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.