{"id":2302,"date":"2014-10-20T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T16:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/?p=2302"},"modified":"2015-06-17T12:02:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T12:02:51","slug":"salt-depletion-really-cause-cramp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/salt-depletion-really-cause-cramp\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Salt Depletion Really The Cause of Cramp?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pretty sure everyone has suffered cramp (which apparently is also referred to as “Charley Horse”, you learn something new everyday!) at somepoint in their life – the dreaded calf cramp in the middle of the night, leaving you struggling to walk in the morning. More recently, I have been suffering from cramp in my feet post-running. The kind of cramp which leaves your toes splayed at odd angles,and I tell you, it hurts like hell! When mentioning it to anyone the most common response you get is “You’re not getting enough salt”.<\/p>\n
Typically, if there’s something I don’t know the answer to, I Google it…so I did. A mixture of facts and opinions popped up but there was a common theme – cramp is more likely to be caused through muscle fatigue than lack of salts.<\/p>\n
One site described it as two different types of cramp which illustrate different symptoms. Cramp caused through muscle fatigue causes sharp pain, hardening of the muscle and can be relieved through stretching. Cramp caused through lack of electrolytes (not only sodium, but also potassium, magnesium etc) shows itself as twitching in the muscles.<\/p>\n
A very simplistic explanation of the link between lack of salts and cramping is this – you exercise, you sweat, you lose water, and in turn you lose electrolytes. Electrolytes help with nerve conduction and muscle contraction. If you don’t have sufficient electrolytes, the nerve impulses aren’t sent to your muscles properly which causes cramps. This all makes perfect sense, but is it really the case?<\/p>\n