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Muscle cramps, causes and prevention
Posted on: 01/Jul/2019 3:22:37 PM
What is a muscle cramp?
Muscle cramp is the occurrence of contraction in your muscles. This happens all of a sudden and is an involuntary happening. There are cases when you suddenly wake up at the night or simply stop wearing your pant due to sudden incidence of muscle cramps. This is basically harmless and happens temporarily. The problem lies with the difficulty in using certain muscles for specific time period.
Most commonly, such muscle cramps are caused as a result of severe exercising or extreme physical works, especially in hot weather conditions. There are also a few medicines and medical conditions that may lead to muscle cramps. Worry not, these muscle cramps can be easily treated right at your home by practicing a few self-care measures.
What are the symptoms of muscle cramps?
Muscle cramps usually occur in the leg muscles and that too in the calf muscles mostly. During muscle cramp, you will experience very sharp pain and there may also be hard muscle tissue seen underneath the skin.
Generally these muscle cramps go off on their own and does not need medications. In rare cases, when the cramps are persistent for prolonged period, it may require medical care.
In case the cramps causes very heavy discomfort or if you experience swelling of legs or changes in skin color in the area affected, experience extreme muscle weakness, or when muscle cramps happen very often, you may have to visit the doctor for consultation and treatment.
Why do muscle cramps occur?
Some of the most common causes of muscle cramps are excessive dehydration of body, excessive use of specific muscles, legs being kept in the same position for long period of time, etc. A lot of times, the reason for muscle cramps is generally not known.
Though being harmless, muscle cramps may also be associated with some medical conditions like
Insufficient blood supply : when the arteries carrying blood to the legs are narrowed down, it may cause pain like muscle cramps. This will be felt around legs and feet especially during your workout hours. Once you stop your exercising practice, these cramps will go off.
Compressed nerves : when your spine area experiences nerve compression, it may give rise to muscle cramps in the legs. With walking, this pain will increase. At such times, it is recommended that you walk with your legs fixed in the same position without letting any kind of contraction in the muscles. This will help in alleviating pain.
Depletion of minerals : when your body lacks in having enough potassium, calcium or magnesium m content in your food intake, it may lead to leg cramps. This may also be caused due to diuretics which is a medicine for high BP is usually given. This usually has the tendency of depleting minerals.
Some of the risk factors of muscle cramps
There are a few factors that give rise to the increased risk of muscle cramps. This includes
Age : with age, our body tends to lose its muscle mass. Hence, with prolonged stress on the muscle, it will lead to muscle cramps.
Dehydration in body : muscle cramps will be developed in athletes who tend to get dehydrated and experience fatigue as they undergo warm weather sports very often
Pregnancy induced cramps : muscle cramps is very commonly observed during the course of pregnancy
Other kinds of medication conditions such as diabetes or liver disorders or nerve issues or thyroid problems may also give rise to muscle cramps.
How to prevent muscle cramps?
You may practice a few simple steps in order to prevent muscle cramps. Here are they :
Keep your body well hydrated : take a lot of liquid intake every day. The total required amount of liquid intake depends on several factors like your age, gender, activity level, work nature, health condition, whether you are under medications, etc. As you keep your body well hydrated, it will aid the muscles in contraction and relaxation.
Stretch your body very often : when you use your body muscle for longer period, go on and stretch it for a few minutes. In case you develop muscle cramps very often at night, try to stretch your legs before your bedtime. You can practice stationary bicycle drive as a routine practice before bedtime. It also helps relieve cramps that occur while you are asleep.
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