21 Best Ways to Relieve Leg Cramps Fast with Home Remedy

Having tense muscle on your leg some time, especially at night? It must be bothering you because it might disturb your sleeping time. If you are having tense muscles on your legs, you might experience the one called legs cramps. You can underestimate this legs cramps because it might lead you to something serious. If you want to know more about leg cramps, you can check this following explanation about it.

Causes of Leg Cramps

Leg cramps happen because of the strong contraction of the muscles on legs. It usually occurs in your calf muscle below and behind the knee. A cramp mostly ends in a few minutes, but in some cases it can be shorter in a few seconds. Legs cramps mostly attack you at the time when you are resting, especially at night.

There are many causes of legs cramps. They are as follow:

Too much exercise
Deficiency in magnesium
Dehydration
Too much alcohol consumption
Nerves disorders
Pregnancy (in the later stage)
Kidney dialysis
Muscles fatigue
Lack of potassium
Lack of magnesium
Lack of electrolytes

Related to foot’s health, you might also want to read more about 13 Helpful Ways How to Treat Swollen Knee from Fall

How to Stop Leg Cramps

There are some treatments on how to stop leg cramps. This is the best way to relieve leg cramps fast:

1. Exercises

Most leg cramps can be treated with exercises. By exercising, you can prevent muscle spasms on your leg. Do warming up and cooling down properly before and after exercise so that your muscles will not be over fatigue, strained or pulled.

When you finished exercising, spend around 10-15 minutes to stretch your muscles by holding stretches for at least 20-30 seconds. You also need to make your muscles become more resilient by having good postures of sitting and walking for the whole day.

2. Massaging

A good massage will relax and ease your tense muscle that will make the muscles contract less. You can apply your calves and thighs regularly by using natural oil.

3. Stretching

Stretching routine should always be done before your are doing your exercise or workout. By doing more stretching, you will minimize the risk of leg cramps.

4. Keep Hydrating Your Body

As we know that water is very important for lives, and so for treating leg cramps. One of the causes of leg cramps is dehydration, which means lack of water. Dehydration could cause muscles spasms and cramps. Make sure you drink enough water everyday based on your body mass and your activities. The more active you are, the more water you need to stay hydrated.

5. For Sensitive Muscles, the Use of Ice or Heat Packs Might Help

Heat helps you to relax your muscles and is beneficial to deal with pain, tightness or cramp. Try to put the heat packs on the area where you get cramps or pain by using heating pad or warm towel and try to massage the area. Another way is by having sauna or staying in the steam room for all over heat. Ice pack is also beneficial for reducing the pain in the cramped area in your legs.

6. Use of Epsom Salt for Bathing

Epsom salt is known rich in magnesium that really seeps into your skin to reach the muscles that are cramped or tense when you add it to your bath. Epsom salt enriches your magnesium need, eases stress, soothes muscles and acts as natural tool to detox the body. It helps to relax the muscles and ease anxiety if you apply this to the area that is tense and cramped, such as your leg.

7. Eat Banana to Enhance Potassium Need

One of the causes of leg cramp might be lack of potassium in your body. So, by eating banana that is rich in potassium will help you to deal with leg cramps.

8. Take a Lick of Salt

Shake a portion of table salt into the palm of your hand and lick it. It will help you boosting the electrolytes in your body. This is the most common treatment because salt is easy to get and it is full of electrolytes that is very useful for your muscles.

9. Putting Soap in Your Socks

Many people have tried to put soap in their socks while they are sleeping and admitted that it works for treating leg cramps, especially at night.

10. Chamomile Tea

It is one of the herbal treatments for treating leg cramps. Chamomile is beneficial for relaxing the muscles, increasing the level of glycine and amino acid. Glycine is useful for relieving leg cramps. You can the chamomile in your tea as your companion for afternoon snacks.

You may also need to see another use of chamomile in 50 Ways on How to Treat Anxiety with Aromatherapy

11. Apple Cider Vinegar

A combination of apple cider vinegar, honey and warm water would be perfect as home remedy to treat leg cramps. Apple cider vinegar is rich in potassium that is mainly needed to treat leg cramps.

Other Ways to Treat Leg Cramps

There are so many more treatments for treating your leg cramps. Here they are more best way to relieve leg cramps fast:

Fruit juices – A daily serving of fruit juices will help to banish leg cramps.
Brewer’s yeast – It improves the blood circulation on your legs.
Red raspberry tea – It helps to relieve pain.
Korean fermented cabbage (kimchi) – It is beneficial to reduce the pain on your legs during cramps.
Pinching your lips – It also helps to reduce the pain of the legs.
Pickle juice – It is known as anti-cramps agent.
Mustard – It contains acetic acid, which stimulates the muscles to work.
Cow milk – It helps relieving the pain of the cramps.
Lavender oil – It has been successfully treating muscles cramps, especially leg cramps.
Primrose oil – It has anti-inflammatory that is useful for treating leg cramps.

You might be also interested to the uses of other oils in Fastest Ways to Heal Dry Cracked Hands

How to Prevent Leg Cramps?

There are some things you can do to prevent leg cramps to happen again. Here are the ways to prevent leg cramps.

Wear shoes equipped with cushion foot inserted
Use pillow to hang your knee over the bed
Exercise your calves regularly during the day
Don’t work out too much
Improve your position for sleeping
Pay attention to your water intake
Eat lots of green vegetables to enrich your mineral need
Avoid alcohol
Have enough rest

The point of how to stop leg cramps is commitment and sufficient amount of exercise. Exercises might be good and the best way to keep our body healthy, but too much exercise will bring you to health problems as well. So, have a try at home.

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