Letter to a New Diabetic: Leg Cramps

Dear Concerned:

I, too, have had the (un)pleasant experience of waking in the middle of the night mid-scream and in tears from the knotting pain of a cramp in the calf. Unfortunately, until you manage to get your blood glucose levels down to an acceptable level you will continue to be plagued by these nocturnal visitors.


Assuming for discussion purposes that you haven't been intensely exercising, the most probably cause of your leg cramps are due to dehydration or an electrolyte imbalance. If you haven't noticed, one of the ways that your body rids itself of excess blood sugar is to try and pee it out. If you aren't careful to take more water in, you can easily find yourself dehydrated. This is known to accentuate muscle fatigue, which some people think can result in abnormal neural activity whereby certain muscles get the signal to contract but not relax.

Another frequent cause of leg cramps is an imbalance in your electrolytes. Whether this is due to all the urination or caused by a lack of sufficient intake from the outset, the result is painful just the same. If you aren't regularly taking a multivitamin AND mineral supplement each day, you need to be. You should also have your physician order a complete blood work-up on you. That will tell you if you are deficient in calcium, potassium, magnesium,Vitamin D or other vital nutrients. (Note: unless you are farming and eating your own organic produce, have eggs from the chickens running around your backyard and raise and slaughter your own livestock, it's a safe bet that you aren't getting all the requisite nutrients you need from the food items you are purchasing from the grocery store.)

However, none of this is of much solace at three in the morning when you are hopping around on one foot, trying not to wake everyone else up as you sob from the pain. Things to try include eating a banana (potassium) or chewing a couple of Tums (calcium). More general suggestions can be found in this article over at roadbikerider.com on cramps.

Hope this helps,

Niko