What is a Charley Horse?

A charley horse occurs when the muscles of your calf suddenly and painfully contract. It is an involuntary movement that typically occurs just as individuals are falling asleep.

Causes and Symptoms of a Charley Horse

A charley horse or muscle cramp can occur for a variety of reasons, including lack of circulation in the legs, over-exercise, lack of stretching before exercising, heat exhaustion, fatigue, dehydration, nerve dysfunction and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Symptoms of a muscle cramp include extreme tightness in the muscle and severe pain.

Most muscle cramps do not need medical treatment and resolve on their own. However, if your cramps are especially long in duration, there are at-home treatments that you can apply to help ease your pain and release the muscle.

Try gently massaging and stretching the muscle to loosen it. Apply heat or ice to help relax the muscle and ease the pain or take a warm bath with Epsom salt. If these at-home remedies do not work or you get muscle cramps frequently, we recommend scheduling an appointment with our chiropractor in Birmingham.

Chiropractic Treatment for Muscle Cramps

Our Birmingham chiropractor can help identify the underlying causes of your frequent muscle cramps and recommend chiropractic treatment to help prevent future occurrences. We offer nutritional advice and counseling that can help you correct any vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Receiving regular massage therapy sessions at our clinic can help keep your muscles flexible and facilitate the release of lactic acid, which causes muscle pain and potential cramping after participating in vigorous exercise.

If your muscle cramps are cause by nerve problems, our chiropractor can diagnose the affected nerves and perform chiropractic adjustments to realign the vertebrae and extremity joints. This helps relieve the pressure on the nerves and helps restore proper nerve function.

How often do you experience charley horses?