Nocturnal leg cramps

[garycat]

I woke up last night with the most absurd agony in my calf. I had to get out of bed and try and stretch it out but it was so painful I couldn't put weight on that leg.

I've been having more and more night cramps recently, usually in the arch of my foot but this cramp in my calf was another magnitude of pain. I can still feel it aching now 8 hours later and I'm walking with a limp.

Any ideas for cures/prevention?

[daz3210]

My first thought (but I am not a medic) was are you well hydrated?

[Janluke]

I recently(Jan) started cycling and would get terrible cramp in the night. I started drinking more water with electrolytes with seemed to have done the trick. I also kept a bottle of Indian tonic water by the bed(one with quinine) and found a couple of glugs of that during an attack would ease it

[Grandad Gaz]

Thought I would add to this.

I used to get a lot of cramp during the night and then I read somewhere recently that drinking too much water can also flush some of the salts out of your body. So, I cut down on water intake and guess what? Not had any cramps since!

[Slink]

talking about the exess water thing.

some girl died when on extacy due to thinking that drinking loads will get rid of the pill from her system.

she drank somethink like 7 litres in an hour and basically flushed all the electrolites and good stuff out her system and died.