My parents both suffer from night cramps almost daily, but whilst on a 10 day cruise recently neither suffered a single one. They have been over the differences between the ship and home but can't identify anything to explain the change. It's definitely something they'd like to understand so they can recreate if possible! Has anyone else experienced this?
Agreed with Ring of Gold, sodium is a likely cause/benefit of stopping leg cramps. The three electrolytes needed daily are; sodium, magnesium, and potassium. A deficiently in any of these can cause nightly leg cramps. Many (nearly all) people are deficient in magnesium and need to be taking a daily supplement and is so very important in many body functions. Potassium is also difficult to meet the meet the minimum RDA of nearly 5 grams, so that should also be monitored. That leaves sodium. Many are misguided in believing that the less sodium the better and may make considerable effort at home to keep sodium intake very low. On ships, the foods may have more sodium than what your parents have at home and this could reduce leg cramps. My personal recommendation for me and my DW is: take daily magnesium supplements, salt all food to taste, and try to get enough potassium to at least make a run for 5 grams (not easy, but using supplements make it difficult to come anywhere close to 5 grams/day and could have cardio side effects if over taken; stick with food forms if possible).
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