MY LEG!!!

[laterade]

Last night I woke up with my calf muscle throbbing. Could not stop it from tensing up.
It was also pulsating at the bottom and the pain felt the worst underneath the muscle at the bottom.
All I could do was stretch it out and about 5 to 10 minutes later it stopped and I was left with a pulsating calf.
One of my first thoughts was "there is something in side of me" but it could have been a intense muscle spasm, but I have never one this intense. It is sore but it just feels like I pulled a muscle. It is still pulsating, but I have no trouble using my leg and would like to keep it that way.

It hurt like a bitch and I was pretty freaked out so I would appreciate some input anything at all that might shed some light on this. Thanks

[B.Money]

leg cramp? 

Hope its nothing serious though.

[RawZi]

    Do you think it happened because of your diet?  What are you eating?  Maybe there is something lacking.

    I hope your leg and all are well soon.

[kurite]

I dont know your history on the paleo diet but when I started my legs spasmed very often exactly how you described it.

[laterade]

    Do you think it happened because of your diet?  What are you eating?  Maybe there is something lacking.
    I hope your leg and all are well soon.

I don't think so. I continue to feel great other than the leg.
The only recent changes in diet are that I have been eating more coconuts and durian in the mornings. and I stopped drinking milk/cream and only do butter when it comes to dairy. Still eating about a pound maybe 1.5 of GF beef, sometimes wild fish, in the evening. Occasional cucumber celery cilantro apple juice.
I have been looking into David Wolfe/ Dr. Cassar's idea that there are a large number of "calcium parasites" in our lower half of the body, this is probably why I jumped to that conclusion. Maybe one of my little "garbage men" was just knocked loose due to the "scraping" I have begun doing to test the said theories. I do not feel intuitively threatened of losing the leg. It feels much better now.
It was a bit frightening so I thought to document it in case anyone else had a similar experience, and in hopes that we could all learn a little more about incidents like this. Also to have a "journal" of the incident where I will add to if it happens again in the future.

I dont know your history on the paleo diet but when I started my legs spasmed very often exactly how you described it.

I have been doing Paleo/PrimalD for about 6 months. I still love it and am pretty firm on these ideas as they seem to make more and more sense.
Could you expound your experience? I'd like to know how you perceived/ dealt with it. Did it just go away or did you find remedy?

[kurite]

Well I should start out by saying throughout my life I have regularly had this problem but it basically goes like this. I go to sleep and in the middle of the night I wake up in a lot of pain. My calf feels like it is flexing but flexing to the point that it will tear itself. After a couple of minutes it goes away but there is a leftover pain that can last 1-3 days. I was told its magnesium/pottasium/water defficiency.

When I went cooked paleo (which I still mostly am) this would occur maybe once every two weeks for a couple of months and happened even more often during very difficult exercise. Eventually it just went away and I have no idea why other than maybe a slight increase in eating some greens.

The increase in spasms definately was caused by paleo because when I switched  off of it the problem went away. But after I stayed on paleo long enough the problem went away.

[bharminder]

I would determine whether I am eating enough magnesium if I was having muscle cramps.

In many bodybuilding forums I've sometimes encountered threads about the importance of magnesium.

Magnesium rich vegetables include spinach, swiss chard, and dandelion greens.

Seeds include pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds

Good luck

[Ioanna]

i woke with bad cramps in my calves in the beginning, but i'm sure rpd did not cause this...

at the time i first focused on magnesium, water, etc. as posted here, but then i read that iron deficiency can result in cramps too.  well i've always had a tendency to get pretty badly anemic, so i was like duh, my iron is probably low.  got it checked, it was pretty low.  once i got my iron levels back up (i did this with diet alone, iron supplements are harsh for the stomach) i have not had a any cramps since. 

being male, i doubt that you have iron anemia, but maybe there is some electrolyte or other imbalance? 

[Hannibal]

Magnesium is indeed very important.
Quite a lot of fish and shellfish are rich in that nutrient - http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-015120000000000000000-w.html
Fruits - http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-009120000000000000000-w.html
Nuts and seeds - http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-012120000000000000000-w.html
But meat from the land mammals is also good

[miles]

It's possible that you were not used to drinking much water, and so adding that fruit dehydrated you.

Also... 'Scraping'...? This seems likely to be the real issue...

[Josh]

One of my old posts...may help.

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/health/people-with-cramps/

[KD]

I had just amazingly intense muscle cramps in various periods on this diet. the last major ones I was getting some physical therapy massage on my upper body and every muscle in my legs tweaked out to the point where there was no way to extended any muscle without aggravating another. almost ecstatic agony. I would get similar to a lesser degree at night. The therapist said she never saw anything like it. Since i've done very little different and it has ceased almost entirely, i'll have to join the camp that says its some kind of adjustment in the body due to being raw, VLC, or both. I have added some Redmonds salt into my diet but i'm never regular with it, but i'll mention it to be fair.

[bharminder]

I forgot to add in my last post that if you do try to eat more vegetables, you need to drink plenty of water otherwise the vegetables will get stuck in your body. The water will help to keep the flow going.

Dehydration itself may cause cramping. I remember when I used to exercise when I was dehydrated, sure enough I'd cramp up,usually in my rib area.


Try deep stretching also

[laterade]

Thanks everyone, lots of great info.
It seems to have gone away for now.

[sabertooth]

I suffered from night cramping before I started paleo, and it would come and go, I think its some type of mineral imbalance issue. It flared up real bad this summer, and I would buy a bunch of oysters or fish and was for a time adding magnesium chloride to my water, I think it helped. Its better now that the winter is here and I no longer have to break a daily sweat, I sure hope I don't have to suffer with it this next summer.

It may be that there is some adjustment that has to take place considering all the other complaints on this forrum about cramping. I had the same cramping issues as KD. There was couple of times I would do yoga and my hamstrings would lock up, I just thought it was from running up and down ladders all day and not keeping hydrated, but based on the testimony here there may be something else to it.

[raw]

My leg cramp started when I was pregnant 3 yrs ago (I was vegan ). When I change my diet  into RPD, it becomes even worse. Now, I'm taking Vit D3 5000, Vit C and raw fermented Cod liver oil and There's no more cramp.

[kurite]

My leg cramp started when I was pregnant 3 yrs ago (I was vegan ). When I change my diet  into RPD, it becomes even worse. Now, I'm taking Vit D3 5000, Vit C and raw fermented Cod liver oil and There's no more cramp.

Are you using Blue Ice cod liver oil?