25.04.2024

Cramps in calves

Sometimes a person can feel sudden muscle cramps, which cause severe pain. Some people experience convulsions daily. Home remedies can help cope with this phenomenon.

But in order to prevent the recurrence of seizures, it is important to completely change your lifestyle.

If you have spasms at least once, it’s important to visit a neurologist, as they may indicate a variety of serious and not very serious diseases.

Cramps in the calves have symptoms:

  1. With tonic-clonic spasms, consciousness is suddenly lost, and the pupils become dilated. Cramps last 10 seconds, the skeleton is tense, eyes roll up. Then another 40 seconds, the muscles of the body contract sharply and relax. At the end of the attack, a person falls asleep or feels a short stun. Bloody foam from the mouth, excessive salivation, and bite of the tongue may also appear;
  2. Myoclonic cramps disturb the entire skeleton, muscles of the face or fingers. Most often they suffer from children and adolescents. During an attack, a person may be injured in the fall;
  3. With partial convulsive seizures, a person does not lose consciousness. During such seizures, it reduces the calves of the legs, hands and face. A person feels pain and strong tension in the muscles.

The main causes of seizures:

  1. Lack of vitamin D, magnesium and calcium;
  2. Hypothermia of the legs or the whole body;
  3. Stressful situations;
  4. Getting injured;
  5. Inflammation in the body;
  6. Varicose veins;
  7. Neurological problems;
  8. Thyroid disease;
  9. Diabetes.

In addition to these factors, there are also such reasons for the development of seizures as too much excitement, stressful situations, disruption of electrolyte metabolism.

Having survived the symptoms of seizures, you should immediately consult a doctor to determine the exact causes of this defect in the body.

An experienced specialist will find out why convulsions appear and in a timely manner will prescribe the correct and effective treatment.

Muscle cramps in children

To identify why calf muscle cramps occur in children, it is important to visit a pediatrician. The appearance of seizures is caused by symptoms of a lack of calcium and vitamin D, the development of serious diseases or epilepsy.

Often reduces calves during sleep. In case of seizure, it is necessary to rub the baby’s leg with a warming ointment. The kid should stand on his fingers. Be sure the children’s diet should consist of cottage cheese, hard cheeses, dried apricots, raisins. What to do in the future with repetitions of seizures should tell the doctor. He may also prescribe treatment.

How to act to help yourself

When calves the legs, the question arises, what to do?

First of all, it is important to perform the following activities:

  1. Ignoring the pain, you need to slowly pull the fingers of the clamped leg toward you;
  2. Feel or scratch the stiff muscles and rub the leg with strong movements;
  3. You can also apply a warm mustard plaster to a convulsive spot or direct a hot shower on your foot that your skin can endure.

Having provided first aid to yourself during an attack of spasm of the calf muscle, it is important to call a doctor. The specialist must determine why a convulsion occurred by carefully examining and interviewing the patient.

Night cramps

If at night he brings his legs down, the person becomes scared, and he begins to panic think what to do in such a situation. First you need to calm down! Then try to get up and walk barefoot on the floor. If the spasm persists, you can lower your legs into a bowl of hot water or treat them with warming ointment and put on warm socks. Heat quickly relieves cramp. Additionally, you can drink hot tea or milk. When you go to bed, be sure to place your legs below head level.

Traditional medicine and night cramps

To get rid of night cramps of the calf muscles, you can use the following recipes of alternative medicine:

  1. Thyme infusion can be drunk for 30 days. A tablespoon of herbs should be poured with a glass of boiling water. Insist a couple of hours and strain. Drink 15 grams three times a day;
  2. After a month of taking thyme infusion, you can drink linden tincture. Fill a glass jar with linden flowers and fill it with vodka. Insist 21 days from time to time, shaking. When the tincture is ready, you need to strain and drink a teaspoon twice a day. Before going to bed, you need to drink another 15 grams of infusion;
  3. To rub your feet, you can cook such a warming grind. Combine camphor oil with grated garlic in a ratio of 1: 2. Let it brew for at least ten days. Garlic should be removed, and with the obtained product, if necessary, rub the eggs;
  4. Combine barley (20 grams) with oats (10 grams), peeled acorns (30 grams) and rye (30 grams). Then add chicory root (15 grams) and dandelions (15 grams). The resulting herbal mixture is prepared as natural coffee. Instead of sugar, honey is added to the drink. Tasty and healthy!

To diagnose serious diseases, due to which it reduces the calves of the legs, it is enough to check the pressure and take a blood test. In serious cases, the doctor can prescribe a full examination of all organs, which will accurately tell you why convulsive seizures occur.

Treating seizures

Having determined why gastrocnemius muscle cramps occur, it is important to begin treatment. It is necessary not only to train the calf muscles, but also to eliminate the causes that cause convulsions.

Treatment of calf muscle cramps:

  1. If the cause of seizures is a disturbed mineral metabolism, the treatment will be to change the diet. That is, the patient should eat more foods rich in vitamins and minerals. In serious situations, the doctor is forced to resort to the introduction of special drugs into the body;
  2. If the cause of seizures is varicose veins, it is important to treat the vessels of the venous bed;
  3. If the cause of seizures is epilepsy, anticonvulsant drugs are taken. For example, a doctor may prescribe a course of phenobarbital, phenytoin, valproic acid, or lamotrigine;
  4. If the body does not receive enough oxygen to relieve spasm, you need to saturate the blood with oxygen by inhaling it through a special mask;
  5. If spasms are provoked by malformations of the brain, anticonvulsants are used;
  6. If the patient has suffered due to meningitis, antibacterial therapy is performed to prevent the development of seizures;
  7. To cope with febrile spasms of blood vessels, it is necessary to take an antipyretic agent that will lower high body temperature and normalize breathing;
  8. With dehydration, convulsions are removed due to the infusion of fluid through the veins. It is important to normalize the volume of circulating blood;
  9. In some situations, an experienced specialist in acupuncture relieves acupuncture. During this procedure, all needles must be carefully processed, and the doctor must know how and where to give the needle a shot.

Treatment and prevention of gastrocnemius muscle cramps also include special massages that warm the muscles and increase blood flow in them. To strengthen the muscles of the legs, it is useful to do gymnastics.

If necessary, the doctor may prescribe additionally, take drugs that include calcium and vitamin D.

Preventative measures

To prevent the recurrence of spasms of the calf muscles, it is important to carry out prophylaxis, which consists in the following:

  1. Change your menu. Eat fresh fruits and herbs. To enrich the body with calcium, it is useful to enjoy cottage cheese, cheese, other dairy products, and almonds. To make up for the loss of magnesium, walnuts, legumes and buckwheat are recommended. Potassium can be found in dried fruits, dried apricots, seeds, beets and garlic;
  2. In addition to a proper and balanced diet, you can drink a vitamin-mineral complex;
  3. In order to prevent leg cramps, on the recommendation of a doctor, special exercises are recommended;
  4. To relieve pain and discomfort in the legs, you can resort to massage, which you can do on your own or visit a massage therapist;
  5. Every day it’s good to walk on your heels for a couple of minutes.

Leg cramps are not dangerous. But, if the cramps are repeated systematically, they can signal some serious illness. In this case, why convulsive attacks occur, the doctor must figure it out.

The main thing is to seek the help of experienced specialists in a timely manner in order to alleviate the condition and begin the correct treatment, which will help prevent further convulsive attacks in the future.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *