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

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!

Well, I have to question the placebo effect. My DH has terrible restless leg syndrome, and often leg cramps at night. I didn't tell him, but I put the bar of soap -Irish Spring- under the fitted sheet. It had no effect at all. I tested this, as we were keeping a journal for the doctor, for two months. We were keeping track of the cramps and symptoms nightly. Soap or no soap, no difference. Bars of soap in the sheets can't hurt you in any way, but belief is a powerful medication, so if you believe, maybe it will help. It didn't help my DH at all. And that's why I didn't tell him to start with. I wanted to know without the placebo effect. Potassium has worked wonders, in the form of a banana a day.

I agree keep hydrated and eat a banana. If I eat the wrong food like something starchy I get terrible cramps and then migraines totally Associated for me with a magnesium deficiency. The last one I got 3 days ago was so bad that it looked like something had gouged part of my leg out of my side of my calf. It was completely caved in and hard as a rock. It took 20 minutes for that one to go away even though I applied what usually helps me which is a poultice of Epsom salts. :/ I had eaten yams instead of sweet potatoes the day before. Sweet potatoes help yams hurt. They are very filling though. I can eat it usually in small amounts. I'll have to try pickle juice and the homeopathic cramp treatment. Avocados don't help me and I really get tired of bananas. Because of my kidney problems I can't take excess magnesium as it causes me to have a kidney reaction.