Enter your name:
Night Cramp is something
which a great many people occasionally suffer - and they donít easily forget it.
Even the healthiest people may get a short, sharp pain
the legs
a strenuous day.
Many older people can bring it
making powerful stretching movements while lying
bed. If this sort
night cramp becomes a real nuisance, avoiding
-stretching and tablets containing quinine sulphate
bed-time may be all that is needed.
A very small number
patients, however, cannot take quinine
becoming dizzy or getting buzzing
the ears. They may have
decide whether they would rather have cramp and no dizziness, or the reverse.
But cramp
the lower limbs
the daytime and
younger, active patients
can be very distressing and is more serious. It is not uncommon and has the rather clumsy name
intermittent claudications.
The patient first complains
aching legs
exercise. It may be slight, but gradually becomes more pronounced. Then the pain is not merely an ache, but a definite, crippling cramp, which can become so severe that the patient finds he or she cannot stand
much walking.
Intermittent claudication is caused
the narrowing
the arteries and often starts
the 30s. It generally means that the arteries everywhere
the body have become narrowed and blood cannot reach the muscles fast enough when they are
use. The heart muscles may be equally affected.
This condition may be a good enough excuse
not doing jobs you donít like doing, but that is poor consolation. It is a disease which affects men far more than women and attacks are more common
cold weather, or even
sitting
a chair
the office
a draught. It is also a slightly hereditary complaint.
This is
no means the same
the night-time cramp already mentioned, and there is no absolute cure. The patient learns
regulate the amount
exercise he or she can comfortably take.
No drugs offer a complete relief but there is one habit which the sufferer must give
ó smoking. Whatever may or may not be oneís views
the habit, it undoubtedly makes intermittent claudication far more troublesome.
A number
patients will secretly admit that so long
they keep
tobacco they do not get this fearsome cramp.