Cure for cramps?

[Tim C]

Since I was a child, I have suffered from severe cramps in my legs and torso- and I mean severe- a cramp in the back of my thigh would literally pull my ankle up to my bum, and a cramp in the torso would mean hanging from a doorframe or similar to stretch for 15-30 minutes, depending on severity. A cruel and agonising affliction, especially for a child. Back then the only remedy available was salt tablets, but they never worked for me. I know the cramp was exacerbated by hard physical labor and hot weather, but they still happened regardless.
It has only been relatively recently that I discovered magnesium tablets-two tablets, twice or thrice a week would hold the cramps at bay, but they still came occasionally after a full day of swinging a sledgehammer, mustering on the motorbike, or running up and down the shearing board in 38-plus temps, or with inactivity in cold weather.
Now I have inadvertently found a cure, at least for myself....Pink rock salt! Since I have been using the pink salt from the stockfeed shop I have not had one cramp, despite cutting out the magnesium tablets. (I only took them when I remembered).
I am putting this down to the magnesium and/or other minerals in the rock salt.

 

[Mark]

Since cramping is often related to exertion and profuse sweating it seems logical mineral deficiency is the cause.

It doesn't surprise me that you are seeing improvements to your health and in particular cramping by using a natural dietary remedy such as pink rock salt.

I'm sure anyone who has experienced severe cramping would know it's awfully painful so it's great you have found something that helps.

Do you use the pink rock salt the same way and qty as regular salt?

 

[Tim C]

Pretty well. The rock salt is slightly "saltier" because of the different minerals, so you need slightly less for the same taste. I have just been using a normal amount in cooking etc., so there is no need to dose up for controlling cramps, just substitution to sea salt used in a normal diet.

 

[Mark]

Well let's hope you really have nailed it then and your cramps are a thing of the past

It's a very interesting health discovery - I'm wondering if anyone else has had success with pink rock salt.

 

[Tim C]

Just googled it. Between the mumbo-jumbo, greenies, and health-freak propagandists there are reliable accounts and descriptions of the positive effects of using rock salt vs. sea-salt and iodised salt, which are both extremely unhealthy due to their demineralisation or lack of trace minerals. Apparently sodium chloride drags the minerals out of your system(hardened arteries, kidney stones etc.) whereas rock salt replenishes them.
Of this I am not surprised-yet another smoke-screen by big business,(and their capitalist guvment puppets)- killing people with their dis-information for profit.

 

[Mark]

iodised salt, which are both extremely unhealthy due to their demineralisation or lack of trace minerals.

I've always understood iodised salt to be salt with iodine added and nothing more,which is supposed to be a good thing. http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/iodine-facts

 

[stevo]

When ever I've watched sports/marathons, the commentators usually say it's a lack of water intake.

 

[Mark]

When ever I've watched sports/marathons, the commentators usually say it's a lack of water intake.

That's true to an extent but profuse sweating also removes essential minerals from the body which need to be replaced along with water. When the muscles become depleted of certain minerals like salts it can cause cramping.

Another interesting fact about water consumption during intense exercise is that over drinking water without replacing electrolytes and salt can be fatal because it essentially flushes the system completely out of minerals.

Whilst death from drinking water is uncommon it does happen and that's why organisations like the army educate soldiers in how to drink water correctly because there has been deaths and injury in the past contributed by soldiers drinking and gulping too much water during exercise thinking they were doing the right thing. It sounds crazy but it's true.

 

[Tim C]

When I was 15 I took off to Cunnamulla rouseabouting with 2 shearers. Between Wilcannia and Tilpa we had 3 flat tyres- only 2 spares. It was 45c+, so in our infinite wisdom 2 of us trundled back down the road rolling one of the flat tyres (no water) while the driver stayed with the car. We thought it was only about 5km back to the last station, but it was more like 15. We abandoned the tyre about half way and kept walking. Old mate was setting a cracking pace and missed the track from the homestead that went across the road diagonally. I walked up to the homestead while old mate did an extra 5km walk to the main driveway.
Silly Billy here guzzled about 3 litres of ice-cold water. Now that was a cramp! My kidneys must have been very close to shutting down. While the cocky and old mate retrieved and fixed the tyre, muggins here was hanging from a low rafter in the lean-to, like a monkey, stretching my back and torso muscles in absolute agony for about 45 minutes. That cramp was from the cold water though, I'm pretty sure.

Yes you need iodine, but you need the other trace elements as much, if not more. A mineral ana-lysis of (pink) rock salt shows a broad spectrum of minerals not found in sea salt.

 

[Steve]

I've had my fair share of cramping from my days of walking with a pack on the back in the middle of the hot day for days/weeks on end.
I've also had pretty bad cramps from mountain-biking. Normally the endurance events where you're riding for 3 to 6 hours at a time up and down hills.
I did a fair bit of reading at the time trying to find a cure as it was extremely painful as everyone knows.
One cure I read was to consume some yellow mustard. You know the american stuff you'd see on hotdogs or at McDonalds. It's a bit sweeter then most mustards and it actually worked pretty well.
I found, and read, there was a point of no return though where if I went too far/too long before hydrating/eating/resting/consuming yellow mustard then it was just too late and had to stop. But at the first sign of a cramp I found I could eat the mustard and a gulp of water and it was all good for a while.

In the end I think its just an imbalance of all the things your body needs and when you're doing something strenuous it just makes it all that worse.
Your muscles may need water, minerals, electrolite, mustard or just rest (or a combination of these). If you dont get the right amount of the right things it needs then it will jack up and tell you all about it. They tell you that your body tells you what's wrong and you just need to listen. Sometimes it yells at me and it's not talking english

Cheers,

 

[Tim C]

That makes sense to me Steve. Plants need nitrogen for leaf growth and Phosphorus/Potassium/trace elements during fruit/seed growth. So those minerals would be present in seed(mustard).

 

[Director]

Hi Tim, sounds like a potassium deficiency, if I get similar cramps that's usually what it is, and/or calcium. I use Now foods Potassium citrate and Now foods Calcium and Magnesium (no, I'm not a rep for Now foods). Have also been drinking a lot of coconut water lately and that seems to help as well, it's supposed to be high in potassium as well. But your discovery of the Himalayan salt has probably got all that covered anyway. My doctor actually put me onto that a few years ago, so either that or celtic sea salt has the full compliment of minerals. As someone else noted, table salt or iodised salt has had all the balancing minerals stripped out so that only sodium chloride is left. So the basic rule that I've discover is this: no salt is bad for you and table salt is bad for you.