What causes leg cramps?

Many people are awakened from their sleep by leg cramps, some people suddenly get leg cramps while walking, and some people get leg cramps due to strenuous exercise. So what exactly causes leg cramps? The doctor told us that the scientific name for leg cramps is muscle spasm. Leg cramps are very painful when they occur and can affect people's sleep. Therefore, we need to find the cause of leg cramps and prevent this situation from occurring at the root.

①Cold stimulation. Such as exercising in a cold environment in winter. Insufficient warm-up exercises or lower water temperature during swimming in summer can easily cause leg cramps. If you don't cover yourself with a blanket when you sleep at night, your calf muscles will be stimulated by the cold. The spasms would be so painful that they would wake people up.

② Muscles contract too quickly and continuously. During strenuous exercise. The whole body is in a state of tension and the leg muscles contract too quickly. If the relaxation time is too short, the local metabolic product lactic acid will increase, and muscle contraction and relaxation will be difficult to coordinate, thus causing calf muscle cramps.

③Excessive sweating. Long exercise time. You exercise a lot, sweat a lot, and don't replenish salt in time. A large amount of fluid and electrolytes are lost from the body. Accumulation of metabolic waste. Poor local blood circulation in muscles can also lead to cramps.

④Excessive fatigue. The calf muscles are most likely to become fatigued when traveling long distances, climbing mountains, or ascending high places. Because every time I climb high. The whole body weight is supported by one foot. The strength required for the muscles of this leg to lift the foot will be six times the human body weight. When it is fatigued to a certain extent, cramps will occur.

⑤ Calcium deficiency. During muscle contraction. Calcium ions play an important role. When the calcium ion concentration in the blood is too low, muscles become easily excited and cramp. Teenagers grow and develop rapidly and are easily deficient in calcium, which is why they often suffer from leg cramps.

⑥Bad sleeping posture. For example, lying on your back for a long time with the quilt pressing on your feet, or lying on your stomach for a long time with your feet resting on the bed, certain calf muscles are forced to be in an absolutely relaxed state for a long time, causing "passive contracture" of the muscles.

⑦ Frequent occurrence may be related to vascular disease.

We know the cause of leg cramps. In daily life, we need to learn how to take care of ourselves, such as keeping warm and not letting the local muscles in the legs be invaded by cold air. Secondly, we must pay attention to our personal sleeping posture. We can take some vitamin E or calcium tablets daily. Finally, we must strengthen physical exercise and warm up before doing strenuous exercise.