What's the cramp?

cramps are medically called spasms. When it comes to calf cramps, people often associate them with cold limbs when swimming, but they don't "catch cold" during sleep, so people think it is caused by calcium deficiency. However, after many people with calf cramps took calcium tablets and drank milk rich in calcium, the symptoms of cramps were not alleviated, but aggravated. What the hell is going on here?

In fact, there are many reasons for muscle spasm, and people just ignore the factor of magnesium deficiency among many reasons. In fact, many patients' muscle spasms are caused not by calcium deficiency but by magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is an important cation in cells, which can activate many important enzymes with ATP and other substances in cells. If there is insufficient magnesium in the blood, the activity of an enzyme will decrease, intracellular potassium ions will overflow, and neuromuscular excitability will increase due to insufficient intracellular potassium, which will easily lead to muscle spasm. In this case, blindly supplementing calcium is tantamount to adding insult to injury. Because calcium has antagonistic effect on magnesium, calcium can reduce the activity of magnesium in cells, which makes the muscle spasm of magnesium deficiency more serious.

Under normal circumstances, people will not be short of magnesium, because there are many foods rich in magnesium, such as bananas, hard fruits, fish, soybeans, peanuts, corn and green leafy vegetables, which can be eaten frequently. However, if the diet is unreasonable, partial eclipse, and the food is too fine, there will be magnesium deficiency; Patients with chronic diseases or the elderly may also suffer from magnesium deficiency because of their small food intake. Therefore, people who often have calf cramps should not blindly supplement calcium, but should ask a doctor for examination in time.

Many people have experienced calf cramps during sleep at night. In fact, calf cramps are leg muscle or muscle group spasms caused by abnormal neuromuscular excitement. At this time, the tensile strength of muscle bundles is obviously greater than that of normal muscle contraction. Therefore, when calf cramps occur, there will be soreness or severe pain. In general, the attack can last for several seconds or dozens of seconds. Leg cramps at night are related to the following factors:

(1) Fatigue: excessive exercise or exertion in the legs during the day causes fatigue, and the muscle tension at night is not improved, and too many metabolites are not metabolized in time, which can cause leg cramps.

(2) Cold: When sleeping at night, cold feet and legs can cause leg muscle spasms.

(3) Hypocalcemia: When hypocalcemia occurs in the body, the threshold of neuromuscular junction excitation is lowered, which can excite neuromuscular junction if the stimulation intensity is lower than normal, so it is easy to produce abnormal contraction and cause calf cramps. This situation is more common in pregnant women and the elderly who lack calcium.

(4) Blood flow factors: For patients with varicose veins or deep venous thrombosis in the legs, if they sleep for a long time and maintain a certain posture, the veins in the legs will be compressed and the reflux will be blocked, resulting in blood stasis. When the blood stasis reaches a certain level, it will cause muscle spasm in the legs.

There are many reasons for leg cramps during night sleep. No matter what causes leg cramps, it will cause discomfort or pain and affect normal sleep. Therefore, we must pay enough attention to eliminate the factors that can cause calf cramps, such as keeping warm while sleeping and massaging the lower limbs. If the attack is frequent, you should go to the hospital for medical treatment, find out the cause and treat it as soon as possible.