Nighttime leg cramps mostly just a nuisance

“Has anyone had any leg cramps at night? I have had them now for almost a week. I go to bed and sleep four hours and wake up with terrible leg pains or cramps. I have to get out of bed and walk through the house. When I come back to bed they start hurting again. 

“Last night after I got up once I propped two pillows at the bottom of the bed and elevated my legs I got some relief, but no sleep.”

Poor Betty. She’s the one who wrote that on a popular health-centric website forum. It’s really double poor Betty, because the advice she got had few options that are medically proven to be effective. Let’s see, one said, “put a bar of Dial soap under your sheets, if that doesn’t work try another brand.”

Sure. That’s medically sound advice. Other suggestions included taking a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar; wearing socks to bed; drinking tonic water or taking quinine pills; eating a banana or an avocado. Whatever works is good, right?

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