There are more than a few remedies to consider for treating severe muscle cramps, with massage therapy being one of the most powerful options available. In addition to receiving relief, massage therapy offers a host of additional healthy benefits.

Besides increasing blood flow to the muscles, massage therapy can also remove waste products and deliver oxygen and nutrients. As a result, cramps can be reduced in pain and inflammation by relaxing the muscles. This is especially good news for those who feel it the most in their quads. Cramp in quad muscle issues are huge red flags for many patients.

Moving down the leg, calf cramps are usually caused by sudden and sharp contractions of the muscle in the calf, lasting for a few seconds or minutes at a time. Muscle cramps can be eased by stretching gently in the painful moment. Maintaining a healthy diet and getting enough sleep can help prevent leg cramps, too. In fact, looking just above the calf, hamstring muscle cramps can be caused by a variety of similar reasons.

Massage therapy can ease tension and relieve cramps by relaxing the muscles. As a second benefit, this treatment increases blood flow to the muscles, which can help deliver oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products. Lastly, massages release endorphins, which are the body’s natural hormones that alleviate pain.

All in all, muscle tension is reduced through massage therapy, which may prevent cramps from developing in the first place.

Spasms and Attacks: Treating Severe Muscle Cramps

It’s fairly common for muscles to spasm or cramp, particularly in the legs — which means treating severe muscle cramps should be a victim’s first priority. Spasms can occur in any muscle, including your back, hands, feet, or toes. The duration of these attacks can vary from a few seconds to 10 or 15 minutes. Seeing a doctor may be a good idea if you have chronic muscle cramping.

Various muscles contract suddenly and involuntarily during a muscle cramp. Different muscle groups may be affected by these contractions. Affected muscles include those on the back of your lower leg, the back of your thigh, and the front of your thigh, such as your quad. Cramp in quad muscle problems are a big deal for many patients.

It’s also possible to experience cramps in the arms, hands, and feet, as well as in the abdominal wall. You may also experience aching calf muscles at night before or during sleep, or you might find it difficult to walk when you awaken due to the pain. Muscle cramps are characterized by a sudden sharp pain, sometimes lasting several minutes. Cramping can also be accompanied by a bulging lump of muscle tissue under the skin.

Overuse is an Important Factor

Overusing your muscles can lead to cramps. Ironically, exercise can be a cause of this, although that’s not a good reason to quite exercising. It’s how you exercise that’s important. Also, dehydration and muscle injuries can cause cramps. When the body loses excessive amounts of fluid, it is considered dehydrated.

When you exercise, walk, or engage in physical activities, you might encounter leg and foot cramping caused by reduced blood supply to those regions. Additionally, inadequate levels of essential minerals such as calcium, potassium, sodium, and magnesium can also impact proper muscle function.

Muscle cramps can be caused by certain medical conditions as well. Alcoholism, pregnancy, kidney failure, and hypothyroidism are conditions that can cause cramps in your legs when walking or standing.

What’s interesting and sometimes frustrating: sometimes muscle cramps have no known cause. This makes treating severe muscle cramps the number-one focus for many young, middle-age and older adults.

Science Behind the Pain: Treating Cramps

Rather than being caused by muscles themselves, muscle cramps are thought to be caused by hyperactivity of the peripheral or central nervous system, which makes treating severe muscle cramps that much more of a science for pain management specialists and doctors. Muscle fibers may be damaged due to inadequate blood supply or even a physiological response your body produces when it senses low energy and metabolite accumulation in muscle cells.

According to studies, electrode motor units that deliver electrical impulses throughout your body fire at about 300 per second during involuntary muscle cramping. This rate is significantly faster than during voluntary contractions. Muscle tightness and pain are caused by this rapid firing rate. A cramp occurs when a muscle contracts even further while already in its most shortened natural position. In patients with well-developed muscles, or those in pregnancy and those suffering severe cramps, all groups of individuals are more likely to experience cramps in the absence of fluid or when suffering from electrolyte imbalances.

Since the general definition of a cramp is an involuntary contraction of a group of muscle fibers, you may develop them in any muscle. However, they typically occur in the calves at night. Muscle contractions may precipitate cramping. In fact, cramp in quad muscle complications may transpire after contractions in this area of your leg.

According to recent surveys, more than one-third of respondents nationwide say they experience aching calf muscles at night before or during sleep. As people age, they are also more likely to experience these cramping problems.

PAD and Treating Severe Muscle Cramps

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is frequently a cause of leg and foot pain at night. This leads many PAD patients to look into treating severe muscle cramps. The most common areas of pain in your legs due to peripheral artery disease are your calf, thigh, and buttocks muscles. You may only be able to walk for a short distance if you’re in severe pain.

The symptoms of peripheral artery disease are progressive. Pain may only occur during the day for some people. For others, they experience pain when asleep or at rest.

Blood vessel claudication is characterized by leg pain or muscle cramps caused by peripheral arterial disease. Claudication symptoms can be triggered by activities such as walking and climbing stairs; however, pain usually subsides after resting for a few minutes.

Peripheral artery disease reduces blood flow to the lower extremities — usually the legs and feet — due to blocked arteries. Quite a few people suffer from it. Approximately 15 percent of people over age 70 in the United States have been diagnosed with it, and several million younger Americans have the disease. Atherosclerosis is to blame in many cases, where coronary artery disease and heart attacks can both be caused by hardening of the arteries.

If you’re experiencing quad muscle cramping problems, it’s crucial not to delay getting tested and discussing treatment options with your pain management specialist or doctor. This is especially important if you suspect peripheral artery disease. It’s important to get diagnosed as soon as possible so your specialist can determine if minimally invasive treatments can slow down or stop the disease’s progression.

Treating Cramps: Massage Therapy & More

Even though muscle spasms are usually short-lived and not serious, they can be painful and warrant researching why so many other patients are increasingly treating severe muscle cramps. An especially effective way to relieve muscle spasms is to stretch. Staying hydrated and using home treatments such as massage, ice, and heat may also be helpful.

Physical pain from muscle cramps — especially hamstring muscle cramps — can also be relieved with massage therapy. The muscle that spasms should be gently rubbed. Or if you have a persistent lower-back or buttock spasm, try pinching the area around it hard for several minutes. If you cannot reach the area, someone else may need to pinch it.

Getting the Most out of Massage Therapy

In order to get the most out of massage therapy for different types of severe muscle cramps, follow these tips:

• Get a massage from a qualified therapist. People with cramp in quad muscle problems and other types of cramping should find a massage therapist who is qualified and experienced.
• Describe your pain in detail.Tell your massage therapist where and how severe your pain is when scheduling your appointment.
• The therapist should hear you loud and clear.Tell your therapist how you feel during the massage, explaining in detail. Don’t hold back. Let your therapist know if you’re experiencing any pain.

There are other treatments for general leg cramps and hamstring muscle cramps besides stretching and massage therapy. They include using hot or cold therapy, hydrating with water, light exercises before bed, anti-inflammatory topical creams, at-home hyperventilation therapy, prescription medication, and non-prescription remedies such as anti-inflammation drugs, pickle juice, supplements, and natural muscle relaxants.

Overall, you’ll need to find out the exact potential cause in order to find a long-term solution to your cramps. You should rule out potential underlying issues such as peripheral arterial disease or thyroid problems first. If you experience cramps that make it impossible to exercise, or if they seem to occur spontaneously without any cause, see a health care provider. Any underlying medical condition should be ruled out by a pain management specialist or doctor.

Wellness and Pain Can Help

A range of options for treating severe muscle cramps are available at Wellness and Pain. We offer conservative treatments, routine visits, and minimally invasive quick-recovery procedures. To ensure your well-being, we offer lifestyle education and home care guidance to prevent and effectively manage complications. Our aim is to promptly alleviate inhibiting conditions when you experience quad muscle cramping.

At Wellness and Pain, we personalize patient care plans based on each patient’s condition and unique circumstances to relieve pain, improve mobility and mental space, and improve your overall health.

Many individuals know what it’s like to have nervous legs at night. As you lie in bed, ready for sleep, your legs start crawling, tingling, or itching just as your body begins to relax. Despite your best efforts, you can’t ignore the uncomfortable sensations, and eventually, you get the urge to move.

After stretching and pacing, you feel relieved for a moment. When you lie down again, your leg spasms start back up.

It’s estimated that one out of ten people suffers from leg spasms, and finding help and support isn’t always easy. There are a lot of people who don’t receive proper treatment for leg spasms. There aren’t many explanations for it, and sufferers are often dismissed simply as “nervous.”

Sometimes you don’t realize how much these distressing symptoms can affect your life until you’ve experienced them yourself. It’s possible that some doctors don’t even take symptoms seriously or realize that leg spasms are real. Meanwhile, twitchy legs are becoming more common and recognized in society. If your legs feel heavy and numb, or you suffer from aching legs, you can find relief through leg muscle spasm treatment.

Nervous Legs: Studies and Facts to Consider

There is a strong genetic component to having nervous legs, according to some studies, with 60 percent of people suffering from it having a family member with it as well. Approximately 40 to 90 percent of patients have a first-degree relative who has the disease, like their parents, siblings, or children. There are a few genetic changes that increase leg spasms, but more are likely to be found.

In a 2021 review published in the journal Sleep Medicine, scientists also found a link between nervous legs and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). While this is just one of dozens of other bodily associations, illnesses, and conditions, there’s still a lot to learn about all of them.

Approximately half of the patients in certain countries experience seasonal exacerbations in spring and summer too. Patients with moderate severity are more likely to experience those seasonal effects.

Regardless of the cause or a number of other associations, there’s help out there. You can calm your jittery legs and enjoy a peaceful and refreshing night’s sleep at home by practicing simple lifestyle changes, implementing self-help remedies, and ultimately getting the right treatment for your leg spasms.

Signs and Symptoms of Nervous Legs

It’s hard to describe nervous legs. You’ll probably feel itchy, tingly, prickly, crawling, burning, pulling, tugging, and aching. There are people who say it feels like bugs crawling up their legs, like a carbonated drink bubbling in their veins, or an itch deep within their bones. There are times when the symptoms are painful, but most of the time they’re just uncomfortable and disturbing.

Leg spasms are neurological. You may not be able to sleep for hours because of these sensations. Anyone can get them, but it’s more prominent in women and older adults. Early adulthood can trigger mild symptoms, which then get worse with age. Symptoms tend to get worse after 50 and can disrupt your sleep quite frequently after that point.

There’s a theory that nervous legs are caused by low iron levels in the brain. Dopamine imbalance is also thought to play a part in it.

Some interesting facts about muscle pain and spasms in legs are:

• You can experience a strong, often irresistible urge to move your legs, accompanied by uncomfortable sensations deep within them.
• Symptoms worsen when you rest. Whenever you’re sitting, lying down, or trying to relax, you can experience those uncomfortable leg sensations.
• Symptoms worsen at night. Nighttime is when nerves flare up. If the symptoms are more severe, they will usually start earlier in the day and get worse at night.
• When you’re sleeping, your legs twitch or kick. People with nervous legs at night are also more likely to have periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), which involves jerking or cramping of the legs at night.

It should also be noted that in very severe cases, leg spasms can affect your arms too.

Self-Help Tips for Nervous Legs

You can overcome nervous legs by avoiding triggers, such as:

• Finding out how your body reacts to caffeine. Caffeine triggers nervous legs in some people. However, recent studies show it might actually be good for others. Keep track of your symptoms after cutting out coffee, tea, and soft drinks.
• Stress management. When you’re anxious and overwhelmed, your symptoms can get worse. Meditation and deep breathing are great ways to keep stress in check.
• Exercise, but not too much. Getting regular exercise can significantly ease jittery leg symptoms, but be careful not to overdo it, especially close to bedtime. Strenuous exercise can exacerbate leg spasms, so don’t exercise so intensely that your joints or muscles hurt afterward.
• Getting rid of cigarettes. Cigarettes, vaporizers, and e-cigarettes all contain nicotine, which can impair blood flow to the muscles.
• Limiting or eliminating alcohol. Be cautious about drinking in the evening if you have leg spasms. In addition to disrupting sleep, alcohol also makes you more likely to wake up with nervous legs.

Get regular exercise and stretches every day, improve your sleep, and avoid long periods of inactivity.

Treatment for Leg Spasms: Your Next Step

Knowing what you want from a visit to your healthcare provider will help you get the most out of finding a remedy for your nervous legs. Make a list of questions you want answered before your visit. Ask your provider questions.  Take notes, if necessary, so you can remember what he says.

If you get a new diagnosis, write it down, along with any new medicine, treatment, or test. If your provider gives you any new instructions, be sure to also write those down. Understand why you’re getting a new medicine or treatment. Make sure you know what the side effects are.

Check if there’s another way to treat your condition. Make sure you know why a test or procedure is recommended and what the results could mean. If you choose not to take the medicine or not to have a test or procedure, you should know ahead of time what to expect.

Make a note of the date, time, and purpose of your follow-up appointment. If you have questions after returning home, know how to reach your provider.

Several research papers have found that self-education and using other valuable resources may help patients with nervous legs. This can be used, along with appropriate and targeted treatments for leg spasms, to get better results.

Note that leg spasms can be a lifelong condition that might get worse with age, but some people go into remission and don’t have any symptoms for days to years. Keep your doctor updated on how you’re doing. If you start to feel worse, they might suggest different lifestyle changes or medications. It can help to talk to other people who know what you’re going through, whether it’s a family member who has it or a support group.

Wellness and Pain

When it comes to nervous legs, you’re better off seeing a doctor who truly cares about you and your health. Physical therapy, vein ablation, massage therapy, and acupuncture therapy are vital options you should consider.

Practitioners at Wellness and Pain confidently provide these important evaluations, apply their professional expertise, and offer the caring and sensitive leg muscle spasm treatment you need to improve any symptoms you are experiencing.

Restless leg syndrome (RLS) causes uncomfortable sensations in the legs and a powerful urge to move. Sitting or lying down usually triggers it mostly in the evenings or at night. A way to temporarily feel better is to get up and move around.

Unfortunately, as you get older, RLS gets worse. These sleep disturbances can interfere with your daily life on so many levels.

Thankfully, the right treatment, life changes, and some self-care can help relieve symptoms of RLS leg pain in most patients.

Restless Leg Syndrome: Causes and Risks

In most cases, restless leg syndrome doesn’t really have a known cause. Some think a brain chemical called “dopamine,” which controls muscle movement, may be to blame for the condition.

The condition can also run in families, especially if it starts before the age of 40. A gene for restless legs may be present within certain chromosomes.

Symptoms can also be temporarily worsened by pregnancy or hormonal changes. RLS may strike for the first time during pregnancy, especially during the last trimester. After delivery, symptoms usually go away.

You can get RLS at any age, even as a child. The condition is more common in women as they age than in men. Extreme restless leg syndrome isn’t usually caused by anything serious. It can, however, come with other conditions:

• Spinal cord disorders: Injuries or damage to the spinal cord can cause restless leg syndrome. The risk of developing RLS is also higher if you’ve had any sort of anesthesia injected into your spinal cord.
• Kidney failure: Iron deficiency is often accompanied by anemia in people with kidney failure. Iron levels in your blood can drop if your kidneys aren’t working right. RLS may be caused or worsened by this and other changes in body chemistry.
• Peripheral neuropathy: Often, chronic diseases like diabetes and alcoholism cause nerve damage in both the hands and feet.
• Parkinson’s Disease: RLS is more common in people with Parkinson’s Disease and those who take a special compound that activates dopamine receptors in treatment of such (called dopaminergic agonists).
• Lack of iron: Even without any sort of anemia being present, iron deficiency can worsen or cause RLS. In some cases an iron deficiency may be caused by bleeding from the stomach or bowels, heavy menstrual periods, or donating blood too frequently.

The Bewildering Enigma of Restless Leg Syndrome

According to research, many Americans suffer from restless leg syndrome, along with a handful of sleep disorders or similar characteristics.

According to a 2020 research paper from the National Library of Medicine, 70 percent of American adults don’t get enough sleep at least one night a month, and 11 percent don’t get enough sleep every single night. On top of these facts about the general population, it’s good to note that:

• Jerking leg syndrome affects about 15 percent of the U.S. population.
• Because RLS has multiple causes and varies so much in response to treatments, it’s always been a challenge to manage.
• No matter your family history, you can get RLS at any age.
• Symptoms, causes, and implications for patients of “primary restless leg syndrome” and “secondary restless leg syndrome” can be similar, but there are some notable differences as well.
• Acupuncture, light therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation can often largely reduce RLS symptoms.
• Kicking leg syndrome often occurs with another sleep disorder called Periodic Limb Movement of Sleep (PLMS), characterized by periodic episodes of repetitive, stereotyped leg movement during sleep. According to the studies, around 80 percent of people with RLS have PLMS. The movements associated with PLMS often consist of flexion or extension at the ankle. In some cases, this may also occur at the knee, or it may occur on one side, or go back and forth between the left and right sides.

Given these facts, the symptoms of restless leg syndrome are even more interesting.

Restless Leg Syndrome Symptoms

Leg twitching is the main symptom of restless leg syndrome. Restless sensations that often start while you’re sleeping characterize RLS. Most people get this feeling after lying down or sitting for a long time, like in a car or a plane.

Movement can also relieve symptoms. Stretching, shaking the legs, pacing or walking helps RLS leg pain symptoms. However, it’s also possible for symptoms to get worse in the evening. Nighttime leg twitching, unfortunately, can be a common symptom. It can be associated with periodic limb movement of sleep, which causes the legs to twitch and kick while you sleep, possibly all night long.

Symptoms of RLS include unpleasant sensations in the legs or feet. It will usually happen on both sides. Arms, however, are usually less affected. Nonetheless, symptoms include itching, pulling, crawling, throbbing, creeping, aching, and electric sensations, which generally happen inside the limb rather than on the skin. It may sometimes be hard to even explain the sensations. Patients consistently describe and report leg movement, but they do not typically report muscle cramps and numbness as symptoms.

The severity of symptoms from restless legs changes a lot. What’s even more interesting is, symptoms can disappear for a while before returning.

How to Alleviate the Symptoms

A sleeping disorder like restless leg syndrome can be made worse by personal habits. There may be times when they’re a big part of the problem. You can reduce symptoms and sleep better by trying some (or all) of the following tips, or go further by exploring RLS treatment. For now, the tips include:

• Massage your legs regularly.
• Get some exercise every day.
• Avoid napping during the day.
• Stretch your legs every morning and evening.
• Avoid using your bed for anything but sleeping or sexual activity.
• Request a blood test to evaluate how your kidneys and iron may be functioning.
• Do your best not to worry about anything at bedtime.
• Before going to sleep, avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine.
• Always let your doctor know what medications you’re taking.
• Before going to sleep, soak your legs in warm water.
• Avoid eating a heavy meal before bedtime.
• Work on keeping a regular sleep schedule.

Consider severe RLS treatment when you have tried nearly everything possible in your own power to alleviate your restless leg syndrome.

When to See a Doctor for Restless Legs Syndrome

The fear of not being taken seriously makes some people never seek medical attention for restless leg syndrome. However, since RLS leg pain can interfere with your sleep and make you drowsy during the day, it is also affecting your quality of life. Get checked out by your doctor if you think you might have RLS.

If your diagnosis is positive, write down the name of the RLS treatment or test. Keep a note of any new instructions you get from your doctor. Make it a priority to know why you’re getting a new medicine or treatment. Also, make sure you know the side effects. You may wish to ask your doctor if there’s another way to treat your condition.

Know why you’re seeing a health specialist for RLS and what you expect from that visit. Make a list of questions you want answered before your visit. You may wish to have someone else present with you during the visit so they can help you remember what your doctor says.

Understand why a restless leg syndrome test or procedure is suggested and what the results mean. If you choose not to take the medicine or not to have a test or procedure, know what to expect. Make a note of your follow-up appointment date, time, and purpose. Make sure you know how to get in touch with your provider.

Wellness and Pain

When it comes to restless leg syndrome, it’s best to see a specialist or doctor who truly cares about your health. Oftentimes, our Wellness and Pain practitioners will recommend and offer radiofrequency ablation, which uses energy to heat inside the vessel walls, causing damaged vessels to close. We also use sclerotherapy to close off problem vessels with a foam that causes scarring. Injecting this foam into these vessels allows blood to flow to healthy ones.

Our services include vein ablation, massage therapy, acupuncture, and IV hydration. Wellness and Pain practitioners provide these important evaluations, apply their professional expertise, and offer the caring and sensitive RLS treatment you need.