What causes leg cramps in girls when they sleep?

In life, people often suffer from leg cramps. The most common one is cramps during exercise. For example, on the basketball court and the football field, athletes often cannot stand up due to leg cramps and will lie on the ground screaming, because leg cramps are very painful. In addition, people are prone to cramps when swimming. Some women also experience leg cramps when sleeping at night. What is the reason behind this?

What causes leg cramps in girls when they sleep?

Cramps are medically called spasms. When it comes to calf cramps, people often associate it with the limbs getting cold while swimming, but there is no "cold" during sleep, so people think it is caused by calcium deficiency. However, for many people who suffer from calf cramps, after taking calcium tablets and drinking calcium-rich milk, the symptoms of cramps not only did not improve, but became worse. What is going on?

In fact, there are many reasons that cause muscle spasms, but people tend to ignore the factor of magnesium deficiency. In fact, muscle spasms in many patients are caused not by calcium deficiency but by magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is an important cation in cells. It works with ATP and other substances in cells to activate many important enzymes. If there is insufficient magnesium in the blood, the activity of certain enzymes will decrease, potassium ions will overflow from the cells, and the excitability of the nerves and muscles will increase due to insufficient potassium in the cells, making muscle spasms more likely to occur. In this case, blindly supplementing calcium is like adding insult to injury. Because calcium and magnesium have antagonistic effects, calcium can reduce the activity of magnesium in cells, causing magnesium deficiency muscle cramps to become more severe.

Under normal circumstances, people will not be deficient in magnesium, because there are many foods rich in magnesium, such as bananas, nuts, fish, soybeans, peanuts, corn, green leafy vegetables, etc. These foods can be eaten frequently. However, if the diet is unreasonable, one is picky about food, or eats too refined food, magnesium deficiency may occur; patients with chronic diseases or the elderly may also suffer from magnesium deficiency due to their small appetite. Therefore, people who often suffer from calf cramps should not blindly supplement calcium, but should consult a doctor in time.

Although the cause of calf cramps is unclear, I can tell you a little trick to quickly relieve pain when you have cramps: lift your toes (instep) upwards with force, and you can use your hands to assist. The effect is very obvious and fast.

Calcium needs gastric acid to be absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. It has been determined that 200 to 300 ml of gastric acid are needed to absorb 200 mg of calcium, and it takes 2 to 3 hours for the stomach to secrete this gastric acid, and food stays in the stomach for about 2 to 3 hours. It can be seen from this that eating 200 mg of calcium at a time has the best absorption effect. If you eat too much calcium at one time, the body's absorption will still be limited. The correct way to supplement calcium is: orally, 200 mg each time, 3 to 4 times a day.