The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
B12
Posted by Tls (Gainesville, Florida) on 01/16/2013
★★★★★
Muscle Cramps:
I have recently started taking b12 shots and suprisingly I have had cramps only a couple times, whereas I was getting them every night.
B6
Posted by GertJr (Madison) on 02/24/2021
Thanks for the recommendation to take B6 for leg/feet cramping. Mine cramp so bad a night and I have to get up and walk around. It's like a metal bar along my calf sometimes, hard as a rock and so very painful. I am not dehydrated and get plenty of magnesium/potassium.
Those 3 things have been recommended, and mag oil, too, but don't solve the problem. I've recently started a new brand of multivitamin, so we'll see if that helps, too. But I have B6 on hand and will give it a try.
B6
Posted by Heidi (Cumming, GA) on 02/23/2021
★★★★★
I have a bottle of Vitamin B6 pills next to my bed. When I get a cramp I take one vitamin B6 and as soon I swallow it, the muscle relaxes and the pain is gone.
I have usually cramps in feet and legs. Hope it helps other people as well.
Salt
Posted by Clare W. (Banbury ) on 02/17/2021
★★★★★
I had cramping in my calf. Not excruciating, but constant and uncomfortable, for four days. Tried the organic cider vinegar with the mother but it didn't work. I took a teaspoon of Sole (a drink made with pink HImalayan salt and water) which is something I always have. The cramp subsided and left a small residual ache. I only feel it slightly if I put my legs up.
Bar of Soap
Posted by Lucy S. (United States) on 10/24/2019
★★★★★
Having dreadful foot and leg cramps on chemo. Trying ginger and cayenne. A good cure for regular cramps is placing a bar of soap between your bed sheets. I know, it sounds insane, but it works.
Vitamin B-6
Posted by Heidi H. (United States) on 10/12/2019
★★★★★
Muscle cramps stop immediately with vitamin B6. I suffered for years, horrible pain. I am so glad that someone told me to try vitamin B6. I buy it at a big box store because it's cheap there and I have it always with me..
Avoid Cortisone Shots
Posted by Harriet C. (Florida, United States) on 10/02/2019
WARNING!
Cortisone shot are not mentioned under remedies, but I would like to post my negative experience for others who have turned to Earthclinic for remedies for leg cramps.
So, perhaps this could make a new category "Cortisone" and entered under "leg cramps" as a warning to others?
All my life I have had leg cramps like the 9th month of pregnancy. I was desperate and that's when I found Earthclinic some years back.
The remedy of taking ACV turned the tide for me. I take extra magnesium when my body tells me it needs it, but 2 Tbsp ACV and about 1/4 tsp baking soda, fill the cup with about 3 oz of cold water and drink while fizzing generally stops the leg cramps in under a minute.
Last year I had a cortisone shot for what we thought was bursitis. It only helped for about 3 weeks (found out via MRI later I had 2 torn tendons causing the pain). However, the cortisone shot was followed by several DAYS of intense, repeated leg/foot cramps, often both legs at once, that simply would not respond to my remedies (Emergenc-E, powdered magnesium in water, and ACV as noted above).
I slept in a recliner so I could hop up easier. My husband had to help me when I would have an attack (one day it was every 30 minutes!). He said he had never seen me this bad (married 35 years)!
Sometimes I drank the ACV straight (ugh!) because I was so desperate--I looked like I was having a lower body seizure even falling to the floor in agony upending the kitchen chair I grabbed in the process.
I NEVER just fall down as I am a chiropractic patient and I can screw my body up if not careful. Through researching I found out that people who are prone to leg cramps sometimes find that this is a side effect.
My doctor had never heard of that as a side effect, but anecdotal information found via search engine was enough for me to support the validity of my experience! Worst week of my life and now my records are noted to never give me anything in the cortisone family again! I hope this anecdotal information is helpful to prevent someone else from suffering like I did!
Simple Exercises
Posted by Mary Beth (Pittsburgh) on 09/20/2019
★★★★☆
Leg Cramp Reliever I have been impressed that this works for leg and feet cramps. I saw this guide in Peggy Brill's book, "The Core Program". She suggests you do these exercises -- all of them -- ten times, before you go to bed. Lie on your back with legs flat, keeping your hands at your sides, palms up. Retract your neck: elongate the back of your neck by tucking your chin down towards your chest. Hold this, holding for six seconds, and then release it. Next, press your shoulders together and down into the mat or bed. Hold and count for six seconds -- and then release. Next, cough to pull your rib cage down. This will contract your abdominal muscles. Hold for six and then release it. Next, tilt your pubic bone, as if toward your navel. Thus, you will flatten your abdominals into the mat or bed. Hold for six and release it. Final exercise (in this set -- because you will do these ten times) -- extend your legs as long as possible while also pressing the backs of the knees into the bed or mat. Flex your feet at the same time. Hold for six and release it. People (like my mom) have serious problems with this pain in the middle of the night. This JUST might HELP!
Magnesium + Potassium
Posted by Alan M. (Oahu) on 04/06/2019
★★★★★
I swim for exercise. I usually swim 3/4 mile, and I do this several times a week, and have been into this routine for decades. One chronic problem I'd been experiencing is, about half way through my swim I would begin to get slammed with painful cramps in the arches of my feet. I never understood what was causing this problem. But just last year I started experimenting with taking magnesium and potassium supplements, and my foot cramp problem went away and has not returned. I actually tried several different types of magnesium before I finally hit on one that works for me. With dinner I take 400mg of magnesium citrate, and 99mg of potassium chelate.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Roger B. (Salisbury, NC) on 03/16/2019
★★★★★
My father had really bad leg cramps. These cramps looked like baseballs on his thigh and calves. He would go down on his knees in pure agony. My grandmaw always gave him about 1/4 cup of ACV which he drank immediately. Within 20-30 seconds the cramps dissapated.
Acupressure
Posted by Winnie (Nairobi, Kenya) on 04/18/2019
★★★★★
Dear Robert, Yesterday I had severe cramping on my right leg and I came here looking for a solution. Yours worked instantly! Thank you so much.
Acupressure
Posted by Robert Morris (Durham, NC.) on 03/01/2019
★★★★★
I learned this leg cramp treatment from a chiropractor in 1977. This works every time. Lift the cramping leg into a horizontal position. Press with the first finger of your right hand directly under your nose, where your nose and upper lip are. Press on the upper lip until the cramp goes away.
Candied Ginger Slices
Posted by Robin (OH) on 10/24/2020 3 posts
I would like to read the specifics of how you made your own lite candied ginger. Thank you.
Bill Thompson's Protocol
Posted by Bill (Philippines) on 10/20/2020
★★★★★
Curing Leg Cramps and Numb Feet
Here is a double remedy that has worked quite well for me. I was recently suffering from bad cramps in my legs at night(with a continual uncomfortable feeling muscle 'tightness' in the legs/feet) and I tried taking potassium which didn't work. Then I tried supplementing Magnesium Chloride (MC) at 250 mgs twice a day as Ted recommends and, strangely, that also didn't work. Then, not satisfied, I created a super-saturated solution of Magnesium Chloride (the same as I had supplemented) and that completely cured the leg cramps. To create a supersaturated solution of MC, just keep dissolving the Magnesium Chloride in water until it no longer dissolves -- that's your super-saturated solution of MC. Then directly apply that solution by hand to the cramp areas. Magnesium Chloride is easily and rapidly absorbed by the skin into the blood. Another option for you is just to dissolve the MC in 70% DMSO and just apply that directly to the problem areas for even greater absorption of MC into the blood.
I wasn't using any of the fancy, more expensive forms of Magnesium Chloride like the Zechstein brands, I was just using standard tech grade anhydrous Magnesium Chloride (with no water molecules attached). I'm still not sure why supplementing this form of anhydrous magnesium chloride didn't work for my cramps but it did work when I applied it as a supersaturated solution that is absorbed through the skin into the blood. Still scratching my head on that one.
I also had a numb feeling around both my big toes and around the sole of my foot, which was quite strange. I successfully got rid of that peripheral numbness by adding two tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar + one crushed garlic + a teaspoon of shaved ginger + a little warm/hot water in a glass. Let the infusion sit and express for 5 mins and then drink it all. The cure effect on the numbness in both feet was very rapid. This is an old Amish recipe for numbness at the extremities.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Laura (Florida) on 10/16/2020
Thank you for letting me know about just putting apple cider vinegar on the muscle itself. I have a severe shoulder spasm so I just tried that. I also tried drinking it but the taste is pretty repulsive to me and I started coughing and had a sneezing attack afterwards! I'm hoping this works. Thank you so much for the advice!
Wintergreen Essential Oil
Posted by Donna (Michigan) on 10/09/2020
★★★★★
Wintergreen Essential Oil for muscle spasms. I have MS and naturally muscle spasms that go with it. When that happens, I hit it with Wintergreen Essential Oil, which works miracles. In the seldom event that doesn't work...I'll grab my Frankincense EO....that'll work too!
Acupressure
Posted by 2q&learn (Southern California) on 10/02/2020 149 posts
The H. Pylori was gone? (I'm reading your post in the section about Muscle Cramps, so not sure what you are referring to.)
EC: Yes, taking mastic gum for 2 weeks appears to have cured her H. Pylori.
Magnesium, Tonic Water
Posted by Jane (Canada) on 10/02/2020
Take a potassium supplement. Had same issue and bananas and magnesium didn't help but potassium tablets did. People think muscle cramps are magnesium related, and they can be, but they can also be from severe potassium deficiency.
Magnesium, Tonic Water
Posted by Gertjr (Madison) on 10/02/2020
Is he taking anything? When I took statins, the leg cramps were horrific. Nothing would make them stop and then I'd be sore for days. I took statins for 3 days and I think this triggered my ongoing cramping. Not so bad anymore, years later, but still the same spot. I think it's damage. Just a thought. Good luck. I, too, tried magnesium and all sorts of things to no avail. What did help me was a heating pad wrapped around the cramping site.
Magnesium, Tonic Water
Posted by Mmsg (Somewhere, Europe) on 10/01/2020
Rebecca, one more thing to try is eating a banana a day.
Magnesium, Tonic Water
Posted by Rebecca (Kentucky) on 09/30/2020
★☆☆☆☆
Need a remedy for nighttime leg cramps. My husband taking Magnesium, taking Epsom salts baths & drinking tonic water, all to no avail.
Coconut Water
Posted by Detail Guy (Portland, Oregon) on 07/31/2020
★★★★★
Due to cancer treatment, I've had excruciating muscle cramps... the kind that are rock hard and hurt for several days after the cramping goes down. Magnesium helps, but oncologist explained that magnesium is "contra-indicated" for cancer. She suggested Coconut water... it has a lot of potassium. This really helped a lot. I still get occasional mild cramps... no big deal. Hope this helps.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Posted by Marsh57 (Colorado) on 07/21/2020
I was having foot cramps and heart palpitations. Saw a cardiologist and all was well. She recommended a good magnesium supplement, a banana and Himalayan salt. Didn't have either for 8 years.
The foot and leg cramps are returning. Not sure if it's because I'm back at the gym but will double up on the mag and start with ACV.
Magnesium
Posted by Orh (Ten Mile, Tn ) on 07/05/2020
Lisa, ORH here, you right on the money gal.
Transdermal is the best way to get stuff into yo body without going through your digestive system. DMSO will drive it in PDQ. SAS..... SIMPLE AS SHEET
==ORH==
Magnesium
Posted by Lisa D (South Dakota) on 07/04/2020
★★★★★
You need to try mag. oil spray. You can get it at a health food store. I tried the pills. Got nothing so I tried the oil spray and I'll never try anything else. I have been awakened to some horrific leg cramps and spray it on and within minutes it's gone. I've even sprayed it on like half way down my leg and I got a cramp and it stops where the spray ended it's the weirdest thing but the best ever. My spray is a mandatory item on my night stand.
Culinary Argan Oil
Posted by Anon (Not Canada) on 06/30/2020
How much vitamin E is in the oil?
Culinary Argan Oil
Posted by Tatiana (Boston, Ma) on 06/29/2020
★★★★★
Culinary Argan Oil cured my muscle cramps and the muscle crams of 2 other people in my family.
I was getting terrible muscle cramps - sometimes as bad as 10X a day - I was afraid to go anywhere because I didn't know when I would unexpectedly get them and they were extremely painful and scary - I didn't know what was causing them & still don't.
I started taking 2 teaspoons a day of culinary Argan oil (one teaspoon at lunch, one at dinner), and within a few weeks, I realized the cramps were occurring less & less - it's been about 2 months since I started taking the Argan oil, and the cramps that I experienced for about 6 months are finally gone! I can't believe it and wanted to share on this site, which has helped me to find natural solutions for other health issues. Two family members who also started taking the Argan oil also noticed their cramps were went away - they did not get them as bad as I did, and I think that's why their results were more immediate. I highly recommend this amazing oil that not many people know about!!
There are two forms of it - the topical Argan oil and the lesser known culinary Argan oil. You can't ingest the topical kind - only the culinary kind. Argan oil is from Morocco and Israel.