Cramps and Leg Pain In Diabetes

Nocturnal calf muscle spasms or muscle spasms are an uncomfortable and strong contraction of one muscle or a whole group, followed by severe pain. At the same time, cramps can affect all the muscles of the body, but most often those responsible for the work of the two joints.

Attention! The gastrocnemius also belongs to them. This condition is very common, and sooner or later almost everyone encounters it. At the same time, the question immediately arises.

What is the cause of this pathology, and can the attacks be called a disease, or are they just manifestations of other pathological conditions that still do not show their symptoms?

At the same time, the intensity of muscle contractions can vary from a small tick-twitching to a very strong one, which is accompanied by intense pain. A cramp might last anywhere from a few seconds to 15 minutes or more. In this case, several such attacks can occur during the night.

If they were particularly strong, within a few days after the attack, the pain in the calf muscle may persist and even the inflammatory process may begin.

The etymology of seizures?

No doctor can yet give an accurate answer to the question of why cramps occur. However, throughout the study of this unpleasant phenomenon, several reasons have been identified that may contribute to their occurrence. Among them can be considered the most common:

Calf muscle overload due to intense exercise or long walks. Professions are associated with constant standing. Most often, such pathology is observed in salesmen, hairdressers, guides, flight attendants, and scrapers. 

Occupations are associated with prolonged sitting, especially when a person also throws one leg over the other or just crosses them under a chair. Dehydration Taking some medicines, such as those used to treat high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Also, the cause of night cramps in the calf muscles can be some diseases. For example, this condition is often seen in diabetes mellitus, low blood sugar, and Parkinson's disease.

Hormonal malfunctions in the body can also lead to this, for example, thyroid dysfunction or an imbalance of trace elements, especially potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Also, cramps in the calf can occur during pregnancy.

Types and risk factors

To date, there are 2 types of cramps in the calf at night. The first type is called idiopathic. The cause is unknown to them, so they call them idiopathic. They most often occur after strenuous physical exertion, as well as in the case of a sudden violation of blood flow in the lower leg.

Idiopathic convulsions can occur in both children and the elderly. In this situation, the reason is referred to be tendon shortening as a result of aging. Secondary convulsions occur in the background of some pathology of pregnancy.

The most common are neurological diseases or peripheral neuropathy. This also includes liver disease, poisoning, and dehydration. Certain risk factors contribute to the occurrence of such attacks. This includes the following:

Age over 50 years. Physical overload. Pregnancy. Flat feet. Leg deformity. treatment.

Of course, not all pregnant women have such problems, and not all people with flat feet can manifest them. However, these factors are worth paying a lot of attention to.

Which causes seizures in the human body

Nocturnal cramps in the calf muscles most commonly occur at night. The person wakes up from a sudden sharp pain in the form of a spasm or compression in the calf. In this case, the cramp may be just as tender as it can be with severe pain.

Important: Muscles that are tight become thick and hard. They can be well palpated under the skin of the lower leg. In addition, their shape also changes greatly. If the cramp is small, then the person may feel a muscle twitch under the skin.

The attack itself can last only a few seconds or maybe 15 or even more minutes. A sharp muscle contraction can cause very severe pain and a person even has to take pain medication.

Sharp pain and frequent seizures lead to the fact that the person stops sleeping normally and insomnia gradually begins to develop. To prevent this, you should definitely consult a doctor after the first such attack.

Drug therapy

If the cause of nocturnal calf muscle cramps is not determined, then the doctor will not be able to prescribe the appropriate treatment. Therefore, during such an attack, you can try to alleviate the condition yourself. To do this, just try to pull your leg forward or lift it and also stretch.

In some instances, standing on the affected leg can alleviate cramps. Additionally, a massage and a contrast shower can help relax the muscles and relieve built-up tension. Regarding medications, the following tablets are commonly used:

• Diphenylhydramine hydrochloride.
• Calcium preparations.
• Magnesium preparations.
• Quinine sulfate.
• meprobamate.
• Sea otter.
• Aralen.
• plakenyl.
• Tegretol.
• dilantin.

These medicines, however, should only be used under the close supervision of a physician and only after the source of such disease has been established.

The first thing to do is to increase your intake of substances like potassium, calcium, and magnesium. To do this, you can take special multivitamins or add more dairy products to your diet. However, it is important to note that fat-free meals contain no beneficial ingredients.

There is no point in including them in your diet to treat this problem. Potassium is found in bananas, avocados, and fish meat. But magnesium is well absorbed from nuts, legumes, spinach, and oatmeal. Be sure to do gymnastic exercises every day, but in no case do not burden yourself.

You can also take a massage course, and it is good to take a bath with contrasting legs every night before going to bed. To prevent cramps and cramps, it is also worth refusing to wear high-heeled shoes, limiting the use of coffee and tea, and giving up bad habits.

Everything you need to know about leg cramps in diabetics

It’s no secret that with a disease like diabetes, patients often have leg cramps. The reason for the appearance of leg cramps is an excessive amount of blood sugar.

The fact is that the high content of sugar increases the content of urine, and with it, all the necessary trace elements come out of the body, the lack of which can cause seizures. If a person with diabetes is convulsive, then you can try adding foods rich in magnesium and calcium to your diet.

If you consume enough of these micronutrients, then you need to add foods that contain vitamin D to your diet as it contributes to better absorption of calcium and magnesium. Do not use dairy products because they contain a large amount of phosphorus, which will only increase the effect of seizures.

Diabetes mellitus is a serious disease that causes disorders in the work of various organs. In diabetes, the peripheral nerves are affected. These lesions lead to pain in the legs, calves, and feet. Such pains last long enough, they usually occur at night.

Also, diabetes mellitus is characterized by a burning sensation in the legs and crawling. After a long walk, the calf muscles spasm, this usually happens at night. In case of further development of the disease, other symptoms may appear, more serious and more dangerous.

Caution Leg cramps are sharp and involuntary muscle contractions that cause acute pain. The duration of the seizure varies and varies from a few seconds to 10 minutes. Rather sharp pain is possible after which the muscles remain sensitive for a long time.

Of course, in the case of frequent attacks due to diabetes, first of all, the disease itself must be treated. But a few simple and straightforward rules will help you deal with night cramps. If you feel a cramp, you need to sit on the bed, get your feet out of bed, and then stand carefully on the cold floor.

The position of the body should be straight, and the feet should be held together. In addition to the cramp, the following procedure will help: you must take a deep breath, take your toes with your hand, and pull them towards you. After removing the cramps, a gentle massage of the calf muscles will not interfere.

The basis of treatment of this disease in diabetes is physical therapy. However, before beginning any fitness program, you should speak with your doctor because there may be contraindications. Sample list of exercises for leg cramps in diabetes:

perform slow-rolling from heel to heel; we rise to our toes, then slowly lower our heels to the floor; while lying on your back, lift your legs up, possibly straightening at the knees, and then do light circular movements with your legs. If fatigue occurs quickly, stop exercising. After exercising, you have to walk around the room barefoot, bending your toes.

Necessary physical activity stimulates blood circulation in the legs, nourishes the muscles with energy, and helps against cramps in diabetes. 

In addition, a specific compression bandage can help increase blood circulation in the lower extremities. Diabetic shoes should be comfortable and comfy, they should not squeeze the foot and lead to curiosity.

About diabetic foot and cramps

Due to sclerotic changes in capillaries and the composition of interstitial fluid, the inevitable companions of hyperglycemia in diabetes, metabolic processes, and the normal supply of cells with essential nutrients worsen. Affects muscles, bones, skin, and nerve fibers.

This leads to edema, dry skin, itching, cramps, and pain, which are briefly called angiopathies and neuropathies. In this case, the body cannot effectively fight the attack of fungi and microbes. 

Therefore, diabetics are advised to wash their feet daily, avoid injuries, and be especially vigilant so as not to lead to gangrene and limb amputation.

Diabetologists have estimated that 75% of diabetics complain of cramps in the limbs, which give very strong pain. In this case, you cannot do massage and pressure on the nerve trunks, because that increases muscle irritability and pain. However, such manifestations can be disturbing even without diabetes.

Such complaints occur due to acidification of the body (acidosis) with a lack of absorption of calcium, potassium, and magnesium. They are called the basic alkali metals vital to man. The main opponent of the assimilation of these elements is toxic metallic aluminum.

Because of its cheapness, aluminum has taken a leading place in the kitchen: pots, pans, pans, military bowlers, and plates. This soft metal is easily cleaned with iron chips when washing dishes, as a result, super-permitted doses of toxic metals enter the food (as well as when heated).

Tip: Run your finger over the surface of the cut metal chips - black marks of harmful metal oxide will remain on the skin. If you monitor the "cleanliness" of aluminum cookware in this way, then cramps in the muscles of the lower extremities can occur. In addition, the production of parathyroid hormone is indirectly activated by aluminum intoxication.

This causes osteoporosis and bone fractures because in this case calcium is intensively removed from the bone tissue. You can't find advice on how to avoid drinking aluminum and nickel in any book on diabetes.

 So, it is called another powerful source of acidification of the body - acidosis, from which, according to the new concept of the authors of these lines, diabetes of the second type arises.

Based on the above, it is appropriate to quote from the book "Bioelements in Medicine" by professors AV Skalnoy and IA Rudakov.

The main manifestations of magnesium deficiency:

Fatigue, irritability; Loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation; Diseases of the cardiovascular system (magnesium-dependent arrhythmia, angiosperm, angina pectoris, hypertension with risk of thrombosis and heart attack); 

Exhaustion of adrenal function; Early stages of diabetes; Muscle weakness, muscle cramps; Initial stages of development of urolithiasis and gallstones; Immune deficiencies (possible increased risk of tumor diseases).

Atherosclerotic vascular disease is a common companion of the elderly. A new look at the causes of diabetes was published in the author's book on the causes of diabetes - an addition to the theory of atherosclerosis, which leads to the appearance and progression of diabetes in the elderly, significantly reducing life expectancy.

With atherosclerosis, not only the islets of Langerhans that produce insulin weaken or stop functioning but other endocrine glands as well. 

Insufficient absorption of calcium, and thus a prerequisite for acidosis in the body, is possible not only with a lack of vitamin D but also with hypofunction of the parathyroid glands that regulate the absorption of this alkali metal.

Both circumstances are the cause of unpleasant attacks such as tetany, whose first signal is the so-called. "Cramp writing" fingers. If you notice "inconspicuous" toes in the evening, then at night or in the morning you can expect small muscles of the feet and lower legs, if you did not drink kefir or 1-2 tablets of calcium gluconate at night.

In severe and frequent cases, they resort to magnesium preparations, and first-generation antihistamines, including diphenhydramine. The absorption of aluminum increases with the increasing acidity of the food. Therefore, some aluminum cookware cannot be cooked. It is forbidden to bake bread in aluminum molds.

It is not recommended to cook jam, especially from berries and fruits that contain various organic acids, in aluminum pans.

Leg pain, stiffness, and calf muscle cramps as symptoms of diabetic neuropathy

In diabetes mellitus, peripheral neuropathy is more common, which can manifest itself in the form of symmetrical peripheral polyneuropathy, mononeuropathy, and autonomic (visceral) neuropathy. Symmetrical peripheral neuropathy is most often detected.

Important! The distal regions of the lower extremities are predominantly impacted, though the upper extremities may occasionally be involved. The primary clinical manifestation is pain syndrome, typically preceded by paresthesia, which includes symptoms such as numbness, tingling, crawling sensations, delayed sensitivity loss, or hyperesthesia.

Cramps in the calf muscles are common, occurring at rest, especially at night. The pain intensifies at rest, and at night. In severe cases, patients complain of pain throughout the body and suffer from hyperesthesia, when even a touch of tin causes a sharp burning sensation.

In neurological status, there is a decrease and then the absence of periosteal tendon reflexes, mainly Achilles and knee. Soon there is a loss of vibrational sensitivity, when the process extends to the entire nervous abdomen, there can be a loss of all kinds of sensitivity - tactile, painful, positional.

These stages are very dangerous due to the possibility of trauma and burns on the legs, which the patient does not feel. Such patients often have deep neuropathic ulcers. 

Diabetic neuropathy can appear in the form of individual asymmetric lesions of one or more nerve trunks (femur, sciatica, median, ulnar).

A severe manifestation of peripheral neuropathy is proximal diabetic amyotrophy. The basis of this form is a combined lesion of the anterior horns of the spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, characterized by a syndrome of damage to the pelvis, and shoulder girdle. Its main features are:

• severe weakness,
• muscle atrophy of varying severity,
• fasciculations and pain,
• loss of sensitivity is usually absent,
• asthenia and emotion are common.

Less commonly, mononeuropathy may occur in the form of isolated or multiple paralysis and paresis of the cranial (trigeminal, facial, and oculomotor) nerves.