{"id":3264,"date":"2019-02-04T12:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T12:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radianthealth.us\/2019\/02\/04\/what-causes-muscle-cramps-and-how-to-prevent-them\/"},"modified":"2019-02-04T12:30:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T12:30:06","slug":"what-causes-muscle-cramps-and-how-to-prevent-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/2019\/02\/04\/what-causes-muscle-cramps-and-how-to-prevent-them\/","title":{"rendered":"What Causes \u00a0Muscle Cramps And How To Prevent Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-683 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/radianthealth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/muscle-resized.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>Just about everyone has suffered a muscle cramp at one point or another.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the most common types of injuries or pain you can experience. However, how do they happen, and when you get one, what\u2019s the best way of minimizing its impact?\u00a0 Fair questions for both.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are the answers:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In simplest terms, a muscle cramp is a strong tightening or contraction of the muscle in question.\u00a0 They tend to have a sudden onset, and can last anywhere from just a few seconds to several minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, science doesn\u2019t offer any firm answers on the exact causes of muscle cramps, although we know of a number of things that can certainly lead to them.\u00a0 Among them are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A potassium, magnesium, iron, or calcium deficiency in your blood<\/li>\n<li>Dehydration<\/li>\n<li>Standing on a hard, unyielding surface for an extended period of time<\/li>\n<li>Exposure to extremes in temperature in either direction, but especially exposure to cold<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition to those things, perhaps the leading cause of muscle cramps is simple over-use.\u00a0 Exercising for too long or too intensely can certainly lead to cramping.\u00a0 Fortunately, there are a few simple things you can do to alleviate the pain.\u00a0 These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Walking it off \u2013 It may sound almost cliche, but if you\u2019re suffering a leg cramp, walking does help to stretch it out.<\/li>\n<li>Perform a gentle stretching routine \u2013 if you\u2019re not in a position where you can walk, then gentle persistent stretching will certainly help, and is a perfectly viable alternative<\/li>\n<li>Massage \u2013 another great option is massage, which you can, in most cases, easily do yourself<\/li>\n<li>Alternate ice and heat \u2013 Ice alone is moderately effective. Heat alone is moderately effective, but for best results, use both in an alternating pattern of about fifteen minutes each.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course, if your pain persists, then it could be a symptom of a deeper problem, in which case, you should make an appointment with your chiropractor or physician at your next available opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-683 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/radianthealth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/muscle-resized.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>Just about everyone has suffered a muscle cramp at one point or another.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the most common types of injuries or pain you can experience. However, how do &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3266,"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions\/3266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radianthealth.us\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}