Have you had severe calf muscle cramps?

Question

I get extremely painful night time cramps in my calf muscles. I know it is not from over exertion or injury. It started a few weeks after my Dr put me on steroids (prednisone) but I'm not sure if that is the cause. It is the most painful thing I have ever experienced and occurs many times every night. Please help me if you have ever had this painful problem and found an answer.

I have done everything mentioned in the answers for weeks already with no help. What I am looking for is how I can eliminate them not what to do when I get them. I have a Dr appointment Monday hopefully to see if it is a side effect from the steroids.

Answer 1

drink Gatorade & eat bananas daily. if this doesn't work, see your doctor for blood tests to rule out a medical condition.

Answer 2

One thing that often helps stop a cramp is to put your foot on the floor and press HARD down on your heel, raising your toes off the floor a bit. After you know what the right amount of pressure feels like, you can sometimes stop a cramp without even sitting up, just by pointing your toes back towards the knee and pushing the heel down on the bed. Do this the moment the cramp starts, and it won't get bad.

To prevent such cramps, take at least 400 iu of NATURAL Vitamin E every day. It will take a few weeks to start working, but I haven't had a leg cramp in years, starting with 2-3 weeks after I started taking the Vitamn E. Before that I had monster cramps pretty often.

Good luck.

Answer 3

You are short on calcium and magnesium. Drink more milk. The old remedy of a glass of warm milk before bed has it's benefits. When you have a leg cramp, no matter how severe, you should curl your foot back toward you. In that position, the muscles will relax faster. It will hurt at first, but ease up quicker. I read that in an article in the Wisc. State Journal and it works.

Answer 4

Years ago I had this problem, and it would wake me up,take my breath away and bring me to tears. As others here have suggested you need to flex your feet, bringing your toes up toward your knees. I also massaged the cramped area firmly. It hurts like hell to do this, but stops the cramping fairly quickly.
A banana before bed time and adequate fluids throughout the day seemed to help, also.
Make sure you let your doctor know you are experiencing this painful situation. He or she may have other suggestions or might possibly need to change the dosage of your meds.
I am so sorry you are going through this and hope it gets better soon!

Answer 5

Yeah. Usually its from when you use them more then your full leg. Somewhat like working out and ur muscles that u haven't used in a while get soar. Steroids, I'm not certain but i am to believe that they make ur calfs hurt more also. Well not exactly hurt more but..the blood flow in ur legs will pump ur calfs blood faster. (If that makes sense) Hope this helps. =D

Answer 6

I have been told that muscle cramps in the leg area come from lack of POTASSIUM. you need to do stretching in the morning - at least 10 minutes of good stretches before you get moving and add some foods with Potassium to your diet such as:

bananas

whole milk (don't over do it)

cantaloupes

potatos

kidney beans

avocados

Answer 7

it could be compartment syndrome. the muscles get too big for the room they take.

or it could be dehydration.
try drinking more fluids first. best way to fix bad cramps normally is to lie down on your back and have someone push your foot towards the front of your leg. really stretches the muscles out