Charlie Horses (A brief article I did on the dukan diet friends fb page)
I wanted to touch base on charlie horses because I get these and they are nasty! I just started the Dukan diet and this morning I was jolted awake with a cramp playing havoc in my left calf muscle. So I knew that this could happen and was a bit worried about it so I went out on line today to see what I could find to address this issue. Mostly I found info on low carb forums.
Because of diet changes leg cramps can be one of the biggest complaints.. Since dehydration and potassium being low this can cause a charlie horse. Drinking water and eating foods with potassium can sometimes help to make them go away. Some take vitamins for this but that can take a few days to get into your system. One quick fix is to use lite salt. Morton Lite Salt is loaded with potassium.. If you are experiencing charlie horses take 1/4 teaspoon (350 mg of Potassium) mixed in a glass of water and down it. Then start using it on your food. It should help get rid of them... also.. some feel that taking magnesium helps keep them at bay as well.
Another suggestion was to eat a couple of spoonfuls of yellow mustard or add No Salt to your water.
When this happens, stay in bed. You don't have to stand up to get rid of the cramp. Just push your heel toward the end of the bed, and pull your toes toward your shin. The cramp should
release almost immediately.
Also, you may not be getting enough calcium. A few Tums will stop leg cramps.
Some people swear by drinking vinegar with water before bedtime.
its most likely is a dificiency of potassium you can take morton lite salt or potassium gluconate pills I tend to take 2 pills in the am and I use the lite salt in place of every day salt.
Now This one is an odd one:
To alleviate the pain in seconds, grab a bighunk of your upper lip and squeeze. Keep it squeezed, hard, until the pain stops. Usually a few seconds. I knew it would raise an eyebrow or two in the group. I received that same advice from a VietNam vet. Whe they were cold, starving and shoved into a foxhole, they easily developed cramps. Squeezing their lip is part of an acupressure relief I believe. Regardless, I've used it many times over the past 25 years!
Still I haven't be able to find anything to connect these leg cramps to how I ate yesterday... I did not eat as much salt yesterday as I have in the past and combine that with no fruits veggies and cheese and perhaps that has tipped the scales towards having these cramps. I did have 2 liters of water and walked 20 mins around Target so maybe that also influenced these cramps. So tell me do you all get charlie horses? If so what do you do to help make them go away?
Oh and for those of you who want to know what I've done for it, my partner rubbed my calf until it half relaxed then covered my lower leg with a blanket to help it keep warm. When I got up it was really hard to walk on it so I have been stretching it out as much as I can. I hope to go pick up some No Salt or Low Salt this afternoon. I did try the lip thing and it did help relieve the pain a little but as I have fibromyalgia and my body is already overloaded with pain it didn't really help me much. In the mean time I'm going to go try the mustard and hope that it helps!
Once off PP days and on 1 PP 1 PV days I'm hoping that it will be ok to have a 5-oz glass of Low-Sodium V-8. Unfortunately what I used to do was eat an avocado 1 or 2 a week along with other potassium / magnesium type veggies and fruits like potatoes and bananas. I ate cheese a lot too. I know I won't be able to eat those for a long time but that's ok because my goal is to see the weight come off and become a healthier me!
Kelly Linzey
Ref:
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/main-lowcarb-lobby/666523-how-avoid-getting-charlie-horses-leg-cramps.html
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=100969
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=5862.0
Because of diet changes leg cramps can be one of the biggest complaints.. Since dehydration and potassium being low this can cause a charlie horse. Drinking water and eating foods with potassium can sometimes help to make them go away. Some take vitamins for this but that can take a few days to get into your system. One quick fix is to use lite salt. Morton Lite Salt is loaded with potassium.. If you are experiencing charlie horses take 1/4 teaspoon (350 mg of Potassium) mixed in a glass of water and down it. Then start using it on your food. It should help get rid of them... also.. some feel that taking magnesium helps keep them at bay as well.
Another suggestion was to eat a couple of spoonfuls of yellow mustard or add No Salt to your water.
When this happens, stay in bed. You don't have to stand up to get rid of the cramp. Just push your heel toward the end of the bed, and pull your toes toward your shin. The cramp should
release almost immediately.
Also, you may not be getting enough calcium. A few Tums will stop leg cramps.
Some people swear by drinking vinegar with water before bedtime.
its most likely is a dificiency of potassium you can take morton lite salt or potassium gluconate pills I tend to take 2 pills in the am and I use the lite salt in place of every day salt.
Now This one is an odd one:
To alleviate the pain in seconds, grab a bighunk of your upper lip and squeeze. Keep it squeezed, hard, until the pain stops. Usually a few seconds. I knew it would raise an eyebrow or two in the group. I received that same advice from a VietNam vet. Whe they were cold, starving and shoved into a foxhole, they easily developed cramps. Squeezing their lip is part of an acupressure relief I believe. Regardless, I've used it many times over the past 25 years!
Still I haven't be able to find anything to connect these leg cramps to how I ate yesterday... I did not eat as much salt yesterday as I have in the past and combine that with no fruits veggies and cheese and perhaps that has tipped the scales towards having these cramps. I did have 2 liters of water and walked 20 mins around Target so maybe that also influenced these cramps. So tell me do you all get charlie horses? If so what do you do to help make them go away?
Oh and for those of you who want to know what I've done for it, my partner rubbed my calf until it half relaxed then covered my lower leg with a blanket to help it keep warm. When I got up it was really hard to walk on it so I have been stretching it out as much as I can. I hope to go pick up some No Salt or Low Salt this afternoon. I did try the lip thing and it did help relieve the pain a little but as I have fibromyalgia and my body is already overloaded with pain it didn't really help me much. In the mean time I'm going to go try the mustard and hope that it helps!
Once off PP days and on 1 PP 1 PV days I'm hoping that it will be ok to have a 5-oz glass of Low-Sodium V-8. Unfortunately what I used to do was eat an avocado 1 or 2 a week along with other potassium / magnesium type veggies and fruits like potatoes and bananas. I ate cheese a lot too. I know I won't be able to eat those for a long time but that's ok because my goal is to see the weight come off and become a healthier me!
Kelly Linzey
Ref:
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/main-lowcarb-lobby/666523-how-avoid-getting-charlie-horses-leg-cramps.html
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=100969
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=5862.0