the feeling I immediately get up and walk around (stretching the muscle in the process) and go take one Hyland’s Leg Cramp tablet. For me the minimum dosage seems to work just fine. They are non-addictive and non-habit forming, so they’re okay to take as needed.

Many other charlie horse sufferers also rave about the effectiveness of Hyland’s Leg Cramp tablets, so I know I’m not alone in saying that they’ve made a big difference in my life. The tablets don’t expire, have all natural ingredients and they have no known interactions with any other medications or drugs. You may want to speak with your primary care physician before taking Hyland’s Leg Cramp tablets just to be safe. I personally keep several bottles in the house at all times. I usually just order a few bottles online every now and then when I start getting low.

With exercise, a proper diet and Hyland’s Leg Cramp Tablets with Quinine readily available, I’ve been able to be leg cramp free for quite some time now!

Recently NPR featured a story about the increased likelihood of getting painful night time leg cramps as we get older. The chances of suffering from a charley horse rises past the age of 65 and many older people experience them frequently. The story is called Warding Off Muscle Cramps As We Age and you can read or listen to it online. It doesn’t prevent much new information but it does humanize the pain of leg muscle cramping that’s suffered by millions of people every night.

The story follows a gentleman named Ken Holladay as he searched for help relieving his muscle cramps which start out infrequently and eventually become regular occurrences once or twice a night. Mr. Holladay tried several different methods to cure his leg cramps before turning to a doctor who specialized in muscle spasms and cramping, Dr. Yuen So from Stanford University.

Dr. Yuen had just worked on a large study concerning muscle cramps which pretty much proved what we already know: different people seem to have muscle cramps for different reasons and we don’t yet have a complete understanding of how they work or, more specifically, how to best treat them. The article is called Assessment: Symptomatic treatment for muscle cramps (an evidence-based review) and it is currently available online from the American Academy of Neurology.

The story is interesting to read and brings up a lot of good points and common traits that many people with muscle cramps suffer from. Muscles cramp when the muscles and nerve endings wear out, but there’s no single cause of leg muscle cramps that can be easily treated. What works for one person may not work for another, but by combining some leg cramp remedies or talking to a doctor many people should be able to get help.