Have you had a blood test recently, and how were your potassium/calcium/magnesium levels?

I've been dealing with leg cramps for about 3 years now. At this point I'll try anything. Usually happens once or twice a month for a few nights in a row. If my legs get cold during the day I can usually count on cramps at night. Yesterday I was painting and landscaping on a hill area around the deck, sure enough two cramps during the night. I always take black strap molasses before bed. Yes, I do the potassium/magnesium as well. Sometimes for a bad one I will drink pickle juice if it happens when I'm downstairs. If I'm upstairs in bed, forget it, I can't walk down the stairs. They always last 8 minutes. That I can bank on. I will look for the Skinner's salve this weekend as hubby has psoriasis as well and it's always worse in the winter when he's not in the sun/pool. Thanks for sharing.

I developed extremely painful lower leg cramps when I had a d deficiency which made it almost impossible to walk beyond about 15 feet at a time, but I wasn't taking d at the time. My doc tested for d levels and some other tests and my vit d level was borderline severe deficiency. I was told that vitamin d deficiency will cause bilateral muscle pain or cramps. Once my d level got back up though the painful cramps went away so I don't think a few days off the vitamin d would cause this unless your level was already really low which tends to result in symptoms, although you said it was one leg, then the other so not the typical bilateral pain. Have your had your vitamin d levels tested lately with a blood test?

Over recent months I started having cramps and weakness in my arms as well as general fatigue which sort of felt like vit d deficiency again. I got tested and was told my level is so low it isn't even showing up on the test, even though I suspected my vit d level was low again, I didn't get the extreme pain in my lower legs this time so was surprised to find out it was even lower this time. I'm now waiting on the compounding pharmacy to make up some high dose vit d for me to try to hopefully keep my levels a bit more stable. The only way to really know if your d levels are low or dropping is to get tested. (it's done quite routinely by many docs now since it is becoming a bit of an epidemic.)

I get leg cramps when I don't drink enough. So, for me, the remedy is drink more water. Might try that?

You can buy magnesium lotion to rub on, similar to soaking in Epsom salts, it's absorbed through the skin. I got it in the pharmacy section at Walmart with the other rubs.

Be careful with the "Dr. Oz said ______." A lot of his so-called remedies and things he promotes have been scientifically disputed.

Yes, please get your levels checked but in the meantime, keep a bottle of yellow mustard with a small spoon by you bed. Just 1/4 tsp. swallowed after the start of a cramp should do the trick. My mother has been using this for years and it works almost every time. Google it too.

I only seem to get leg cramps at night after working 2 or more 12 hour shifts in a row. It finally dawned on me that I was dehydrated. So, no matter how busy I am I try and run into the breakroom for water throughout the day.

I used the bar of soap in the bed for years, but after 15 years, it didn't help any more and I make sure to keep hydrated and take Vitamin D. My Dr. started me on a regime of .125 mg of Pramipexole 3 hours before bedtime and it has stopped the leg cramps finally.

I have never heard of a bar of soap used for muscle cramps. What is this supposed to do or is it an old wives tale?

Look it up on GOOGLE RLS and bar of soap. I first hear of it with Dr. Gott in our local newspaper - Used it and it worked for over 20 years - Maybe an old wive's tale, but it worked...

snidely is 100% correct. More water, eat bananas, and get checked!

I don't often get a cramp, if I do it may be calf, or foot. If I laid down with it, I'd be in big trouble ;), if it happens in bed I have to get up. Walking it off usually works.

I'd walked from bedroom to my office in the middle of the night about three times a few months ago, cramp was not completely gone (and that's 90 steps each way). A friend had told me he used pickle juice, the pickling liquid from the jar. It sounded so silly to me, I had looked it up and actually found a couple of studies and notes where a college athletic program used it. I took a couple of swallows from the pickle jar! The cramp left. I couldn't tell you if it was coincidence or helped.

I have suffered from terrible cramps, and my husband came across the best remedy. It is a product called Essential Electrolytes by Nutribiotics. I have no association with the company except to say it works. I order it online. It is in capsules, and it isn't terribly expensive. My 87 year old mother swears by it as well. She takes it every day. I take it when I get chilled or overheated. That is when I tend to have more cramps.

I've noticed a connection between eating too much salt, being dehydrated, and cramps. If I get a cramp a couple of glasses of water and walking around a bit usually works. An old remedy is quinine--keeping a bottle of club soda in the fridge.

Quinine in club soda?

Dh get cramps especially after playing tennis in our Florida heat. He has started taking Magnesium tablet before playing and will drink Tonic water that has Quinine in it after he gets home, plus he drinks Sports Drinks while playing. I take a Potassium pill daily as I get cramps in my fingers more than anywhere else.

the bar of soap has worked for years for me for cramps at night. After a while you have to put a new bar under the mattress or sheet. Or I just shave the outer layer off and put it back. There has been studies done on it and there is a reason it could work. I don't care if other people don't believe it. It works for me and that's all that counts.

Studies regarding soap to treat cramps? I thought it was an old wives' tale and like most of those, just bunk. Please cite an article, saying "there have been studies" isn't helpful.

Agree, no quinine in club soda. Tonic water? Different story, but that's not safe to drink plain. It's much better with Bombay Sapphire gin and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

Sorry meant tonic water for the quinine!

Yes, tonic water has quinine. NOT the same as club soda. Whew. I mean, ICK! I have accidentally taken a sip of mom's tonic and boy it's awful.

Nothing better than a gin and tonic on a hot summer day.

Having conducted a serious and intensive investigation over many years, I can report that a gin and tonic can be as refreshing in cold or moderate weather as on a hot summer day.

WITH a slice of lime... :)

I thought maybe the bar of soap was for if you wet the bed it cleans it for you.

I did a search and can find no evidence to say it works for cramps, but the same admittedly cursory search can't find anything to debunk it either. I don't see any double blind studies on it. Snopes says it's "undetermined" but they also say some things that make me lose credibility for them on this one. Placebo effect can be powerful. But placebo or not, if it gives people relief, more power to them.

What bothers me is supporters don't say a particular type of soap or offer conjecture on why it works. Granny's lye soap, Ivory (that floats if there is that nighttime accident!) or dollar store generic apparently work equally well? Leg cramps are something that come and go. They are compounded by spending more time than usual on your feet or exercising those muscles seldom used so common sense tells us that it's not going to be a daily occurrence so people who say the soap stops it, well it might stop it the 364 days a year that you don't get the cramps but the one day it doesn't stop them is the day you're working outside or on your feet extra long breaking in new shoes. I'm also troubled with putting it under the mattress. If it was strapped to the leg, sitting next to it, laying the leg on it, I guess I could get myself to be less skeptical but with it under the mattress allegedly working, why wouldn't it work laying on the nightstand or in the drawer, or under the bed. Things need to make sense to me and this doesn't. If I knew someone using this therapy I'd like to try substituting a block of wood and see how that works. Or maybe like one suggested, the lump in your back makes you forget about leg cramps. I don't know, it's a curious thing. I just have problems with it. But again, if it "works", more power to ya.

BTW, many claim it must be closer instead of under a mattress. Some say you have to "rejuvenate" the soap by scraping it or replacing it. There's one hypothesis I have for something like this working. Stench. Most soaps have smell to them. Smell is often a relaxing thing for people, especially women. I wonder if a potpourri would have the same or better effect on the treatment. Dried soap wouldn't smell as much while scraping it would release more smell. I could find this to have some credibility. Who is up for trying it?

And there's always Granny's "Shoo Flu Brew". Drink a cup or two of it. You might still have the cramps but you won't care one bit.

Seriously though, how about heat therapy? Or the many proven helpers to the causes? Might do more good.

I can't say anything except it worked for me for years. Say it's all in my mind - say whatever - it worked for me... Here's the answer Dr. Gott when he asked for others to respond to this.. http://amarillo.com/stories/2004/03/01/hea_drgott.shtml#.VjvGCLldGtg I don't need to prove it to anyone - I know it worked for me...

grandma_bonnie, I'm not asking you to prove anything but then again, you did say it no longer works. Any idea what would have changed? In any case, glad to hear the medication has taken care of the problem.

Aren't muscle craps usually from potassium deficiency? A lot of people swear by drinking vinegar like pickle juice, not sure why that works but it does.

Your link, grandma bonnie, is to a syndicated newspaper feature. The details come from a reader's letter (which as you know in such cases may or may not be so), to which he responds to the effect of "Thanks for your letter, I've gotten other similar ones". He goes on to say that there's no explanation for how it works, which I think no self respecting doctor would accept as the last word on a treatment. Unless that's his code for saying it's a placebo effect.

If you consider that advice from a physician, great. Not unlike the stuff people accept from Dr. Oz.

Hey Cynic - No problem. I know it worked for 15-20 years but I'm now 70 and think it might be a deficiency of some sort... My doctor has prescribed a medication for Parkinson's Disease for me and it works - I take 0.125 mg of Pramipexole 2-3 hours before bedtime. I'm not sure how or why the soap worked for so long and then stopped , but I know it worked for me. Call it what you will - it worked.

The People's Pharmacy has suggested a hypothesis:

Hmm, I don't know how to post a link. Any suggestions?

It's here sjerin....

hypothesis

Do you use the bar of soap to massage he cramping extremity with? I ask because I have a wooden roller thing that I use when I get cramps in the arch of my foot. I place it on the floor and massage my arch with it. It's a mechanical therapy that helps. Is the soap used like that?

PK, it doesn't look like that, it looks like the bar is slipped into the bed under the bottom sheet and left there. The Peoples Pharmacy website that I looked at a while ago even sells flat, small bars of soap in multi bar boxes expressly for that purpose on their marketplace. Flat and small I assume so you are not sleeping on a lump, like the princess and the pea ;)

Here's the pickle juice explanation. I buy it.

"Pickle juice is basically acetic acid (vinegar) and water with a bit of salt (sodium chloride) to give it some flavor. All muscle cells, like the heart, use sodium (Na) to close or contract the cell, and potassium (K) to relax the cell. Calcium (Ca) starts the closing process with Na doing the actual closing; magnesium (Mg) starts the reverse side of the pump—relaxing. Potassium (K) is the key element responsible for managing the relaxing process within the cell. In order for the human body to function properly under physical stress, all 4 of the mineral electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium) are absolutely required. If they are not replaced, you wind up with a cramp, or arrhythmia. Both are alleviated with K and Mg if you can catch it in time. Prolonged effects of improper replenishment can result in serious injury or death."

Arrhythmia=Why you should get seen if you have muscle cramps! It's not to be played with. Muscle cramps can be an indication of serious health issues.

Eh, rob, with the kind of diets most people have, few have sodium deficiencies. Those with a reasonable diet get adequate magnesium and too potassium from bananas. A drink of pickle juice isn't going to be absorbed so quickly as to provide noticeable relief.

The "article" morz8 references, written by a person with no health science qualifications, cites himself as a source in the footnotes. Funny enough, the first sentence references "anecdotal evidence" as part of the basis of his view. In science circles, the term "anecdotal evidence" means invalid evidence because of coming from inadequate, uncontrolled or unreliable sources. The guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

The People Pharmacy is a show for entertainment that dispenses hearsay and bogus advice, not valid health information. As I said before, follow it as you would Dr. Oz.

Scoff about it if you like but I've seen it work and pretty much immediately. What's the beef with Dr. Oz, do you really believe you know more than a physician? LMAO!

Snidely, don't shoot the messenger. Sjerin asked how to provide the link, I did that. I have no reason to recommend soap or not recommend it, unlike my Mom, cramps aren't a problem for me other than very occasionally.

The author said 'hypothesis'.

Hypothesis: proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence

Rob, that's one explanation of the pickle juice theory, but several others suggest as quickly as it appears to work in those who finds it helps them with a cramp, there hasn't been time for the salt, vinegar to leave the stomach and do anything at all to blood levels. It could have more to do with muscle fatigue than dehydration, and the way the cramp loosens almost immediately could be more a nervous system receptor type event. That would indicate to me its more for the type cramp that is induced by exercise or work.

I didn't intend any comment in your direction, morz8. Sorry if misunderstood.

His first sentence suggests that he finds the anecdotal evidence to be conclusive. It's an oxymoronic, self-contradictory comment, unrealized by the writer.

"There is far too much anecdotal evidence to dispute the fact that soap at the bottom of the bed can relieve nocturnal leg cramps"

To say that evidence is anecdotal means that there isn't any evidence.

I remember my Grandmother would be hollering in pain from a leg cramp and would get someone to hurry and get her some pickle juice and it would take the cramp away almost instantly. Maybe it was just all in her head? Maybe she was playing us for fools and was a great actress? I don't think so!

Nonetheless, cramps can be an indication of health problems, not to be scoffed at or brushed off with soap, pickle juice, or Dr. Oz. A real, in person physician visit is in order to make certain.

Thank you, Morz8. I'm going to have to post separately to ask how to include a link on Houzz.

My mother has used mustard hundreds of times over the years and in all but the very worst leg cramps, it has taken away the cramp. Snidely, I can see you find only foolishness in anecdotal anything. For years there was only "anecdotal evidence" that statins can cause leg pain in some people, (naturally the pharm companies would prefer not to admit this,) and now most doctors agree this is so.

Concerning the soap under the bed sheet, someone asked what is the theory behind it, and I posted one HYPOTHESIS.

sjerin, sorry, I was a little busy yesterday and didn't include the 'how' with the link.

If you will go to the http:// at the top of the page containing your article, click that URL and highlight it, then use Ctrl + C, pressing both at the same time - or whatever alternative step you take to copy on your personal device.

Below the box where you are typing your comment here, there is a photo of two links (a chain) and the word 'link'. Click there and a box appears. You can type in whatever words you would like to be displayed for your link, & use Ctrl + V into the box below. It's that simple, your text will appear in green and be a live link in your comment box when you submit.

The Ctrl C and Ctrl V are shortcuts to copy and paste highlighted addresses or text, of course you can use whichever method to copy paste you are comfortable with.

"Those with a reasonable diet get adequate magnesium" sort of circular, if you don't get enough magnesium you are not eating a reasonable diet? In any case, many people get less than adequate magnesium.

How nice of you to give me the tutorial, Morz8! I was just speaking to everyone and really ought to have asked on a post, so sorry if you thought I was asking you to help me. :) But I sure do appreciate the directions and will give them a try.

You're lacking electrolytes. Add magnesium (I use magnesium bis-glycinate 200 that I find in a health food store) and potassium. Also up the amount of water you drink. Being dehydrated can also cause that. With the way I eat, I always add these three items to my list of what I need every day, and it keeps the muscle cramps at baby.

" rob, with the kind of diets most people have, few have sodium
deficiencies. Those with a reasonable diet get adequate magnesium and
too potassium from bananas."

It's not always that cut and dried sometimes. I ended up with totally messed up electrolytes and really lowsodium levels from a blood pressure med I was taking. My doc only tested my electrolytes because I started noticing I was constantly drinking heaps of water, peeing heaps and felt like I was dehydrated throughout the day.

When people sweat heavily and frequently in hot climates or working outdoors in the heat it can also affect their sodium and other electrolytes. I've also found in the past there have been periods where I get annoying muscle tics. For years I put up with them but eventually found taking a magnesium supplement seems to resolve it. Bananas are a good source of potassium and magnesium but some people (like me) can't eat them so sometimes we do need extra from other sources, and lifestyle or climate can affect our individual need for higher/lesser amounts.