Pain, Captain

[elfs]

It's gotta be nutritional. This seems to happen once in a while; my body just starts to hurt. First, there was the spasm as my right calf locked up, making it damn near impossible to walk. Then, the pain travelled up to my back, making it very hard to turn my head to the right (which makes it hard to look over my shoulder while driving to check the blind spot). Now, my wrists and elbows have begun to hurt.

What am I missing? Potassium, calcium, zinc? I'm doing my stretches and remembering my workout, and I'm taking in plenty of the above. Omaha suspects it might be caffeine toxicity, but I've actually cut back on my caffeine intake by quite a bit recently. It might be potassium shortage, since half my caffeine intake is one 12oz can of pop per day, but reading through the literature I can only find one case where potassium shortage was the cause of muscle fatigue and spasms, and the woman in question was drinking eight liters (!) of sodapop a day.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'd go with both potassium and calcium..... and not medicate, but simply drink more milk and eat a banana every day (or drink grape juice or OJ). You can *get* calcium supplements, but a lot of them don't work as well as just plain drinking milk (or getting it in an organic form, such as Ca. Citrate)...

You can get OJ with calcium, which will be in the citrate form; that packs a triple-whammy, as it's got some potassium in it too (though not as much as the 400-plus mg the monkey fruit has)....

Calcium is essential for proper nerve functioning; after my surgery I could feel my fingertips tingle and my mouth felt funny, but a couple Tums every time that happened fixed it, and now that my parathyroids are back to normal I don't worry about it... and of course the potassium helps with the cramping, but you knew that....

Dunno about Zinc. I've only seen zinc associated with immune functions, in lozenges... but there are also a lot of Ca-Mg-Zn mineral supplements out there... hafta do your own research on that one.

But, yeah, a banana and a tall glass of milk will go a long way...

[tonyawinter.livejournal.com]

Are you drinking enough water? Perhaps your body isn't able to filter away the toxins in your body fast enough.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

That's possible. Someone walked off with my water bottle at work a few days ago.

A few thoughts and guesses

[jenkitty.livejournal.com]

Are you getting enough water? How's your electrolyte balance? These seem to be the big ones for me, and tend to be the root cause when I'm feeling really off. Have you tried adding glucosamine to your daily supplements for the joint pain? If you're concerned about toxic reactions, try adding milk thistle capsules to strengthen your liver. Is the pain focused in the joints or the muscles? You might also look into chiropractic or acupuncture for pain management. The leg pain might be some form of sciatica.

Re: A few thoughts and guesses

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I've had sciatica. No, this is definitely the kind of muscular pain associated with accumulated muscle toxins. I just wish I knew how I was accumulating them!

Re: A few thoughts and guesses

[jenkitty.livejournal.com]

In that case, definitely try increasing your water intake. It does help flush things out. Are we talking about your basic fatigue toxins here, like lactic acid?

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

The phosphoric acid in brown soda will steal your calcium like mad.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Magnesium, maybe? Deficiency definitely causes cramps (ow).

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

I'd go with the potassium/calcium angle, followed by enough water. I always get muscle cramps when I don't eat enough potassium with calcium to balance it out, and being dehydrated is just asking for it. Your cramp sounded particularly bad, but about right for the ones I've had. I usually limp the rest of the day until I can manage to sloooowly stretch it out again - while eating two bananas, drinking milk, and about two quarts of water.

Dried apricots are a good banana alternative - have a good amount, and you can keep them around for more than a week. I use those when my bananas are gone, since they can't last more than a week in the house.