Cause & Solutions For Charley Horses - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript:

BRITNI: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called “Ask a Nutritionist”. My name is Britni Vincent and I am a Registered and Licensed Dietitian at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. On today's show, I will be answering a question from one of our listeners. Today's question is, “What causes Charley horses?”

What is a Charley horse?

Before we dive into the causes, I want to talk a little bit more about what a Charley horse is. Charley horses, also known as a muscle cramp or spasm, these terms are often used interchangeably. But technically, a muscle cramp is more severe than a spasm. So just for consistency's sake, I'll be referring today to Charley horses.

So a Charley horse is an involuntary contraction of a muscle. And that muscle stays contracted for a period of time because it's unable to relax. And oftentimes this happens in your legs, sometimes your feet, but really it could happen in other areas of the body as well. I have personally been here. I've had these Charley horses.

I would get them in the middle of the night in my calf. It would cause me to fly out of bed. I'd have to stretch out my leg for it to stop. And it definitely disrupted my sleep pretty frequently. So I'm going to be sharing what helped me and what I also see help my clients that have these Charley horses.

Common causes of Charley horses

So two of the most common causes that I see clinically are magnesium deficiency and electrolyte imbalance.

Magnesium deficiency is associated with Charley horses

I want to dive more into the magnesium deficiency first because this is the most common cause of these Charley horses or muscle spasms that I see and was the cause of my Charley horses.

Magnesium is an extremely important mineral for your body. It's involved in hundreds of different biochemical reactions in our body. And think of it as your relaxation mineral. And one of its major functions is to help relax muscles. So it makes sense if you don't have enough magnesium, then you may get a Charley horse because you're not able to properly relax that muscle after contraction.

Most people really are deficient in magnesium and there's multiple reasons for that. Nutrients in our soils have been depleted. So the food that we eat does not contain the nutrients, and specifically we're talking about magnesium as they did many years ago. A lot of people just aren't eating enough magnesium rich foods.

Sugar, alcohol, coffee, all of those things deplete magnesium. Stress depletes magnesium, certain medications, specifically diuretics; proton pump inhibitors: they can also deplete magnesium. And as I mentioned, magnesium is involved in hundreds of different processes in the body. So it just gets used up really quickly.

A lot of athletes tend to get these Charley horses or pregnant women, and that's because again, they're using up their magnesium very quickly. So their need may be a little bit higher. Let me run through some other symptoms of magnesium deficiency: insomnia, anxiety, irritability, heart palpitations, constipation, headaches, migraines, fatigue, high blood pressure, PMS, menstrual cramps.

Really basically anything that's tight or cramping can be a sign of a magnesium deficiency. We are all about food first at Nutritional Weight & Wellness, so I would first recommend, of course, increasing your food sources of magnesium: nuts, seeds, avocados, beans, seaweed. You could explore seaweed snacks.

A lot of people like those and they're easy to find nowadays. Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, halibut, leafy greens and meat also provides you some magnesium too. If you are eating a diet of real food, you are probably already getting a lot of magnesium rich foods, but it is definitely something to be aware of and try to increase.

When we talk about magnesium supplementation, a lot of people do need to supplement with extra magnesium because of the reasons that I mentioned earlier even if you are eating a diet of real food, because stress depletes nutrients, our soil has been depleted. It can be very difficult to get enough magnesium for your body to function efficiently.

And so supplementation is a good idea for many people. I would avoid magnesium oxide. All supplements are not created equal. There is a wide range of quality. So magnesium oxide is the cheapest form of magnesium. It's likely not going to help with your Charley horses and it can lead to diarrhea. For those reasons, it's just not even worth going there.

What I would recommend is Magnesium Glycinate. That is a very bioavailable form of magnesium. It is magnesium and an amino acid called glycine added to it to increase the absorption. And it works wonders for any of the symptoms that I talked about and really anything related to that tightness or cramping of muscles.

Another form of magnesium that is pretty commonly seen is Magnesium Citrate. If you tend towards constipation, this could be an option as well. We have a product called Mixed Magnesium that is part magnesium citrate, part magnesium glycinate. So again, if you tend towards constipation, that citrate is going to pull fluid to your stool to help to loosen your stool and help with that constipation.

And then as far as dosage goes, it really depends on the person. I would say anywhere from two to six hundred milligrams is a pretty common dosage. You could start at the low end and then just continue to increase until those Charley horses do go away. I would recommend taking it before bed because you get the benefit of relaxation before bed.

And magnesium can really help to put you into a deeper sleep. And magnesium itself is a very large molecule. So one capsule of your tablet is only going to be around 100 milligrams. Many people get their magnesium tested during their routine lab draw at their annual physical with their doctor or wellness visit.

And so you may see that on your lab report, but about 99 percent of your magnesium is found in your cells. Testing your magnesium that way is just not very accurate. I think the best way to go about assessing magnesium deficiency is just looking at your symptoms. And based on everything I've talked about, most people can benefit from some extra magnesium on board.

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Electrolyte imbalance: another cause of Charley horses

Another cause of Charley horses are muscle spasms that I see as electrolyte imbalance. So low levels of potassium, calcium, magnesium, or sodium can interfere with muscle contraction and relaxation, triggering those Charley horses. So magnesium is an electrolyte, and what I already talked about applies here as well.

But what I see in some individuals is supplementing with magnesium does not get rid of their Charley horses completely. And in these people, I think it's more of a lack of sodium or potassium or an imbalance of the two that causes their Charley horses. And thinking about individuals who might have electrolyte imbalance, you know, people that eat real food, a diet of real food, there's just not a lot of sodium that you're getting from real whole foods.

And so sometimes these people are low in sodium. Also, I think salt and sodium, it's been demonized. And so many people just don't even salt their food or they really use it sparingly. And if you are eating a diet of real whole food, I would actually encourage you to salt your food. I recently had a client who was, who was eating a real food diet, but did not salt her food at all.

She had some symptoms of electrolyte imbalance, including muscle cramps. She started to salt her food again, and all of those symptoms went away because her electrolytes were more balanced. People who exercise or sweat, they're going to lose more electrolytes. Individuals who have diarrhea may also have electrolyte imbalance.

Some medications, specifically diuretics, which are often used for high blood pressure, these can deplete electrolytes. I did an “Ask a Nutritionist” episode on electrolytes, so if you do want a deeper dive on that, I would check out that episode. There are a ton of electrolyte products on the market nowadays.

I would absolutely avoid anything with artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame. The one that we carry at Nutrikey is called Synerplex. It is not flavored, which a lot of people actually prefer, and you can start with one scoop per day. The scoop is pretty tiny, but some people need more like two or three scoops per day to really help to balance everything out and get rid of those Charley horses.

Recap

To recap today's information, Charley horses are most commonly caused by magnesium deficiency and other electrolyte imbalances. For most individuals experiencing these Charley horses, I first suggest increasing your magnesium rich foods and supplementing with a bioavailable magnesium if you aren't already. And if that doesn't help, then I would explore adding some electrolytes into your daily routine.

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