Saw following article in today’s Telegraph and thought I’d post it. May benifit somebody but not tried it myself yet. Doctors diary. -James Le Fanu. My thanks to a reader for passing on a simple preventive remedy for those suffering agonising nocturnal cramps. A friend of his, having heard that his wife had fainted after leaping out of bed in the middle of the night to assuage her cramps, commended a teaspoonful of Bovril or Marmite in a cup of hot water, taken each day. This apparently “really works”, and is now used by quite a few people we know. Tony
ok, gotta try that one, i get awful pain in leg muscles during the night, thanks. we should all try it, en mass and update our findings on here
wendy x
I’ve got a sneaky feeling that it could be something to do with the salt content…could be wrong.
Salt deficiency definitely causes cramps. Brits working in the tropics are commonly issued salt tablets, because excessive sweating leads to salt depletion as well as dehydration. I asked what would happen if we didn’t take them, and was told: “You’ll get cramp!”.
T.
One of our MS nurses has advised some of my friends to take half a glass of diet tonic water every day for relieving cramps. It’s the quinine in it apparently, I haven’t tried it myself.
Wendy x
Wendy,
The dose is too tiny to make any difference. Quinine does help cramps, so the principle is sound, but I needed a proper prescription (many times higher than you could get from tonic water) before I found any relief.
Tina
x
i bought a spray bottle of magnesion oil, then forgot all about it.
i woke up with horrible cramp in my leg and foot, so massaged it with the oil and that was enough to allow me to get back to sleep.
i’ll try the marmite too.
carole x
I found I was getting leg cramps at night when my legs were cold in bed. I now make sure I have warm pj’s on and long bed socks and it seems to be working, but time will tell I guess.
Hi!
I found that a glass of tonic water gets rid of the cramps… It maight also be because it’s diluted with gin and used to wash down a load of baclofen as well…
Shell x