I read this before and tried it last night and it actually worked. As I was falling to sleep, two of my toes went into spasms…why this only happens at night I don’t know. It was so painful, I was grabbing my toes, pulling them forward tight to stretch them out. As soon as I eased up, they stiffened and spasmed immediately. I got up to press down for relief. This went on for about 5 minutes. I got up and got a thin bar of soap, got back into bed and slipped the soap into my socks by my toes quickly as a spasm was coming on. Immediately no more spasms!
Coincidence? Who knows, but I never had another one. I did feel them twitch as if it would start up again, but didn’t.
I have read a bar of soap under sheets helps leg cramps. Anyway, if you suffer these, you might want to try. Yes, I take magnesium daily.
Do you get cramps often? There are some exercises you can do with a tennis ball or foam roller that may help prevent them.
Let me know if you want details. (I teach exercise)
a bar of soap at the foot of the bed–been doing it for years and so helpful.
Never thought to put it in the sock but next time H has this issue I will make sure he tries this.
What is the scientific basis for this? My H gets leg and sometimes foot cramps, but he’s a physician so I’m going to need some physiological/medical reason why this is effective if I’m going to convince him to try it. Otherwise he will just think placebo effect.
@conmama I was going to ask about magnesium, but you addressed that at the end.
I am going to offer some advice on purely anecdotal evidence. The only time I ever had really bad toe cramps was when I was pregnant, but it happened with all 3. I found upping my calcium intake helped.
Anything’s worth a shot, right?
Would love to hear more about the soap. Any special type? How is it supposed to work?
My H gets terrible leg cramps. This bar of soap idea seems a bit “out there”. If I told my H that we were doing this, he’d want the science behind it (engineer…lol).
Are there better brands to use? Dove? lol Dial? Glycerin? What?
What the heck is in a bar of soap that could prevent leg cramps?
edit…just read an article that recommends good ole Ivory bar since it’s pure. (I may still have some in my teeth from growing up. )
I’ll take the placebo effect if it could stop my leg cramps.
(But do you have to believe that the treatment will work to get the benefit of the placebo effect? I would need to hear some sort of scientific explanation before I could believe this would work.)
conmama,
Thank you for sharing your experience! I will keep it in mind.
I USED TO HAVE severe foot cramps. They could last for much longer than 5 min. and I could not get into car and drive having them. They affected me greatly, day and night, any time of the day. I got rid of them, not 100%, about 95%. If I get them now, they are very mild and very easy to get rid off by simple stretching that used not to work for me. How I got rid of them? I regularly stretch back of my legs by simply bending the ankle, getting my feet at less than 90 degrees relative to my legs. I started doing that because I noticed that it feels good. I did not realize that it would benefit me greatly. My cramps were a huge nuisance in my life, constantly interrupting me in whatever I was doing at the moment. Consider that I swim for over an hour every day and I was always afraid that I would be stuck at the gym, not being able to drive back home. I was stuck there several times for long periods. Not any more!
I know it’s sounds so weird, and if it’s a placebo effect that’s OK by me. That was painful ladt night. I just grabbed the dial soap we had been using, it was quite thin to put in my sock. I read another article that said they think it might be the fragrant oil in the soap. Somehow the molecules do it . When the soap is old, it won’t work. But if you scratch it to release the scent…which if does, something becomes airborne. Who know? But it sounds like it works for enough people.
I wonder if we need to use one of the handful of soaps we grew up with. I assume these would have had common ingredients unlike today when the chemical makeups are probably quite varied.
Whenever I get a cramp I take a tiny bit of table salt with iodine. I just pour a small amount onto my palm and ingest whatever amount sticks to the tip of my tongue. Odd, but it works.
The cramp goes away in a couple minutes either way, right? That’s why a lot of cold remedies “work” - the symptoms are self-limiting. Would any salt get into your system that quickly? (Asking since I don’t know) Anyobe with a real knowledge of anatomy/physiology/biochemistry here?
No! The cramps do not go away! They can last painfully for hours. I think the feeling of panic contributes to their continuation. Yoga-type breathing to try to relax between cramps seems to help stave off the next round so my guess is that the placebo effect comes from the calming effect of doing something that might be helpful.
)