Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (2024)

30 September 2015

by: Sara Ding

in Green Juice Recipes, Juice By Ailments, Juice Recipes

Last updated on

Is there anything more painful than a muscle cramp in the middle of the night? Leg cramps, often called Charlie horses, seem to strike when you are most relaxed and your body is healing. Find out here, how you can prevent night-time leg cramps with a simple juice combo.

If you can get your leg to stretch out and relax, you can get a cramp to pass quickly. However, you may find it less painful to simply prevent leg cramps in the first place by making sure that you get sufficient potassium and magnesium from your diet.

Causes Of Night-Time Leg Cramps

Muscle cramps are an area of great mystery in sports medicine. Although more is discovered about them every day, it can be difficult for researchers to figure out why some people suffer cramps every day, while others never do.

Dehydration is one of the causes of muscle cramps. If you do not get enough water during the day, your muscles cannot have the water they need to heal and rebuild. With dehydration often comes an electrolyte imbalance, which means that your body doesn’t get the potassium, sodium, and magnesium it needs.

Muscle fatigue is another cause of cramps. If you exercise heavily or often, your muscles may hit their fatigue point, causing cramps throughout the next 24 hours.

Boosting Your Potassium-Magnesium Levels

Keeping your potassium and magnesium level stable is one of the best things you can do to avoid muscle cramps. Potassium and magnesium are the most prominent electrolyte found in your body, especially in muscle cells. Like sodium, it maintains homeostasis within the body.

When your potassium levels get too low, you may suffer low blood—potassium concentration. This often leads to weakness and muscle cramps. Your potassium levels may crash if you sweat a lot or drink insufficient amount of water.

Prevent Night-Time Leg Cramps
With This High Potassium-Magnesium Juice Recipe

Clearly, keeping your potassium and magnesium levels up is the key to avoiding muscle cramps. Drinking fresh juices high inpotassium can naturally boost your levels.

Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (1)

Juice Recipe:

To make this recipe, simply put the following items through your juicer:

  • ½ bunchof spinach or kale
  • A handful of beet greens (beetroot works too!)
  • 1 fennel
  • 1 green apple
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 lime

This juicecomboisnaturally rich in both potassium and magnesium, and the added green applemakes this juice delicious. If you know that you’ll be having a physically demanding day, start your morning with this juice for a healthy minerals level.

This juicerecipe helps your body maintain its electrolyte balance even through intense exercise or heat. Once your potassium and magnesium levels are stable, you mayenjoy a full night sleep without muscle cramps.

Supplementing With Magnesium—Natural Calm

Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (2)If you are not able to make your own juices for whatever reason, an easy alternative to reduce and prevent night-time leg cramps is to supplement with magnesium.

Natural Calm(magnesium citrate) comes highly recommended by Dr Carolyn Dean, author of The Magnesium Miracle.

It helps supply sufficient magnesium levels to your body to not only prevent muscle cramps but also to meet many other enzymatic activity needs. It is also a great solution to RLS (restless leg syndrome).

Reference:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mus.20341/pdf

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Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (3)

About Sara Ding

Sara Ding is the founder of Juicing-for-Health.com. She is a certified Wellness Health Coach, Nutritional Consultant and a Detox Specialist. She helps busy men and women identify their health issues at the root cause, in order to eliminate the problems for optimum physical/mental health and wellbeing.

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Comments

  1. Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (4)

    Lisa Hill

    Yeah a low potassium diet can cause leg cramps, But I also used magnesium supplements to treat my spasms and I used the supplement drank in water. It really proved good for me and the spasms stopped after I started taking the supplement.

    Reply

  2. Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (5)

    Joyce

    Yes, as soon as I started a magnesium supplement my legs stopped cramping at night. I take 400 mg twice daily.

    Reply

  3. Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (6)

    Linda van der Merwe

    please help im struggling vir my hormones low estrogen levels no energy tired.
    My husband leg cramps highbblood and cholestrol.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

Why You Have Night-Time Leg Cramps And How To STOP It From Recurring With This ONE Recipe!? ›

Apply heat: Use a heating pad or take a warm bath. Apply cold: Wrap a bag of ice in a towel and apply it to the area. Take pain medications: Take ibuprofen or acetaminophen to help with the pain. Elevate: Prop up your leg after the cramp starts to feel better.

What is the best thing to stop leg cramps at night? ›

Apply heat: Use a heating pad or take a warm bath. Apply cold: Wrap a bag of ice in a towel and apply it to the area. Take pain medications: Take ibuprofen or acetaminophen to help with the pain. Elevate: Prop up your leg after the cramp starts to feel better.

What can I drink before bed to prevent leg cramps? ›

It's been suggested that drinking 2 to 3 ounces of tonic water before bedtime can prevent leg cramps at night.

What are you lacking if you get leg cramps at night? ›

Dehydration (when the body doesn't have enough water and other fluids to work as it should)

What drink stops leg cramps? ›

Theories include dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, and muscle fatigue. Some drinks can stop leg cramps when they start. These drinks include electrolyte drinks, coconut water, and pickle juice.

What is the best natural remedy for leg cramps? ›

If you have a cramp, these actions might help:
  • Stretch and massage. Stretch the cramped muscle and gently rub it. For a calf cramp, keep the leg straight while pulling the top of your foot on the side that's cramped toward your face. ...
  • Apply heat or cold. Use a warm towel or heating pad on tense or tight muscles.
Mar 7, 2023

What foods trigger leg cramps? ›

Avoid processed foods, added sugar, salt, fatty meats, and alcohol. Essentially, you want a heart-healthy diet low in fat and rich in healthy carbohydrates, fiber, and lean proteins.

Do bananas help leg cramps? ›

Bananas: A Time-Tested Treatment

You probably know that bananas are a good source of potassium. But they'll also give you magnesium and calcium. That's three out of four nutrients you need to ease muscle cramps tucked under that yellow peel. No wonder bananas are a popular, quick choice for cramp relief.

What is the best vitamin to prevent leg cramps? ›

A potential cause of leg cramps is a vitamin deficiency, though research into this is ongoing. Vitamins B1, B12, and D may help relieve them, along with potassium and magnesium. This article discusses whether vitamin deficiencies can cause leg cramps, home and medical treatment, and when a person should see a doctor.

What do nightly leg cramps mean? ›

In most cases, nocturnal leg cramps are idiopathic, which means their exact cause isn't known. Nighttime leg cramps may be related to foot position. We often sleep with our feet and toes extending away from the rest of our bodies, a position called plantar flexion.

How to reduce leg pain immediately? ›

If you suddenly develop pain from an injury, use the RICER method: Rest: avoid moving your leg. Ice: put an icepack or bag of frozen peas on the sore area for 15-20 minutes at a time. Make sure to protect your skin by wrapping them in a cloth or towel.

Does lack of salt cause cramps? ›

In severe cases, low sodium levels in the body can lead to muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Eventually, lack of salt can lead to shock, coma and death. Severe salt loss is very unlikely to happen because our diets contain more than enough salt.

What is the best over-the-counter medicine for leg cramps? ›

Muscle relaxers can only be prescribed by a doctor. However, muscle pain can also be alleviated by some over-the-counter (OTC) pain medications. Examples include acetaminophen (Tylenol) or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve).

What is the fastest way to stop leg cramps? ›

When a leg cramp strikes, there are several techniques you can try to alleviate the pain and stop the cramp immediately. These include stretching the affected muscle, massaging the area, applying heat or cold, using over-the-counter pain relief medications, or using a topical muscle relaxant.

What can I drink to not cramp? ›

"This indicates that muscles become more prone to cramp by drinking plain water, but more immune to muscle cramp by drinking the electrolyte water." Electrolytes are minerals including sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride. They are essential for muscle health and help the body to absorb water.

Does vinegar stop leg cramps? ›

Leg cramps: ACV is one of the most renowned and effective remedies for healing leg cramps that are due to dehydration, low potassium levels, and overused or stressed muscles. Used as both a preventive and a curative, ACV has been helpful to hundreds of people. Take 1 to 2 tablespoons in ¼ cup warm water daily.

What vitamin helps leg cramps at night? ›

Nocturnal Leg Cramps (NLCs) are a common musculoskeletal disorder in the general population, but effective and safe interventions have not been established. Our previous study has shown vitamin K2 was effective to reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of dialysis-related muscle cramps with a good safety profile.

What are nighttime leg cramps a symptom of? ›

Nocturnal leg cramps are associated with vascular disease, lumbar canal stenosis, cirrhosis, hemodialysis, pregnancy, and other medical conditions. Medications that are strongly associated with leg cramps include intravenous iron sucrose, conjugated estrogens, raloxifene, naproxen, and teriparatide.

Why does vinegar stop leg cramps? ›

Acetic acid is postulated to mitigate cramping by decreasing alpha motor neuron activity through oropharyngeal stimulation and inhibitory neurotransmitter production, while aiding in the role acetylcholine plays in muscle contraction and relaxation.

References

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