Hoemeopathic Leg Cramp Treatment

[RSLancastr]

The other evening my girlfriend said "Hey, look what I ordered for you out of a catalog!"

She then handed me a bottle of homeopathic leg cramp pills.

I have trouble with leg cramps at night, largely due to low potassium. Bananas are a rich source of potassium, but if I had to choose between getting leg cramps and eating bananas, I would choose the leg cramps. Orange juice is another good source, and I have found that drinking a large glass of it every day keeps the leg cramps at bay.

I asked my girlfriend if she knew what "homeopathic" meant. She replied "It means it's made from herbs, doesn't it?" This led to a discussion of homeopathy and other forms of snake oil.

Anyway, the list of ingredients on the bottle is:

Cinchona Officinalis 3X, HPU.S(quinine);
Viscum Album 3X, HPU.S.;
Gns-Phalium Polycephalum 3X, HPU.S.;
Rhus Toxicodendron 6X, HPU.S.;
Aconitum Napellus 6X, HPU.S.;
Ledum Palustre 6X, HPU.S.;
Magnesia Phosphorica, HPU.S.;
in a base of Lactose, NF.

Wow, with that many ingredients, it has to be good!

Since homeopathic pills seem to be in lactose bases, is there a homeopathic cure for lactose intolerance?

So now I am the proud owner of my very first (and last) homeopathic product.

A red letter day indeed.

 

[epepke]

I have trouble with leg cramps at night, largely due to low potassium. Bananas are a rich source of potassium, but if I had to choose between getting leg cramps and eating bananas, I would choose the leg cramps. Orange juice is another good source, and I have found that drinking a large glass of it every day keeps the leg cramps at bay.

Potatoes are also good for potassium. And get some zinc, too.

Since homeopathic pills seem to be in lactose bases, is there a homeopathic cure for lactose intolerance?

Not taking a pill and then jumping up and down a lot, I think.

 

[geni]

all the ingredents listed should be there in decterable quantities.

 

[RSLancastr]

all the ingredents listed should be there in decterable quantities.

"Decterable?"

Did you mean "detectable?"

Either way, why do you say that?

 

[geni]

"Decterable?"

Did you mean "detectable?"

yes

Either way, why do you say that? [/B]

3X Means a concentration of 10^-3
6X Means a concentration of 10^-6

 

[Benguin]

I get nocturnal leg cramps too (occasionally). I'd not found any medical advice pointing to deficiencies in minerals, or food supplements that could help ...

I find resisting the urge to panic can actually work if you can get your brain awake quick enough to stop the muscles 'cogging' into extreme spasm.

You've got me thinking about potassium though, I got my last attack shortly after returning from central asia, where oranges, bananas and potatos were all almost non-existent. I normally eat lots of all of them ...

Geni; isn't 6X above avagadro?

 

[geni]

Geni; isn't 6X above avagadro?

yes the limit with X is around 24

 

[Rolfe]

This is another example of the same sort of thing as the "insomnia" pills that were discussed in another thread.

Multiple polypharmacy
No individualisation
Blanket treatment on the basis of a single symptom
Enough actual molecules that it's at least theoretically possible there might be a real ordinary pharmacological effect going on

I think Barb would say that this is not homoeopathy, and I think I'd agree with her. I think it's someone pretending that something is homoeopathic to evade the medicines legislation, which is extraordinarily uncritical of anything labelled "homoeopathic".

I still rather doubt if there's enough of anything there to produce any appreciable effect though.

Have you tried potassium chloride tablets?

Rolfe.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

So then I take it this isn't real homeopathy either, since it's three ingredients are Euphrasia 6X, Hepar Sulphurius 12X and Belladonna 6X. It's not something I would purchase on my own, but my Pilates instructor was talking about it.

 

[Rolfe]

So then I take it this isn't real homeopathy either, since it's three ingredients are Euphrasia 6X, Hepar Sulphurius 12X and Belladonna 6X. It's not something I would purchase on my own, but my Pilates instructor was talking about it.

I don't think so! Ask Barb, though.

Rolfe.

 

[RSLancastr]

I get nocturnal leg cramps too (occasionally). I'd not found any medical advice pointing to deficiencies in minerals, or food supplements that could help...

No doctor (or sports coach) ever suggested potassium to me either, until after I read it somewhere and asked a doc about it.

I find resisting the urge to panic can actually work if you can get your brain awake quick enough to stop the muscles 'cogging' into extreme spasm.

Most of mine are in the back of the thigh. What I did for years, but was absolutely the wrong thing, was to bend the knee, bringing my foot up towards my butt. While this seemed to relieve the pain at the moment, it also allowed the cramp to "set in" much harder than it would have.

It was only ten years or so ago that someone finally told me that straightening the muscle out, even though it hurts worse momentarily, is what is needed. I've found that if I jump out of bed at the first sign of the cramp, stand at arm's length or more away from a wall with my feet flat on the floor pointing towards the wall, place my hands on the wall and then lean in to the wall, it stretches the muscles in the thigh.

This can hurt like hell for a moment, but if done in time, it keeps the muscle from really seizing up hard. Before I knew to do this, I would spend the whole next day limping on the leg which had cramped the night before. Now it is rare that I feel it the next day at all.

Of course, if the cramp is in the FRONT of the leg (or elsewhere, different stretching is needed.

What is REALLY fun is when you stretch one way to help a cramp in the back of your leg, and it causes a muscle to cramp in the FRONT of your leg. Then you're screwed!

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

So then I take it this isn't real homeopathy either, since it's three ingredients are Euphrasia 6X, Hepar Sulphurius 12X and Belladonna 6X. It's not something I would purchase on my own, but my Pilates instructor was talking about it.

Hey Belladonna is good for ya...If You want to hang out with purple owls and talking toadstools!

 

[RSLancastr]

Have you tried potassium chloride tablets?

Yes, and potassium gluconate pills as well. The problem is, they deliver very little potassium.

Here in my desk at work I have some potassium gluconate pills. They are 550mg USP (equivalent to 90mg potassium).

The problem is, 90mg is only 3% of the DV for potassium.

When I drink a 16 oz. bottle of orange juice, it contains 960mg of potassium, which is 28% of the DV.

I don't recall the numbers on the potassium cholride, but I seem to recall them being similar to those with potassium gluconate.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[Rolfe]

No doctor (or sports coach) ever suggested potassium to me either, until after I read it somewhere and asked a doc about it.

Most of mine are in the back of the thigh. What I did for years, but was absolutely the wrong thing, was to bend the knee, bringing my foot up towards my butt. While this seemed to relieve the pain at the moment, it also allowed the cramp to "set in" much harder than it would have.

It was only ten years or so ago that someone finally told me that straightening the muscle out, even though it hurts worse momentarily, is what is needed.

Crikey, you've had some dumb advisors!

I remember the only time it really happened to me, after I'd ridden a bicycle across the New Forest all day in the blazing sun, carrying a load of equipment (including a vaccuum of dry ice) for collecting blood samples from horses competing in a long distance rise the following day. I was in bed, in a friendly vet's spare room, and my right leg just seized.

"Potassium!" I immediately thought, because that was the centre of my studies at the time and thus of my thoughts. I knew that did it in humans, and I was secretly hoping that a horse would cramp in front of my eyes the next day, so I could get real-time samples (some luck, I was the bloody mascot, turn up at an event and the very possibility of metabolic upsets just flew over the probability horizon). And I just instinctively stretched the calf muscle as far as it would go, given the anatomy of the leg and the physiology of muscle cramps, it seemed to make sense.

It all went away and I went back to sleep.

Oh, I guess you had to be there.

Rolfe.

 

[RSLancastr]

Crikey, you've had some dumb advisors!

Yup.

"Potassium!" I immediately thought, because that was the centre of my studies at the time and thus of my thoughts.

This reads like it was written by Dr. Watson!

given the anatomy of the leg and the physiology of muscle cramps, it seemed to make sense.

What exactly IS the physiology of muscle cramps? Is it the muscle firing off on its own, rather than doing so in response to a command from the brain?

Oh, I guess you had to be there.

Been there more times than I can count, Rolfe.

I can still remember the first time it happened to me. It was in the summer of 1969 (cue music...), and I was on a trip to visit relatives in Arkansas. I was sleeping at my aunt & uncle's house, when I suddenly woke up yelling, with my leg seizing up. I evidently woke up the entire household. The next morning I woke up and was sitting on the edge of the bed, thinking it had all been some strange nightmare. My uncle's mom walked by and saw me and asked "how's your leg this morning?" It startled me to have someone ask about what I had thought was a nightmare.

As soon as I stood up, I found out my leg still hurt like hell when I tried to straighten it.

It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I finally found out about the potassium thing, and how to straighten the leg to keep the cramp from setting in hard.

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

Um What kind of trip were you on dude?

 

[RSLancastr]

Um What kind of trip were you on dude?

A trip to Arkansas. The worst kind.

 

[Goshawk]

Muscle cramps are also due to lack of calcium and magnesium.

I find that drinking a cup of Lact-Aid a day (lactose-intolerant) has cleared up my leg cramps and twitches.

Providing you're not trekking through Central Asia , Low-Sodium V-8 is an excellent source of potassium. It'll take a few days to get used to the taste, it's definitely different from regular V-8, but just keep thinking about all that good potassium.

You can use "salt substitute" (potassium chloride) on your food, but watch out, it's bitter in large quantities.


Left out:

It also has to do with sodium and potassium being in balance. If you take in a lot of sodium, like eating a bag of potato chips, it draws down your potassium levels to compensate.

Leg cramps are caused because the sodium and potassium levels are screwed up, so the ions can't communicate properly.

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookNERV.html

The plasma membrane of neurons, like all other cells, has an unequal distribution of ions and electrical charges between the two sides of the membrane. The outside of the membrane has a positive charge, inside has a negative charge. This charge difference is a resting potential and is measured in millivolts. Passage of ions across the cell membrane passes the electrical charge along the cell. The voltage potential is -65mV (millivolts) of a cell at rest (resting potential). Resting potential results from differences between sodium and potassium positively charged ions and negatively charged ions in the cytoplasm. Sodium ions are more concentrated outside the membrane, while potassium ions are more concentrated inside the membrane. This imbalance is maintained by the active transport of ions to reset the membrane known as the sodium potassium pump. The sodium-potassium pump maintains this unequal concentration by actively transporting ions against their concentration gradients...

There's more, but basically if you don't have the proper proportion of sodium and potassium (your kidneys are involved, too), you get leg cramps.

 

[Zombified]

Low-Sodium V-8 is an excellent source of potassium. It'll take a few days to get used to the taste, it's definitely different from regular V-8, but just keep thinking about all that good potassium.

Oh, that stuff is so foul...

 

[Goshawk]

Yeah, I know, but just keep thinking of all that good potassium...

You get used to it, too, as long as you don't keep switching back and forth from Regular to Low-Sodium.