Comments on: charlie horse

By: yyy1

yyy1 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:14:16 +0000

I haven’t gotten too many. And, thankfully, my husband is always around when I do. I let him massage them out. It works pretty good.

By: aperry82

aperry82 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:12:53 +0000

The quickest way when lying in bed at 3am is simply to strecth your leg and point your foot upwards and massage the muscle to relax it. You can then apply a cold pack to reduce the blood flow and relax the muscle. Hope that helps.

By: junkladylil

junkladylil — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:25:32 +0000

I too have used an analgesic rubbing cream to relieve pain in my legs…it works well and relatively quickly so that you can at least stand and get to a cold floor to place your feet flat. This seems to always relieve the discomfort and the spasms.

By: nynekats

nynekats — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:44:59 +0000

For me, its rubbing the cramp directly where it hurts most. It hurts really bad but seems to lessen the length of the cramp. I also have had luck in lessening the duration of the cramp if I get up and walk during it. This is very difficult but it does help.

By: BastilaShan

BastilaShan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:38:49 +0000

I’ve found that like Spring says, Topical solutions can work wonders. Also, I’ve found that gentle stretching and self-massage of the effected area can work quite a bit of magic if you don’t have a tube of ben-gay at the bedside. More often than not, if you show the charlie horse a little love, it will slowly retreat into obscurity, leaving you alone without pain.

By: mw1221

mw1221 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:52:18 +0000

Charlie horses are the worst. I usually get them while sleeping and the pain shoots from calf down to toes. The best thing to do for me is to try to stretch it out and walk around. I find it helpful. But you can get more potassium to prevent these in general. I started eating more bananas and found that I had less charlie horses.

By: Kris10M

Kris10M — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:43:38 +0000

One of the best methods I’ve found for relieving a Charlie horse is vigorous massaging of the area affected. If I rub my leg with firm pressure very fast, I’m able to relax the cramp enough to stand up and walk it out. And then once the pain subsides, I eat a handful of salted peanuts. This was my grandmother’s remedy when I was a child. I don’t know why it works (maybe something with the protein and salt?) but it definitely helps keep the charlie horse from returning. It has never failed me yet!

By: spring

spring — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:56:02 +0000

I have found two quick ways to lessen pain from a charlie horse. Usually they will happen when I am already sleeping, so I keep good old Ben Gay Pain Relieving Cream right by my bedside. Just rub it into the calf. It lessens the pain enough to be able to walk right away. The other way is to run cold water into a bathtub (enough to cover the feet)then put both feet in and splash the water up to the calf, and this usually will work immediately. Most of the time I use the Ben Gay Pain Relieving Cream first to get the pain less, then the bath water next., but either one used seperately works fast for me!!