1.Checking for cramps
Cramp, medically known as muscle spasm, is an abnormal neuromuscular excitement caused by involuntary, unsuspected muscle over-contraction, the attack is manifested as a significant muscle crush-like contraction, pain, which can last for several seconds or tens of seconds, and then gradually relieved, can be residual local pain. The main types include the following.
Nocturnal cramps: These include cramps that occur in any static situation, such as during sleep or while sitting still. The most common are cramps in the calf and toe areas in the elderly and children.
Heat stroke cramps: commonly seen in athletes and are associated with dehydration and imbalance of electrolytes in the body.
Disease cramps: seen in patients with organic diseases or post-stroke, mostly due to congenital diseases or nerve injuries, such as epilepsy, tetanus, pediatric febrile convulsions, etc., where the muscles lose their innervation and become overexcited.
The most common cramps in life include sports cramps and night cramps. The common cramps are not very harmful or do not lead to secondary injuries, but can only affect the quality of life, but if you have cramps during overhead work, swimming, etc., you should be careful.
2. The “mystery” of cramps
The mechanism that causes muscle cramps is complicated. Calcium plays an important role as a coupling factor between nerve excitation and muscle contraction, always controlling the start of muscle contraction and the end of diastole. Increased neuromuscular excitability in low blood calcium can cause muscle spasms and hand and foot twitches.
In addition, the contraction and diastole of normal human leg muscles squeeze the blood vessels and carry metabolites away. When people at rest or sleep, leg blood flow slowed down, metabolic products such as lactic acid can not be taken away by the blood in time to decomposition, accumulated in the leg muscles, while the calf muscle for a single nutritional artery type, like traffic only highway, there is no national highway and county roads, an accident, is bound to block, if the calf blood vessels atherosclerosis, lesions or blockage, metabolic waste more easily gathered, it will stimulate the muscle to produce Contraction, the phenomenon of leg cramps occurs.
The cramps that occur in the elderly are mostly nocturnal cramps. Calcium supplementation is necessary for the elderly because of osteoporosis due to weakened calcium absorption and calcium loss. However, cramps caused by poor blood circulation in the elderly cannot be cured by calcium supplementation alone. It is necessary to treat atherosclerosis and improve circulation in order to be effective, such as eliminating factors that cause the diameter of the vascular lumen to become smaller, such as fatty deposits and cell proliferation, and improving microcirculation so as to improve blood supply and operation.
3, the “culprit behind” the cramps
Weakness and fatigue
Over-exercise, especially anaerobic exercise, leads to continuous muscle contraction in a short period of time, generating a large amount of metabolic waste in the body, and the state of muscle tension is not improved at night, and the accumulation of excessive acidic metabolites is not cleared in time, which can stimulate calf cramps.
Cold stimulation
Cold is the most common direct cause of cramps, which can directly stimulate the leg muscles to contract strongly and cause sudden vascular spasm.
Hypocalcemia
Calcium ions play an important role in the process of muscle contraction. When the calcium absorption capacity of the elderly is reduced as well as the calcium loss is obvious, and when the calcium in children and pregnant women is too low due to excessive calcium consumption by the body, the muscles are easily excited and cramped.
Vascular factors
When atherosclerosis occurs in the arteries or when there is a thrombus, blood circulation is blocked, local tissues become ischemic and hypoxic, and physiological functions are disturbed, causing coldness, numbness and intermittent claudication in the lower limbs, i.e., numbness, pain and even spasm in the calf muscles when walking, which disappears after rest and reappears when walking; in severe cases, there may be persistent pain, and the arteries of the lower limbs, especially the dorsalis pedis, pulsate Weakness or disappearance of the arteries of the lower limbs, especially the dorsalis pedis. The metabolites cannot be taken away in time, and when they reach a certain concentration, they will also stimulate muscle contraction and cause painful cramps.
Excessive sweating
Long exercise time, anaerobic exercise, sweating, body fluids and electrolytes can be a large loss of low calcium, low potassium, low magnesium, a large amount of metabolic waste accumulation, internal environment disorders, also prone to cramps.
Local compression
Such as prolonged supine, so that the quilt pressed on the surface of the foot, or prolonged prone, so that the surface of the foot against the bed, forcing certain muscles of the calf for a long time in a state of compression, causing passive muscle contracture and insufficient blood supply.
4, the “nemesis” of cramps
Most of the cramps can be relieved instantly if they are treated in time, but in case of recurrent attacks, you need to seek medical advice to exclude vascular and neurological pathologies to avoid delaying the condition. When a cramp occurs, you should do the opposite, that is, pull your toes in the opposite direction of the force and insist on 1-2 minutes or more to get results. Daily muscle cramps in the back of the calf, you can sit or lean against the wall, hands wrench toes up, and try to straighten the knee joint, and then hot compresses or light massage to relax the tense muscles; swimming cramps first deep breath hold, the body floating, with the hand on the opposite side of the cramped leg to grab the toes to the body direction, pull, with the other hand downward pressure on the knee, so that the back of the leg stretch, relief after going ashore to continue to massage rest.
Eat more vitamin D, calcium tablets, calcium-rich foods such as milk, shrimp, kelp, tofu.
Improve blood supply
Improve atherosclerosis, eliminate factors that cause the diameter of the vascular lumen to become smaller, reduce body weight, promote a light diet, and eat more foods rich in vitamin C (such as fresh vegetables, fruits and vegetables) and vegetable protein (such as beans and their products). Take anti-platelet aggregation drugs, drugs to improve lipid metabolism, drugs to improve the structure of the arterial wall, vitamin E, etc. under the guidance of a doctor, and actively prevent and treat risk factors that may aggravate atherosclerosis in the legs, such as hypertension and diabetes.