Muscle cramps are a condition that affects the health of our muscles and can cause severe discomfort or pain when we relax. If you’ve had a time when these spasms abound and even wake up at night, you must know better what muscle cramps, causes, and symptoms are the most common. In this article, we found out everything.
What is a muscle cramp?
We start with the beginning: what are muscle cramps? It is a contraction that takes place in our muscles and appears in a totally involuntary and unexpected way. They usually appear when our body is relaxed and therefore they are frequent during the sleep period or when we are relaxed.
This condition, although mild, can cause severe pain in the area and, for a short time, the muscle is resented and sore. There are some risk factors that can lead to the appearance of these cramps, such as having done a strong physical training session or being in an excessive time.
Frequent symptoms of muscle cramp
A muscle cramp can be easily detected because it has a very clear symptom: pain in the muscle area, especially in areas such as:
– Legs
– Calves
– Groin
The pain appears intensely, localized and suddenly. It will last for a few seconds or minutes and may, during the time of the cramp, notice a hard lump in the muscle tissue.
Causes of muscle cramp
But why do muscle cramps appear? There are some causes that can enhance the onset of these muscle spasms that can affect our rest. Here are some of the most common factors left:
– Lack of hydration
– Perform physical exercise in a very intense way
– Hard physical work, focused on the legs
– Spend a lot of the time with the same muscle position
In addition, it is important to note that, sometimes, muscle cramps appear as symptoms of other diseases such as arteriosclerosis, compression of nerves, nutritional deficiency, especially of minerals such as magnesium, potassium or calcium.
When to go to the doctor for muscle cramps?
We have already indicated that this is a mild and outpatient health condition, however, if the pain is persistent or does not fade over the hours, it is important to go to the doctor. Here we leave you the situations where you should go to a specialist:
– If the cramp’s own pain doesn’t go away on its own
– If the discomfort caused by the spasm is very intense
– If the area has swollen or looks different
– If you have muscle cramps too frequently
Bibliography
– Serratrice, G. (2011). Muscle contracts. EMC-Kinesitherapy- Physical Medicine, 32(2), 1-11.
– Burgo Fernándeza, J. – L. Muscle cramps in the lower limbs.
– Ortiz, J. N. Muscle cramps associated with physical exercise.
– Noboa S, M., Ruano Nieto, C., Montenegro G, R., & Rosero F, G. (1998). Night muscle cramps. APMOF, 28-30.