A spasm is a jerky, involuntary movement of a muscle, often in a pattern not associated with that particular muscle. In the person suffering from diabetes, spasms can be far more severe due to the already diminished elasticity of the muscle. For example, a foot could appear to turn “backwards” or fingers could be forced into extended straight positions, bending “upwards.” Muscle spasms are usually associated with strained and overused muscles. World class athletes and dancers, for example, walk a fine line between training for high performance, and pushing their muscles beyond their limit. But when a diabetes muscle spasm strikes, it is rarely due to overuse of the muscle.

Dehydration is a frequent cause of muscle spasms; diabetes’ presence makes this all the more likely. While too much water intake can have a horrible result, especially if your bladder has been compromised by your diabetes, it is a good idea to sip water throughout the day. You should also take care to avoid prolonged standing and sitting. Sometimes people will use a small ball or even a soda bottle to roll under their hands when a spasm strikes. Interestingly, most diabetes muscle spasms happen when the body is at rest.

 

Diabetes Muscle Spasms Loose Their Treatment Source

 

Ask a diabetic who suffers from spasms and severe cramps and they will tell you that the worst pain typically occurs just after they have drifted off to sleep. Twitching, thrashing legs and feet do not make for a restful night of sleep.  Suffers used to take quinine to calm the nerves and muscles, but that all changed.

In 1994, the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of quinine to stop leg cramps and muscle spasms. Quinine had been prescribed for years to treat restless leg syndrome but was actually synthesized from the bark of the Peruvian cinchona tree to treat malaria. At the time of the ban, quinine had been one of the more successful drugs used by doctors treating muscle spasms. Unfortunately, quinine can compromise the pancreas and create the conditions for hypoglycemia. There are several drugs now administered for muscle pain, but they do not exactly stop the spasm when it strikes.

 

Muscle Spasms, Diabetes, and Soap?

 

If you could just wash away the pain, would you? It has been reported anecdotally that Ivory soap stops diabetes muscle spasms, no water required. In fact, the majority of people reporting a significant reduction in their nightly thrashing merely place the bar of soap in strategic places under their fitted sheet and call it a night. Some who work in jobs where standing is required (like nurses and grocery clerks) have resorted to shaving the soap and putting it into their pressure stockings.

 

How is soap “solving” diabetes spasms?

 

It could be any one of the ingredients. Muscle spasms are more likely to occur in people with magnesium deficiencies in the muscles. Perhaps that ingredient is passing through the skin of users, directly into their muscles.  Science has not proven yet why people would get a result from the soap. But one thing is certain: avoiding tremors and reducing diabetes spasms begins with properly managed blood sugar levels.

 

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