Knowing What to Eat Helps Reduce Muscle Spasms
Skeletal muscles are the muscles found in your arms, legs, back, stomach and neck, they are the muscles that connect to your body. It’s these muscles that’s responsible for our movements.
Unlike the smooth muscles we can usually control them. Occasionally these muscles will tense up into a hard knot. This stiffness can be extremely painful.
What causes the muscles to do this? What can we do to prevent it from occurring? What are some things we can do to relieve these muscle pains? You’ll find the answers to all of these questions in the paragraphs below.
The Painful Protrusions?
There are several reasons for muscle spasms. Some of them can be fixed by drinking water, or eating potassium rich foods.
The most common causes include; vitamin deficiency, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, working out too hard, not warming up before you work out, working in extreme temperatures, and being immobile for long periods of time.
Diseases can cause muscle spasms to occur. Some of them might include; neuropathy, atherosclerosis, kidney disease, arthritis, restless leg syndrome, anemia, and hormonal imbalances.
Central nervous system diseases and autoimmune diseases can cause muscle spasms.
There are some diseases that cause annoying muscle spasms, for instance; torticollis, uncontrolled head movement, dystonia speech impairments and blepharospasm, uncontrollable eye blinking. These are generally the result of depletion of specific chemicals in the brain.
Body Language
Your body needs a specific amount of vitamins in order for it to function properly. When your body’s lacking, disorders occur.
For instance, when your body doesn’t have calcium it takes away from your bones, causing osteoporosis. When your body doesn’t have enough Vitamin D, C and the B vitamins you can have muscle cramps.
Your body needs electrolytes, potassium, sodium and magnesium to maintain overall wellbeing. Sometimes when a person sweats a lot, has diarrhea, or vomiting the body’s fluid levels and electrolytes are depleted and this causes muscles to spasm.
At one time it’s thought that sore muscles after a workout was good, no pain, no gain theory, Doctors now believes that overworking muscles can lead to permanent damage.
So don’t work out too long to hard, warm up before you work out, and drink plenty of fluids. It’s also a good idea to change positions often, to decrease muscle strain.
Stop Thief
Your body needs important vitamins in order for it to maintain itself. When it doesn’t have the needed vitamins, it often steals the essential nutrients from other parts of your body, which causes other health issues. This is why it’s so important to eat healthy.
It’s suggested to eat 2 cups of vegetables a day. Doctors suggest green leafy vegetables have the largest variety of vitamins and minerals.
Of course we don’t want to forget carrots, Sweet potatoes, pumpkin, rhubarb, mustard greens, turnip green, green bean,winter green squash,
Kale, butternut squash, mushrooms and onions. It’s also suggested to eat two cups of fruit a day.
The fruits with the highest vitamins include; watermelon, cantaloupe, cherries, apricot, plums, applies apples, papaya, persimmons. Let’s not forget the grapes and berries. Bananas and avocado have high amounts of potassium.
It’s also suggested to eat 8 servings, four cups of whole grains a day and 2 ½ cups of seeds, nuts or legumes a day.
You should have three cups of dairy a day, if you don’t care for cow milk you can substitute it for almond or soy milk. They both have high amounts of calcium. For protein you need to eat lean meat and seafood.
Backup Plan
Getting your vitamins from food is the best way to go, because they are more readily absorbed by your body. It never hurts to back up your healthy eating habits with a daily multivitamin.
No More Junk for the Trunk
There are foods that increases muscle spasms, I will discuss them next. Processed foods, foods that contain Trans, saturated fats, additives and preservatives.
Some doctors also suggest to stay away from flour, yeast and sugary products because they increase inflammation.
So in a nut shell eating organic fresh foods, lean meats and fish is the best solution when it comes to stopping muscle cramps. When you cook use either virgin olive oil, canola, or coconut oil to reduce the saturated fats.
Give Me Relief
Now we know about food choices, let’s talk about ways to relieve the muscle spasm pains, when they occur. There’s over the counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. These will help stop the pain and inflammation temporarily.
There’s also lotion, gels and pain patches that can be applied topically to relieve the symptoms.
Unfortunately long term use of these medicines can have harmful side effects, the topical less than the others. This is why many turn to mother mature for pain relief.
Good Old Mother Nature
Some of the ones most utilized with muscle spasms include; Celery seed, Cramp bark Passiflora, devils claw, meadow sweet and white willow bark.
These herbs also help with anxiety and fatigue. Some of the essential oils include kava, black pepper, rose, peppermint, juniper, skullcap, eucalyptus, rosemary and wintergreen.
To reduce any tension and fatigue you might be experiencing a warm bath in either can jasmine, frankincense, chamomile, geranium, or lavender will do the trick.
Just Relax
Massage often helps relieves the soreness out of your muscles. One technique uses a tennis ball. Place it against you and a hard surface.
Once placed, put just enough pressure against it to release the tension. If you are gritting your teeth you’re applying too much force.
Now slowly move the ball around the area a little bit, to work out the kink. Once the knot’s out apply warm, moist heat to the area.
Some people use meditation and yoga to reduce stress and tension, which can cause sore stiff muscles, while others find that a hobby relaxes them, which reduces fatigue.
Some walks outdoors barefoot. This is to release the negative energy that our body’s accumulated through the day.
