By : Komal Thakur (B.Pharm, Diploma in Naturopathy, Specialist in Clinical Dietetics)

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Do your leg muscles cramp often?

A woman in her 50s, who was perfectly healthy and with no health issues, had a severe leg cramp out of nowhere. She was quite active in her day to day life. She was an analytical scientist by profession so long hours of standing in the laboratory was a norm for her and she had been doing it since almost 20 years. Her daily routine involved, driving back and forth to work, sitting for about 5 hours in her day and moving around or standing in the laboratory for 3-4 hours every day. One day when she was driving back home, her leg cramped while driving her car and she lost control of the car. The leg crap was so bad that she had to somehow manage to come to a hard stop middle of the road while being able to move just one leg. Although nothing severe happened, this sudden cramp put her in quite a dangerous situation. She could not move her leg at all, it was too painful for her. To top this situation, she was in the car alone, with a few cars behind her honking, of course. She had to sit in her car, helpless for about 5 minutes while the cramp subsided and she could drive back home. She was too freaked out about driving back but she had to. Later it was diagnosed that she had some calcium deficiencies and also her standing for hours at a stretch may have caused it.

Leg muscles cramping can be quite a disastrous situation to be in. In our day to day lives we experience it almost few times a month and that is without an underlying medical condition or deficiencies. Can you imagine how severe can cramps get for people with an underlying deficiency or a medical condition? The worst part is that it can happen anytime, as if it’s a great big surprise, so unpredictable. The cramps that we experience when we sit in a same position for a long time, are very mild craps. The cramps that occur all of a sudden without any apparent reason are severely painful. There are quite a few reasons why these cramps occur. Some of them being:

Potassium , calcium or vitamin D deficiency

Protein deficiency

Lack of movement for a long time

Lack of exercise

Dehydration

Varicose veins

Nerve compression

Excessive leg movements

Menstruation

Mineral depletion

Pregnancy

A pinched nerve in the neck or back, etc.

First let’s see what we can do to stop the cramp while it’s happening.

Try to move the toes as much as you can

Press your leg or massage the calf gently to loosen up the muscle

If the cramp is very severe immediately apply heat to the calf muscle

Drink a glass of water immediately

If you realize that the cramp is because of lack of movement and not severe it can be taken care of easily by just paying attention to your hydration, i.e. try and drink almost 2 liters of water every day, this certainly helps a great deal. However, if your leg muscles cramp often and anytime it’s time to get a health check done. If you observe the severity increasing, it’s good to pay attention to your everyday activities and supplementation.

Start walking for at least 45 minutes every day

In office, avoid sitting in your chair for more than an hour at a stretch, keep walking around for 5 ten minutes every hour

If your job involves standing for long hours, take a break to sit for 5 minutes every hour, or just keep moving around. Standing for long hours limits the blood circulation and gets the leg nerves and muscles overworked, which is not good in the long run

Boost your calcium, potassium and vitamin D levels

Keep a check on your protein levels

Some foods that help in maintaining potassium, calcium and protein are bananas, papayas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, chicken, broccoli, clams, cashews, etc.

You can start consuming one banana every single day and you will see a definitive improvement in the severity of your cramps

If it’s too hectic for you to focus on what you can eat to balance out these nutrients in your body, you can choose to add a booster supplement to your every day diet. GRD powder and GRD Bix have a healthy dose of all the essential vitamins and minerals along with superior protein to keep your health in check. They have sufficient amounts of Calcium and Vitamin D, along with all the necessary vitamins like A, B group, C, D, E and K along with a healthy dose of Iron, Folic acid, Iodine, selenium and Zinc, all of which are essential for your nerve and muscle health. With this you will never have to worry about these sudden cramps and the unnecessary pain that comes with them.

We often tend to ignore these small signs like cramping that our body shows us and asks us to pay closer attention to our health, by doing this we will be able to avoid bigger problems that may occur in future.  Prevention is always the best step towards health restoration.