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Ever get woken up in the middle of the night with a really bad cramp in your leg? I’m going to share with you the best natural remedies for leg cramps, especially at nighttime and even restless leg syndrome.
Let’s go over some reasons why you have leg cramps, and I will even share a test that you can do and then of course some solutions to fix it. First and foremost, the issue is generally a nutrient deficiency. That’s usually the reason why people have cramps, especially in the legs, and especially at nighttime. Mineral deficiency is usually the number one reason. Minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, and even potassium. If one of these minerals is low, it can cause cramps. So what are some of the reasons for this? Well, first it could be the diet that you’re following. You’re not getting enough minerals in your diet overall, maybe you’re not salting your food enough, maybe you’re following keto low carb and not eating enough things that have minerals in them. Not to mention that our soil is pretty depleted of minerals, so it’s really hard to get enough in your diet in the first place.
Next you could be taking medications that deplete your body of minerals. Another big reason that we see in our clinic is not having enough stomach acid to absorb the minerals in the first place. Your stomach has to be really acidic in order to help digest your food and absorb nutrients from your food.
There is a test that you can do, it is a very unusual test that your doctor is never going to run on you. But if you go to a natural practitioner, they may do it. It’s called the tissue mineral level cuff test. You take a blood pressure cuff and you can do this at home, but I would have someone do it for you. Wrap the cuff around your calf muscle, and have the other person slowly inflate the cuff and read the number on the dial. If you can take enough pressure to go beyond 220 without any pain, then you are probably okay and do not have any kind of deficiency. However, if you start to feel cramping or pain prior to it hitting 220, chances are that you have some type of mineral deficiency.
In our clinic, what we generally use as a mineral product for calcium is calcium lactate. This contains five parts calcium to one part magnesium and it is in a form that is very well absorbed. Most of the calcium supplements on the market are made from calcium carbonate, which is not easily absorbed. So look for calcium lactate. We use one from Standard Process. Also start using sea salt. Sea salt is really good for you. Don’t be worried about salt, I know mainstream information tells you not to use salt, but it is actually very beneficial.
Another issue is not getting enough essential healthy fats into your diet, because the fats actually take the minerals and put them into the tissue where they need to go. If you’re following a low fat diet or not a healthy fat diet, that could potentially be an issue. At our clinic, we encourage people to eat healthy fats obviously, and also we use a product called Cataplex F from Standard Process that has good essential fats in it.
As far as restless leg goes, that’s also generally a nutrient deficiency. The ones that I just mentioned could be part of it as well, but another one that is overlooked most of the time is iron. Being iron deficient could be another reason for restless leg syndrome, so you might want to look into that and have your ferritin levels checked.
To recap, you want to test your calf to see if you have low mineral levels and then you want to make sure your digestion is working and that you are getting enough minerals and healthy fats into your diet. You can also supplement with some of the products that I mentioned. If you have any questions or need a personalized recommendation from us, we do offer a free consultation, so please give us a call and check out our website.
