Riding Your Charlie Horse to Victory

It is late at night and your sound asleep. You stretch your leg out and all of a sudden you feel a painful cramp that feels like someone is tearing your leg off. It is so bad it makes you jump out of bed and you try to walk it off but your sound sleep was already ruined and for the rest of the day it feels like that leg is bruised or sore.

They are called many things depending on the country your from such as dead leg, chopper, granddaddy, or corked thigh. But I have always heard them called charlie horses. They are the most painful experience that anyone could have at night. And last night I had a really bad one so bad that even now it is still bothering me. I find myself limping around my apartment.

Of course I decided to do some research about Charlie Horses and ways to win the war over them and I'm kind of surprised that I did not find too much information. My next door neighbor saw me limping and asked what was wrong and I told them it was a Charlie Horse and she said you should be eating banana's because it has to do with potassium deficiency but for me that should not be the case because I take daily supplements.

So I went over to the library and  I found some more information it actually can be caused by quite a few different things besides the potassium deficiency while it is a main cause there is a few other things that can cause them too such as:

•     Muscle fatigue
•     Heavy exercising
•     Dehydration
•     High weight (not necessarily obesity)
•     Electrolyte imbalances
•     Medications (statins, prednisone, others...)  

 Now I know I have not done any over exercising but I have not been drinking enough water I can tell because my lips have also been chapped and painful I just have not had the time and have been busy. So I've realized that I need to try and fit more water into my daily schedule. I at least wanted to do a blog post about it because most of us do not think about this. Sometimes we get caught up in our work and we drink soda or sugar drinks which do not keep ourselves hydrated well enough.

Update on Tea's And Other Information

I know it has been quite a few weeks since I last posted. I apologize in preparation of 4th of July I lost track of time and computer upgrade of my computer but I have not forgotten about the tea's. One unfortunate thing is that not all of the manufactures actually have given responses. And some that have also lied about whether or not their tea used Epichlorohydrin.

So the best way to find out is use the trick which I posted here. Otherwise you might not get accurate information. But way to avoid cancer is to have your tea loose. While it might be more annoying because you have to strain the tea you will not have to worry about any type of toxins. Even if the bag is sealed with a form of plastic seal some of the plastics can break down with the water heat and also release chemicals which can cause cancer.

Any steps that you can take to limit your exposure to certain chemicals will increase your life in the long run. While things can happen which we have no control over we do have control over what we eat and how well we take care of ourselves and what we use on a daily basis. Even the smallest steps can help to improve our health. This does not mean you have to spend a fortune to improve your health either cause I do realize that much of the food that you buy from health food stores can be very expensive and not everyone has access to these types of stores. But everyone does have access to your local grocery stores. All you have to do is learn to make food which does not come prefrozen or in a can.

Avoiding food that is process is another important way to stay healthy not just because of the massive amounts of salt that these processed foods contain but the unneeded chemicals which are used to preserve or give it a flavor or color that is pleasing to the person that eats it. Even in your favorite snacks you'll find dye colors to make your food look a certain way like for example I'm sure everyone has had Doritos at one time or another. If I can draw your attention to the wikipedia page for Doritos if you look at the ingredients you'll see artificial color (including Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40). Just so you know when I'm talking about them I'm not making it up.

Of course processed food is not the only one at fault. Canned food deserves some blame too especially that it also contains a vary of preservatives  and also the metal that it is contained in gets into the food and contaminates it. You should always at least wash food that comes from a can that will not only remove some of the contamination but will also improve the taste of the food.

That's all I have for now but I will not forget about you guys now that things have calmed down I'll have another interesting medical related article soon for you. I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog.