Today’s (Monday, May 10, 13:45 - 14:45)) meal at work. Roast beef slices and President spreadable brie cheese. Ocean Bomb carbonated deep ocean mineral water.
Macros:
I’m not even going to ask what they put in the Brie to make it “spreadable.” In my experience, taking a piece of Brie out of the fridge and putting it in my lunch bag is all I need to do to get it spreadable by lunchtime.
Unless this is President’s version of the Folger’s slogan, “It’s mountain-grown,” lol! (Hint: all coffee is mountain-grown.)
Take your pick. My guess would be the gums and propylene glycol (aka antifreeze) alginate:
brie cheese (pasteurixed milk, pasteurixed cream, salt, calcium chloride, mircobiral ezyme, bacterial culture, penicillum candidum), milk ingredients, water, salt, xanthan gum, carob bean gum, propylene glycol alginate, carrageenan, guar gum, bacterial culture, artifical colour
05:00 Back of right thigh, just behind the knee. Moderately painful and would not respond to attempts to stretch it out. Had to get up to walk it out. Lasted about 10-15 minutes.
Note: I drank some alcohol the evening before after getting home from work, maybe around 75 ml total. Further note, I only drank a little less than half my liter of salt water at work yesterday. Although I also had a 330ml can of Ocean Bomb (as I reported just above) and a couple of 2 gram doses of ATM at home later. And, of course, I had my regular 2 grams of ATM in my morning keto coffee.
You can breathe again.
It works for me. Not necessarily spinach and broccoli, but just eating a little more carbs is enough to help. And if I’m eating a little more carbs, I’d rather go for veggies than to heavier in carbs alternatives. I pick the veggies with the least carbs that come from closer, as opposed to eating some other veggie that needs to travel here all the way from China, or Kiribati.
Now that I’m carnivore, the cramps are back with a vengeance. But I’ll put an end to the carnivore experiment soon, as it doesn’t work for me.
Prior to going keto, I had no cramps. At least, not more than a few times a year and never a severe one that would make me literally fall. So, in my case it is linked to lack of carbs, or something that comes in a carb package.
03:40 Inside right ankle Not very painful but would not go away, even trying to walk it out. Lasted 20 plus minutes.
05:45 Both left and right inside thighs. This was a ‘biggie’. Pain was very severe. Forced me out of bed. Lasted 20-25 minutes.
Note: Yesterday was a short shift at work, so I only drank about 1/2 a liter of my salt water. Although, I did get a couple of doses of ocean minerals. Also, wife and I went for a couple hours walk and I suspect that may have stressed leg muscles.
Note 2: I’ve discovered that Absorbine Jr. helps to relax the affected muscles. I’ve been swabbing on both thighs for a couple of weeks, though not every night. Last night I neglected to apply. I used it this morning to help relieve the cramps after they started. As of today, I will apply liberally every night when I retire without fail!
You could test this. Try pure sugar. If you still get cramps, then it’s something you’re missing in vegetables, whatever those are.
Then consider why you can’t get the same things from animals.
It’s an interesting thought experiment.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I don’t get cramps enough to test this. And mine seem to be related to salt/potassium/magnesium intake, though I could be wrong.
You seem to be getting more cramps. Maybe your magnesium stores have run out and you need to start supplementing magnesium again?
That would be a good experiment.
For me, I think too much magnesium actually causes cramps. Or at least I’ve taken magnesium during the day and got cramps at night. Since I take all of my minerals intermittently, this means to me that I’m missing something else or maybe too much Mg causes an imbalance. But if you’re lacking in Mg, that also wouldn’t be good.
It sounds truly awful! Cramps that force you out of bed and for more than a few minutes… 
I hope you find good answers!
I used to get the occasional killer foot or leg cramp in bed, more than 10 years ago I think. I remember that a year or 2 after taking up a particularly deeply relaxing regular yoga class, I noted to myself that I didn’t cramp any more. It was like my muscles knew better when to fire and when to turn off. If I ever felt the pre warning of a cramp about to start I could always tell it “No. just go soft” And it would! What a superpower eh?
But it’s an n=1. My diet probably began to improve around the same time, I’m not sure how these things lined up.
Follow Up Note: Yesterday was a full shift at work. My right thigh was painful all day and in fact is still painful this morning. After getting home yesterday, it was pretty obvious that my right thigh was still tight and knotted, although not in full cramp. I could feel the lump! I used Absorbine Jr liberally to help relax it. I also tried some capsaicin rollon ointment, which didn’t seem to do anything. The ‘knot’ is gone this morning. I drank about 900 ml of my liter of salt water yesterday at work. I also drank a 330 ml can of Ocean Bomb at my meal and in addition 3 doses of ATM at home afterwards.
Note 2: I discovered some ‘elemental’ magnesium tablets in the medicine cabinet last night. They’re magnesium oxide. I took 2 x 250 mg before bed and took 2 x 250 mg just now with my coffee. I’m working a full shift again today commencing at 09:00 and while at Walmart I will see if there’s any magnesium supplements.
Further Follow Up: I started work yesterday morning at 09:00 and by about 11:00 my right thigh was so painful it was causing me to limp. This in turn caused my left thigh to start to hurt as well, even though it had been pain free until then. So to avoid a cascade I bought a spray can of this stuff at the pharmacy:
It worked well enough to relieve the pain for about an hour, slowly tapering off during the second hour by the end of which I needed to reapply it. Seems to be somewhat more effective than Absorbine Jr.
Main ingredient is menthol, just like Absorbine Jr. I applied both last night before retiring. No cramps, but the insides of both thighs are still painful this morning.
PS: I’ll further note that yesterday was day 5 of 5 consecutive shift days and I am very tired even now after to good night’s sleep. We seem to have been short-staffed for the last few weeks. I don’t know whether folks are quitting or getting sick - or just sick and tired of working at Walmart.
Further Follow Up: Compression.
I noted here that compression seemed to have little or no effect on frequency or severity of night cramps:
I’m having second thoughts about compression. After the May17 episode described above, my left thigh became pain free almost immediately. But my right thigh continues to generate lots of pain. Not as much as during the cramp, still enough to cause lots of discomfort. Much of this discomfort and pain seemed to result from my thigh ‘flopping’ around during daily activity.
I had on hand a pair of thigh length stockings I purchased years ago for cycling. These are stretch socks and exert a modest amount of compression. So I decided to put both socks on my right leg to see if that would help any. It did! For a couple of days now I’ve been wearing both socks on my right leg and it helps ease the pain considerably. This has prompted me to order from Amazon a pair of full length compression sleeves - I’ll report on them later.
Note: In the photo (mirror view) I’m also wearing a pair of Combivo Ankle Braces that along with compression socks and braces I use for my varicose veins.
@VirginiaEdie Thank you for the suggestion. From what I’ve just read in the below trigger points don’t seem applicable. Specifically, I don’t experience any of the 12 trigger point symptoms listed in the PainScience article on management of pain. Yes, right now a week after a MAJOR (caps and bold!) cramp the inside of my right thigh is still sore and very sensitive to touch. But less sore and sensitive as each day passes. A small ‘knot’ persisted for several days but is now gone. I can massage the thigh gently now and it feels good, whereas even a couple days ago it would have caused pain. So I think this was essentially a one-off trauma event - not a persistent ‘trigger’ waiting to be pulled.
As @ctviggen has suggested elsewhere about running, I could be suffering from some sort of micro damage caused by years of doing it. That would not surprise me.
My right inside thigh still hurts severely enough to require daily treatments with both Arbsorine Jr. and X3 Freeze. It still hurts enough to interfere with my sleep. It also feels like the muscle still occasionally (several times daily, and more so when lying down) tightens into a knot for a few minutes at a time. I fear permanent damage occurred.
This morning upon awakening (05:15), I got a minor cramp in top of my left foot. I had to get up to walk it off and it took quite a while (10-15 minutes) before the foot felt fully normal again, although the majority of pain was gone within about 5 minutes. I lay down again after that. Within a few minutes a cramp started in my left inside thigh! Pain was moderate, way more than from the foot cramp. Up again to walk it off which took about 15 minutes.
When I’ve finally been up and about for about half an hour, I no longer feel like a cramp could hit any second. Legs start to feel fairly normal again. I also posted the following:
I’ve wondered why, if electrolyte imbalance or lack of magnesium and/or potassium are the prime culprits in night leg cramps, they only occur at night or upon first awakening. If mineral deficiency and/or imbalance is the actual cause, why don’t they occur all day long. My mineral comp doesn’t change all of sudden when I lie down for sleep.
That’s a great question because I find I get muscle cramps at night if I don’t have enough salt during the day. I also don’t get them during the day, well, unless I’m REALLY depleted.
It’s an idea, but I couldn’t possibly eat sugar. Honey, perhaps.
At the moment, I’m still carnivore and very strict.
Jun 23/21 I’m going to carry on my quasi-log of cramp episodes over here in my ‘Compression’ topic.
I’m still supplementing deep ocean minerals, although no longer with Aussie Trace Minerals. ATM was essentially from surface water, so I’ve switched to Whole Earth and Sea, which comes from the same source off Taiwan as Ocean Bomb carbonated water. Ocean Bomb remains unavailable in Vancouver.
