So wife and I stopped at Home Depot ans she decided we need 7 more 6 foot tall Emerald Green Arborvitae for the back yard.

Got them home and all planted now but between hauling them to the backyard by hand, removing the sod, digging the holes, putting the 6 foot tree in/out each hole at least a few times to get them plumb, and putting the mulch on top I was pretty beat as not used to doing such work in the 87 degree heat and humidity now that I am 70.

Anyhow that night I was awoken by terrible leg cramps forcing me to get up walk around and stretch when I was beat and wanted to sleep more than a few times which was no fun.

Probably my fault in that maybe I didn't drink enough fluids considering the heat of the day even though I thought I did. I drank water when I probably should have had more Gatorade on hand. I eat bananas and drink OJ for potassium and calcium plus milk for calcium too, take a daily magnesium supplement, and eat a bag of salty snack before doing such activity. A few times I got kind of dizzy and would take a break and drank more fluids.

Anyhow I rarely get cramps and when I do they are pretty bad as far as pain as I think most would agree.

So I am looking for what can be used to give relief to cramps once they happen and proactive measures did not work as planned. I see Amazon and other places have these "Hyland's pills" for leg cramps with very positive reviews. Anyone here have experiences with them, recent years production without quinine, and how they helped or not?

https://hylands.com/products/hylands-leg-cramps

Any other remedies that have worked for you that are available without precription are welcome too. I have read a lot about tonic water, mustard, apple cider vinegar, and dill pickle juice but have not tried those myself yet.

Thanks for reading and sharing of any experiences!

yep, been having shin (right) cramps at night. upped my Magnesium glycinate and overall hydration. I need lots of salt so I was probably low on that as well.

LMNT salt is how I get my Na,K, and Mg. I hate when I run out.

https://drinklmnt.com/blogs/he...zsGE6CxoC6cAQAvD_BwE

I used to suffer nightly leg and foot cramps – nearly every night. Then I began taking a daily magnesium supplement (for some other reason). The magnesium supplement didn’t help that “other reason”, but it ended my nightly leg and foot cramps.

On one of my extended hospital stays I was placed on diuretics which caused me to dump minerals and electrolytes overboard at a massive rate. I had a couple blood tests/ day so the docs could analyze what I was short on and tune my daily meds to replace them.

No matter how they tuned my meds I was getting severe cramping. It would start in my feet, legs, or hands, but as I scrunched and twisted in the hospital bed the cramps would instantly spread to my abs, sides, and back. My whole body was one giant knotted cluster of severe cramps.

They had me fully wired up; EKG, BP, O2, 2 IVs... and they had me on telemetry too.

A minute after my cramps started a nurse came running into the room, having been notified that I was 'crashing'. The cramps had spiked my heart rate and BP. I explained I was fine, but in severe cramping pain.

Later, as my doc made his rounds he brought it up. I told him about it and he told me that some of his elderly patients with cramping problems reported to him that both drinking tonic water and eating dried fruit helped relieve their symptoms, and he suggested I try it.

After the doc visit I texted my family from the hospital bed and the next time they visited they brought dried fruit and tonic water. Voila', instant cramp relief.

Before that I rarely ate dried fruit and had never tried tonic water. Now, both are parts of my diet. Not on a daily basis, but first on a weekly basis, and later on maybe a monthly basis. Although I still very occasionally get a light small cramp in my feet or lower legs, they're not bad and don't last long.

Of the two, I believe the tonic water has been the more effective remedy for my cramps, and I've grown to really like the taste of it.

Be careful of the caloric intake of tonic water. It is full of sugar to offset the bitterness of quinine.


Quinine is terribly bitter, having tasted some in AP biology high school. Took all day to get rid of that taste. Father Professor was laughing, I’m sure.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Be careful of the caloric intake of tonic water. It is full of sugar to offset the bitterness of quinine.
...

Yeah, good point. I buy a generic off-brand tonic water from a local grocery store and two years ago I noticed that they had changed the formula and the sugar listed on the label had increased, although not by a whole lot. It still ticked me off and I preferred the taste of the earlier formula.

What a timely topic. I'll tell this, don't know if any of this will help you or not.

About 4 months ago I began having bad cramps in my left calf muscle. It ached pretty badly and I was wobbling when walking like a drunk sailor. I saw my regular family doc, he checked me out and told me I should go to physical therapy.

I did go to physical therapy, they were using some sort of massage gun on my calf and we were doing a lot of new exercises to stretch the calf muscle.

That worked ok for a couple of days then came right back. Aching and wobbling when walking.

I went to physical thereapy for about 2 months, twice a week, and just couldn't get it fixed, I'd be ok for a couple days then back to the same issue.

One day I went in and they were short handed and they had called in a semi-retired woman physical therapist. She told me she had worked for 33 years, so far, in physical therapy and was semi-retired, and only worked PRN (as needed) a couple of days a week, helping out 3 other PT offices when they needed her.

She interviewed me extensively about the issue, and I liked how intent and focused and attentive she was to me.

She said she wanted to try to massage my calf muscle to work out the tightness spot in the muscle.

Let me tell you this, that woman was probably 5 feet tall, maybe 4-11 tall, about 60 years old, and she beat my ass up. Her hands and fingers were so strong I actually asked her for mercy. I mean, she got in there and just crushed it up (my calf muscle). (I told her nobody better ever try to rob or harm her, or she could probably rip them from limb to limb)

I haven't been back for 6 weeks now. She did it. She just worked my calf muscle until I couldn't stand it anymore, and did it some more, and worked it out.

I love PT people, they work magic, but this woman had a lifetime of experience under her belt and she was able to fix me. I've had no issues, at all, zero, since then.

And, FWIW, I was in a different doctors office about 3 weeks ago, for his specialty, but he asked me if anything had changed, so I told him about this.

He laughed, said those old birds are the best, then he asked me about my diet. He said that I could be deficient in a mineral or whatever, like Potassium or Calcium or some other, and he wanted to pull a blood test.

Results came back on the blood test and I was fine in that area, but you might want to talk to your doc about that.

And, as we Seniors get older, you should look into stretching exercises for your leg muscles, back, etc.

Good luck to you.
.

I used to get them while on long road trips on my Harley and still get them to this day after a long range day or any doing any exercise of significance. Back in the day, you could get quinine pills from the Doctor but that stopped.

Then, I switched to Tonic water and within a few minutes my cramps will cease. Still have to do my Lurch walk from upstairs to downstairs to fetch a couple of ice cubes, a glass and a can of tonic water but it's my elixir for what ails me.

Started getting Charlie Horses at age 30 while loading UPS trucks. Still sometimes get them at 48 when I exert myself. I learned then that upping my water consumption, eating bananas and the Hyland pills all addressed the issue for me.

A subject I know intimately having suffered for over 50 years. I'm at a point where I can laugh off a normal calf cramp, charley horse, cramp in my toes. The past couple years I get them on the insides of my quads and the outside of my calves and I swear they hurt more than it would if Tyson pummeled me. They last more than five minutes and I haven't found a way to stretch out either one.

Magnesium as suggested on the forum helped reduce the frequency but when they hit they hit hard. A friend told me about Hylands and they've helped more than anything. I haven't tried them as preventative before bed but I keep 6 pills in my nightstand and if I wake up with one I pop 3 under my tongue while I try not to cry. Usually 3 clears it up but I have had to double dose a few times, that's ok per the directions.

My Hylands are kinda like my cheap cheater reading glasses, scattered in all rooms of the house.

Try drinking pickle juice, or eating mustard when they hit. Something about the turmeric. Of course the prevention is what others have mentioned above.

Make sure you are getting enough potassium and magnesium, leg cramps are often a sign of deficiencies in both of these.

Some good sources are: V8 juice, beets, bananas

Or just take supplements but getting it naturally is best.

Topical magnesium spray

Wow, thanks for all the replies - very helpful.

I have my blood tested by one of my doctors every three months with main focus on liver and kidney function and no problems or deficiencies seen including potassium and magnesium. I have tested low for potassium a couple times in the past and still am on the lower side of the good range though. I just bought some extra bananas and will up my intake of bananas especially when doing such activity. Also loaded up on Gatorade to drink instead of water and will be taking extra magnesium pill when doing such activity and be more vigilant in general about staying well hydrated.

Interesting comment about diuretics and the havoc that they can cause. I have a prescription of HCTZ and was aware of such issues. I don't take them all the time for high blood pressure and never when working in hot conditions including not taking for days in advance of that.

I am going to get some tonic water and the Hyland's pills to, they are just $10 so worth a shot. Trying to be proactive about cramps but still want remedy option too.

It is a shame that one can no longer get quinine pills, even by prescription, any more. Some people have frequent extreme cramps and that must be a living hell. There are TONS of medications that can be problematic, even fatal, when taken with improper dosages so not sure what the deal was with quinine.

I guess I am a glutton for punishment though. I just picked up two more trees as wife said she would like a couple more. Local Home Depot was out but found another nearby Home Depot that had a fresh delivery of them. The 6 foot trees go very fast around here for $79 which is less than half of the local nurseries and the Home Depot ones are very nice ones when they get them in but they don't do the best job watering them (probably no help) so I buy them when they get a fresh shipment in and then saturate the pot with water after getting them home. It is still hot in humid but gets into the 60s at night so I can usually get in 3 hours at sunrise and a couple before sunset with more pleasurable weather conditions but still taking breaks as needed . I need to get these two in by tomorrow night though as storms are on the way and no way do I want to be removing sod and digging holes after a heavy rain!

Potassium gluconate pills pretty much eliminated my nighttime charley horses.

I've been running 3x/week for 40 years now, I may not be Charles Atlas but I'm in great shape. A running pal suggested potassium pills about ten years ago, nighttime cramps are now close to zero.

I spent most of my working career working in non air condition industrial buildings. Upping water intake a fair amount and sports drinks like Powerade Zero, Gatorade Zero, and Gatorade really helped me out on hot days. Also cutting back on caffeine on hot days is a good idea on hot days.

My wife had leg cramps at night. Doc recommended bananas for the potassium. It helped to a degree.

Potassium deficiency runs in some of my family, as well as myself, and I did the banana thing for years, and while I love 'em, no matter how many I ate, I couldn't eat enough to correct the deficiency or stop the cramping...and so I went down the path of taking Potassium pills. First, it was over-the-counter and later, for a few weeks, it was prescription doses.

Word of caution, sometimes you get lucky and can guess at a suitable dose for OTC Potassium or Magnesium, but too little or too much of these can be dangerous. You most definitely can overdose on these supplements, especially if you haven't had recent blood tests to see what your levels are and what specific doses you require. What your diet consists of, your individual metabolisms, and the level of work or work outs all factor into what you need. Be careful playing doctor and just shotgunning OTC doses.

grumpy1, keep an eye on those arborvitae. They tend to be prone to bagworms and also, with age, especially if heavy snow is allowed to accumulate on them, they tend to get 'leggy' and open up.

I don’t have to be aware of sweating much to wake up with severe leg cramps a few hours after going to bed. I found this product in a local outdoor sports equipment store and started taking a couple of capsules along with extra water (usually tea, actually). When I do that I don’t get cramps.

https://saltstick.com/products...riant=38002350325932

I've suffered from terrible leg cramps for years. Calves, quads, hamstrings, etc. Cramps that would hurt like hell. Magnesium supplements have brought great relief, and when I get the occasional one now I use the Hyland's cream. Slather it all over the cramp area and wait. 5-10 minutes it's gone. Like a blessed miracle.