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Exercise & Nutrition

Leg cramps or pains?

betty_the_villages

18 years ago

Has anyone had any leg cramps at night? I have had them now for almost a week. I go to bed and sleep 4 hours and wake up with terrible leg pains or cramps. I have to get out of bed and walk through the house. When I come back to bed they start hurting again. Last night after I got up once I propped two pillows at the bottom of the bed and ellivated my legs. I got some relief, but no sleep. I take lots of Calcium every day and Fosamax once a week. Could I need Potassium or some other vitamen or mineral?

God Bless!

Betty in Florida

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Comments (4)

tonylyn
18 years ago
Betty I take lots of calcium and was getting leg cramps, my pharmacist told me to take magnesium with the calcium and the leg cramps have stopped.

If you do a google search it will tell you what ratio is best.

Tonylyn
maggie_berry
18 years ago
Betty, please consider going to a doctor. It is so scary to go to the doctor when you have real symptoms. I don't know why it easier to go to the doctor when we have a cold and know we will be ok then it is to go when we could have anything. I lived with shoulder pain for years. finally I decided I really needed to lift my arm to eat. Turns out it was a rotor cuff injury that required surgery. I decided on therapy for the pain before surgury. (All my friends had decided it was a pinch nerve in the neck. So, I was waiting for the neck to heel.) Your leg cramps are hurting you. Be good to yourself and get it checked out.Maggie
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Nexium, as well as the over the counter Prilosec, reduce stomach acid production which inhibits the absorption of certain electrolytes, minerals, and vitamins. They can work so well on stomach acid that you may end up with a slightly different problem. In particular, magnesium is not absorbed well in a low acid environment. If you don't get enough dietary magnesium, then your body will pull it from your muscles and bones. Sometimes, supplementing with calcium can actually further upset the balance because your body has a ratio of calcium to magnesium in the blood (I want to say it's 8:1, but can't remember for sure), so, if you add a bunch of calcium, you essentially further "decrease" the amount of magnesium available. One way to help differentiate the type of imbalance is with the type of cramp - if your toes point in, your ankle locks, and the muscle on the top, outside of your shin hardens, then it is may be an extensor plantar reflex, associated with low magnesium. You may be describing tetany - usually caused by low magnesium or calcium. You can ask your doc about it, but they are generally not very familiar - try looking online some more. Also, it is uncommon for doctors to test for low magnesium as the test is not standard, expensive for the proper one, etc. You can try wikipedia too, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypomagnesia. I fought that problem for a long time, in part because of a copper IUD (copper inhibits magnesium absorption too). Hope that helps!
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shaun
18 years ago
Betty you need magnesium not calcium!
betty_the_villages
Original Author
18 years ago
I went to the doctor's and he missed checking my blood sugar. As I went out the door I turned back and ask him...he just sit down and wrote me an order to go for a 2 hour blood check for my sugar. I went and waited the rest of the day to hear and heard nothing from it. That night I got weak and my lower jaw started jerking and I could not talk. My husband took me to the ER early that next morning and found out it was my sugar that was way up. Later I found out that it was over 700.
So always remember if you have leg cramps and dry mouth and thirsty all the time...it is your sugar level being high. I was in the hospital for 11 days. I was so sick. I was tested for everything to make sure no organs were harmed. All the tests came out negative. PTL. I am weak and do not know anything much about sugar Diabetes. That's what I have now :-(. Thank heavens I am signed up for Home Health care for a week. I do not have to be on Insulin. Just pills. But, I don't know how to select my diet. I do not eat anything sweet anymore.
Thank all of you for all your replies.
God Bless!
Betty in Florida

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