The Real Reason You Keep Getting Leg Cramps at Night

Are leg cramps waking you up at night? Discover what causes leg cramps at night, how to stop nighttime leg cramps, and what you can do to get better sleep.

Let’s talk about the real reason you keep getting leg cramps at night. This was me. I had it very, very severe. These cramps were so bad, they literally forced me to jump out of bed and start walking and try to stretch this cramp out. And I didn’t know this at the time, but the amount of force that these involuntary contractions occur are roughly 150 h.

That’s enough contractile force on your muscles to literally tear tendons and create damage. I remember being completely woken up out of a dead sleep with my toes literally cramping up. And I really wish I would have known back then what I know now. But I want to share with you exactly what’s happening. The first thing you need to know is the problem is actually not in your muscles.

It’s originating in the nervous system. The nerve is hyperexcited, okay? Because there’s too much calcium in that nerve. And there’s also too much calcium in the muscle. Calcium causes contraction of the muscle.

And when the calcium comes out, the muscle relaxes. All of the contraction and relaxation of that muscle is controlled by the nerve. And so that’s where the real problem is. It starts in the nervous system. But the question is, why?

Is it a potassium problem? Is it you just didn’t stretch enough? You’re deficient in magnesium? Maybe you’re just dehydrated, right? So many friends and family will give you all sorts of random guesses on what’s causing it, but I’m going to tell you right now, it’s coming because of low magnesium.

And so magnesium is really behind the pump that pushes this calcium through the nerve and out of the muscle. The magnesium deficiency shows up first in the peripheral part of the body, which is the place that’s furthest from the heart. Just like with diabetes, you’ll notice symptoms in the bottom of the foot. Well, with a magnesium deficiency, it’s going to show up in the lower leg in a different way. And I know some people will say, well, I had my magnesium tested and it’s actually normal.

Well, it’s almost impossible to test for magnesium in your blood because you only have 1% or less in your blood. And your body will deplete your bones and your muscles and your organs way before you deplete it in the blood. So, by the time it shows up in the blood, you are severely, severely deficient. And some people when they start taking magnesium, it just doesn’t work, okay? First reason is the type of magnesium they’re taking, magnesium oxide, which is the worst.

And really, you only absorb, if you’re lucky, 4 to 5% of it. So, let’s say the pills are 400 mg, right? You’re really only absorbing 16 mg, okay? Well, that’s not enough to create a therapeutic effect on your body, unfortunately. The majority of research does not tell you that cramps are a magnesium deficiency.

Because 80% of the research is using magnesium oxide. However, there is some research to show that magnesium does help the cramp. And I’m going to share that with you. If you use magnesium oxide in your research, you’re not going to show a lot of benefits from magnesium. So, you want to use magnesium glycinate in a very unique way.

And the big thing beneath this entire problem is most people are deficient. Why? Because our food we don’t consume enough magnesium-rich food. And then also, if you do, you really only absorb, if you’re lucky, 30 to 40%. That’s with a healthy body, with a healthy digestive system.

So, if you see on the back of the label that a certain food has 100 mg of magnesium you’re only going to absorb a percentage of it. The more stress you have, the more magnesium flushes out through the urine. The more caffeine, same thing, it’s going to flush out through the urine. The more carbohydrates you consume, the more magnesium you are going to lose. Certain medications, actually quite a few, deplete magnesium.

Alcohol depletes magnesium. Our soils are so depleted in magnesium that it doesn’t end up in the food. So, over time we’re losing more minerals, especially trace minerals, and magnesium on top of it. There’s a lot of foods that have oxalates. Chocolate, nuts, spinach.

All those foods with oxalates lock up magnesium and calcium as well. Also, grains have phytates. They block magnesium. If your stomach doesn’t have a strong enough pH, which as we age we lose that acidity, we’re not going to be able to absorb magnesium. All right, let’s get right to the solution.

A really big reason why your magnesium might not be working is you are very low in vitamin D. In order for magnesium to work, you need a lot of vitamin D. Let’s say for example, you’re taking a lot of vitamin D. Guess what? The need for magnesium goes up.

So, just realize that magnesium and vitamin D work together. Both vitamin D and especially magnesium have another vitamin or cofactor that helps it work, and that’s B6. So, that’s another reason why your magnesium might not work is you’re deficient in B6. If you take B6, make sure it’s the active form called P5P. versus the synthetic version, which actually competes with the natural version, and it can create more problems.

So, this is one big barrier why magnesium might not work. Number two, you’re taking the wrong form. I already mentioned take magnesium glycinate. If you do a search on magnesium glycinate, let’s say on Amazon, always look on back of the label because a lot of times they will dilute your magnesium glycinate with other forms of magnesium like they’ll dilute it with magnesium oxide, which basically is just a way of watering it down. So, you think you’re getting magnesium glycinate, but a lot of products that say magnesium glycinate have hidden oxide, but it’s not really hidden if you read the label on the back.

I have a free download that I want to give to you. This free download is my daily routine and a checklist. This is a routine that I use every day to feel like I’m 18 years old, even though I’m 60 years old, and I want to give it to you for free. And so there’s a little link down below, click it, and definitely download that. Number three, if you have severe cramps and a very severe magnesium deficiency, you are not going to probably see results within weeks, sometimes a few months.

Let’s say you’re trying it for a week or even two and you’re not seeing any results, it could be just because you didn’t do it long enough. And unfortunately, some people are going to quit way before it starts working. What you’re going to do is take a certain amount several times a day. And so there’s an absorption threshold of 150 to 180 mg per dosage. Now, you can do this in a powder or a pill, but the reason I’m going to recommend the largest amount at night is because that magnesium helps GABA, which is a calming hormone.

It actually helps you drop your temperature to become cooler to be able to go into a deeper sleep a little faster. So, anything that improves your sleep is going to also help the nervous system. One last point, if you have kidney disease, check with your doctor because there’s certain restrictions of taking too much magnesium and you have to have your doctor sign off on how much you can take and how much you can’t take. You now have the exact formula to get rid of your cramps. go ahead and comment down below and tell me how much it helped you.

And also, if you have high blood pressure and you’re struggling with it coming down even with medication, you need to watch this video right here. Check it out.