There is a kind of needle like pain called spasm, and almost everyone experiences it, but what’s the problem?
Spasm is excessive muscle contraction due to abnormal neuromuscular excitation and is usually involuntary and with no warning. When there’s a spasm, the muscle becomes tight and contracted, and the pain is unbearable. It usually lasts a few or tens of seconds and then gradually relieves. Sometimes, it may still be painful after the spasm is finished.
How Many Types of Spasms Are There?
1. Calcium deficiency spasm
Calcium deficiency is one of the causes of spasm. Calcium play an important role in the process of regulating muscle contraction. When the concentration of calcium ion in the blood is too low, it will increase the nerve excitability of muscle and promote muscle contraction, thus leading to spasm.
This type of spasm is easy to occur in the elderly and the pregnant, who are prone to osteoporosis, so it is important for them to pay attention to the supplement of calcium.
2. Sport spasm
Sweating after a lot of exercise is accompanied by the loss of water and electrolyte, thus increasing the body load, and causing muscle “strike”, that is spasm.
Another spasm related to exercise is due to the stimulation of low temperature on the muscle, so that muscle excitability suddenly increases, resulting in tonic contraction.
3. Spasm at night
This includes spasms that occur under any static condition, such as sleeping or sitting still.
Spasm while sleeping are mainly due to external force and fatigue. Fatigue, sleep, lack of rest or excessive rest, will lead to slow blood circulation, which will accumulate more metabolites (such as lactic acid) to stimulate the muscle, resulting in spasm.
4. Ischemic spasm
This kind of spasm is a dangerous signal from the body, pay attention to it!
Ischemic spasm may lead to amputation without timely medical treatment, and it is easy to occur in patients with vasculitis and arteriosclerosis. The location of the vascular lesion is different, the location of the spasm is different.
What Leads to Spasm?
Leg and foot spasms are mainly related to the following factors:
1. Cold
Exercise in a cold environment without enough preparation will cause spasm easily. For example, when the temperature of swimming is low in summer, it is easy to cause leg spasm without warming up. In addition, calf muscles will have spasm after exposure to cold when sleep at night.
2. Fast and continuous muscle contraction
During strenuous exercise, when the leg muscles contract too fast and the relaxation time is too short, the local metabolite lactic acid increases. It would be difficult to coordinate the muscle contraction and relaxation, so that the calf muscle spasm occurs.
3. Metabolism problems
When the exercise time is long, the amount of exercise is large, the sweat is too much, and the salt is not supplemented in time, a large amount of fluid and electrolyte are lost in the human body, which leads to the accumulation of metabolic waste, thus affecting blood circulation of local muscles and causing spasm.
4. Excessive fatigue
When climbing, leg muscles are easy to fatigue because people must use one foot to support the weight of the whole body. When it is fatigued to a certain extent, there will be spasm.
5. Calcium deficiency
Calcium ion plays an important role in muscle contraction. When the concentration of calcium ion in the blood is too low, the muscle is easy to be excited, and thus causing spasm. Teenagers grow rapidly and are prone to calcium deficiency, so leg spasm often occur.
6. Improper sleeping position
Lie on the back or on the stomach for a long time will force some muscles of the leg to be absolutely relaxed for a long time, the muscles will be passively contracted.
3 Quick Spasm Relieve Methods
1. Toe spasm
Pull the toe in the opposite direction of the spasm and hold for more than 1-2 minutes.
2. Calf spasm
Use both hands to pull the toes up when sitting or standing against the wall, then straighten the knee joint as much as possible, and hot compress or mild massage to relax the tense muscles.
3. Spasm in swimming
First take a deep breath and hold it, then use the hand on the opposite of the spasm leg to grab the toe and pull it towards the body. Press the knee with the other hand to extend the back of the leg. After relieving, go ashore and continue to massage and rest.
Reminder: the harm of general cramp is relatively small, and timely treatment can help to relieve. But if spasm comes frequently, go to a doctor in time.
How to Prevent Spasm?
1. Keep warm: warm feet with hot water before going to bed and massage calf muscles to promote local blood circulation.
2. Exercise: keep exercise, pay attention to warm-up before activities, improve blood circulation, and enhance muscle contraction ability.
3. Calcium supplementation: take calcium rich foods such as milk, green leafy vegetables, sesame paste, kelp, tofu, etc.
4. Sleep in proper posture: try not to lie on the back or stomach for a long time to avoid muscle contracture caused by long-time relaxation of calf muscles.
5. Reasonable diet: keep reasonable diet is to supplement electrolytes (Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, Magnesium).
6. Timely rehydration: if sweat too much, it is necessary to replenish water in time to avoid dehydration, but pay attention not to rehydrate excessively once in a short period of time, because a large amount of liquid may dilute the concentration of sodium in the blood, which may lead to various problems, including muscle spasm.
Post time: Dec-29-2020