Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather inquiry - How is the leg cramp when sleeping at night? What should I do? It's not cold, it's quite hot. You don't need to cover yourself. Please give me some advice …

How is the leg cramp when sleeping at night? What should I do? It's not cold, it's quite hot. You don't need to cover yourself. Please give me some advice …

Leg cramps are mostly caused by calcium deficiency, cold and local neurovascular compression.

At ordinary times, you can properly supplement calcium, get more sunshine, pay attention to local warmth, and also pay attention to changes in posture, such as sitting posture and sleeping posture, to avoid oppressing nerves and blood vessels. You can also do hot compress, massage local muscles and strengthen local blood circulation. If you don't get better, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment.

Here are four suggestions to prevent leg cramps:

Wear comfortable shoes. Flat feet and other structural problems make some people particularly prone to leg cramps. Proper shoes are one of the ways to make up for it.

Pull back the bedding. Many people like to cover the quilt tightly when they sleep. But especially when lying on your back, the quilt may press your feet, making the gastrocnemius and plantar muscles tense. Tight muscles are prone to spasms. Just pull the bedding loose.

Stretch your muscles. Stretching gastrocnemius and foot muscles before going to bed can help prevent cramps. The method of stretching is the same as stretching gastrocnemius and foot muscles when leg cramps occur. You can also put the front of your foot on the first step of the stair step, and slowly press your heel down to make it lower than the step position.

Drink more water. If you usually have a lot of activities (including walking, gardening and housework), you need to replenish fluids to avoid dehydration, but don't overdo it. A large amount of liquid will dilute the concentration of sodium in the blood, which may lead to various problems, including muscle spasms. How much water you should drink depends on your activities and the food you eat. Because the stimulation of thirst becomes weaker with age, we may forget to drink enough water when we are old. Some people worry that it is more inconvenient to go to the toilet because of drinking too much water, especially at night.

The main methods to prevent and treat cramps caused by hypocalcemia are: choosing fresh food with high calcium content and beneficial to nutritional balance, such as milk, and drinking a glass of milk before going to bed has obvious curative effect; Eating soy products or kelp can also supplement calcium; Adding bone calcium powder and calcium bicarbonate. In food; Take calcium-containing drugs under the guidance of a doctor, such as calcium gluconate tablets, calcium matrix, calcium lactate, etc. At the same time, pay attention to eat more foods containing vitamin D. Cramps in calves are usually caused by calcium loss, which leads to osteoporosis. There are many reasons for calcium loss, and losing weight is the number one culprit. Many women refuse all foods related to fat in the process of losing weight. As everyone knows, while reducing fat, it will also weaken bones. In addition, smoking, drinking, drinking strong tea or coffee will all cause calcium loss. Don't be superstitious about drugs when supplementing calcium. The calcium supplement effect of exercise is more effective than medicine. The most effective way to supplement calcium is aerobic exercise combined with strength exercise. In addition, increasing the intake of dairy products in the diet can also easily supplement calcium.

However, incomplete leg cramps are calcium deficiency, and leg cramps in middle-aged and elderly people are likely to suffer from arteriosclerosis obliterans of lower limbs.

Prevention tips here are four suggestions to prevent leg cramps before they happen:

Wear comfortable shoes. Flat feet and other structural problems make some people particularly prone to leg cramps. Proper shoes are one of the ways to make up for it.

Pull back the bedding. Many people like to cover the quilt tightly when they sleep. But especially when lying on your back, the quilt may press your feet, making the gastrocnemius and plantar muscles tense. Tight muscles are prone to spasms. Just pull the bedding loose.

Stretch your muscles. Stretching gastrocnemius and foot muscles before going to bed can help prevent cramps. The method of stretching is the same as stretching gastrocnemius and foot muscles when leg cramps occur. You can also put the front of your foot on the first step of the stair step, and slowly press your heel down to make it lower than the step position.

Drink more water. If you usually have a lot of activities (including walking, gardening and housework), you need to replenish fluids to avoid dehydration, but don't overdo it. A large amount of liquid will dilute the concentration of sodium in the blood, which may lead to various problems, including muscle spasms. How much water you should drink depends on your activities and the food you eat. Because the stimulation of thirst becomes weaker with age, we may forget to drink enough water when we are old. Some people worry that it is more inconvenient to go to the toilet because of drinking too much water, especially at night.

Causes and solutions of calf cramps

The scientific name of cramp is muscle spasm, which is the spontaneous tense contraction of muscle. Muscle spasms that occur in calves and toes are the most common, and the pain is unbearable when they occur, especially cramps in the middle of the night, which often make people unable to relieve the pain for a long time after waking up and affect sleep.

Common causes of leg and leg cramps are as follows:

(1) Cold stimulation of external environment, such as low room temperature in winter nights, too thin quilt when sleeping, or exposed legs and feet.

② Fatigue, sleep, lack of rest or excessive rest lead to the accumulation of local acid metabolites, which can all cause muscle spasm. Too long walking or exercise time, excessive fatigue of lower limbs or insufficient rest and sleep will lead to lactic acid accumulation. Sleep rest time is too long, blood circulation slows down and carbon dioxide accumulates.

③ Decreased estrogen and osteoporosis in elderly women will lead to decreased blood calcium level, increased muscle stress and frequent spasms.

4 Poor sleep posture, such as lying on your back for a long time, making the quilt press on the foot surface, or prone for a long time, making the foot surface close to the bed, forcing some muscles of the calf to be in an absolute relaxed state for a long time, resulting in "passive contracture" of the muscles.

What should I do if my calf cramps? According to different reasons, taking the following different countermeasures can quickly relieve spasm and relieve pain. When cramps occur, as long as you do the opposite, that is, pull your toes in the opposite direction of the force, and stick to it for more than l ~ 2 minutes, you can get the effect. Specifically, if it is a muscle cramp at the back of the calf, on the one hand, you can pull your foot to make it upturned, on the other hand, you can straighten your knee as much as possible; When the muscles in front of the calf cramp, you can press the foot plate and bend your toes hard.

In order to prevent leg cramps, the following points should be paid attention to at ordinary times:

① Drive away cold and keep warm.

② Pay attention to sleeping posture.

(8) Don't walk or exercise for a long time.

(4) Appropriate participation in physical exercise (9)

⑤ Supplement some vitamin E when necessary.

6. Appropriate calcium supplementation, dairy products containing lactic acid and amino acids, lean meat and other foods can promote the dissolution and absorption of calcium salts.

People's common leg cramps are actually calf muscle spasms, which show that calf muscles, such as gastrocnemius muscles, suddenly become hard and painful, which can last for several seconds to dozens of seconds.

Common causes of cramp in one leg

① Cold stimulation. For example, exercising in a cold environment in winter. Insufficient preparation activities; The swimming water temperature is low in summer, which easily leads to leg cramps. If you don't cover the quilt at night, the calf muscles will be stimulated by cold, which will make people wake up.

② The muscles continue to contract too fast. During strenuous exercise, the whole body is in a state of tension, the leg muscles contract too fast, the relaxation time is too short, the local metabolite lactic acid increases, and the contraction and relaxation of muscles are difficult to coordinate, thus causing calf muscle spasm.

3 excessive sweating. Exercise for a long time, exercise a lot, sweat a lot, and can't replenish salt in time. A large number of fluids and electrolytes are lost in the body, metabolic wastes are accumulated, local blood circulation of muscles is not good, and spasms are also prone to occur.

4 excessive fatigue. When traveling long distances, climbing mountains, and climbing mountains, the calf muscles are most prone to fatigue. Because every time I climb a mountain, I support my whole body weight with one foot. The muscles of this leg need six times the weight of a person to lift the foot. When it is tired to a certain extent, it will have convulsions.

⑤ Calcium deficiency. Calcium ion plays an important role in muscle contraction. When the concentration of calcium ion in blood is too low, muscles are easily excited and twitched. Teenagers grow rapidly and are prone to calcium deficiency, so leg cramps often occur.

Prevention of leg cramps

① Pay attention to supplement calcium and vitamin D, and eat calcium tablets or shrimp skin, milk, bean products and other foods rich in calcium.

(2) Strengthen physical exercise. Exercise should be fully prepared to make the body active, and then the blood circulation of the lower limbs is smooth, and then participate in various intense sports or competitions to avoid leg cramps.

③ Keep warm to prevent local muscles from catching cold.

First aid for cramps in three legs

Usually, once a leg cramp occurs, you can immediately grab the big toe on one side of the cramp, then slowly straighten your feet and then stretch your legs hard, so that the calf muscles will not cramp; Or massage the calf with both hands, it can also be effective.

If you often have leg cramps, you need to see a doctor.

The simplest thing is to relax when cramping ~ and then slowly straighten your feet.