OMG Help!!

[Fenbay]

Ok, sorry for the catchy subject but I just went through some of the most excruciating pain of my life.

Post work out I was sitting down and started to get up and my entire body started to spasm. At one point in time my right hamstring, right quadracep <yeah opposing muscles not good>, all my abdominals, left calf, neck, and left obliques were completely seized. Cramps like nothing I've experienced before.

Has anyone else experienced this with creatine? Specifically fizz fuel creatine? I've noticed it's when I take this that I have the most liklihood to get muscle cramps. Albeit nothing like this has happened before. I thought I was going to rip some muscles off my bone for a minute there.

Drinking plenty of water. One thing of note is when I had a CBC done at my last physical I was low-sodium which is usually a good thing, but do you think that with working out and drinking lots of water that I could literally have such low sodium that the Potassium/sodium pump could be affecting my muscles? Could creatine add to this?

Damn, any help would be appreciated. I don't want to go through that again. It took me 10 minutes of agony for all my muscles to finally relax. Even now they're still twitching.

Edit: Doing some research on the net...it appears that this is a known issue with creatine and some people even say a high protein diet also can cause this. Double whammy for me. Apparently both leech calcium out of the body. Yet another supplement to take I guess.

[SoulOfKoRea]

sodium is an essential mineral, you may be experiencing sodium deficiencies

[bigassdan]

Maybe you have SARS.

[Fenbay]

Great answer Dan.... I think I'm SARS free.

[Orange357]

try adding more potassium.

[lazyman79]

Originally posted by SoulOfKoRea
sodium is an essential mineral, you may be experiencing sodium deficiencies

Hey, I don’t see how a sodium deficiency would cause him to have spasms though, unless the deficiency is to some (great extent). If he says he was drinking enough water like he said then I don’t think sodium would be a problem. Do you stretch or do warm-ups before you get into an exercise. I know if I don’t do warm-ups I get horrible spasms in either my calf muscle or sometimes in my forearm which just (kills!!). Besides that though I really dont know what could have caused a complete body spasm considering you where drinking enough water. I have used creatine in the past, but never expericenced any problems with it. Maybe your body just does not react well to it, who knows.

Sorry if I was not more helpful, hope you figure out what caused it. :(

[Ironman8]

Originally posted by Fenbay
Great answer Dan.... I think I'm SARS free.

Have you been to China lately? :D j/k

[SoulOfKoRea]

"DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS(of Sodium)

Muscle and stomach cramps
Nausea
Fatigue
Mental apathy
Muscle twitching and cramping (usually in legs)
Appetite loss "

[Fenbay]

Yep...I'm being very careful now and eating a banana with breakfast every morning for the K and taking a Ca supplement and also using the NaCl on my food more than I used to.

[SoulOfKoRea]

you could just take a good multivitamin, GNC megamen is time released so it gives your body a steady supply of vitamins/minerals every something hours

[Fenbay]

I'll have to look into that vitamin. I'm currently just taking a One a Day Active. Not sure on the break-down of the minerals though.

Also, I don't think vitamins normally add sodium since most people are looking to lower it. I think my genetic predisposition for low sodium levels in unusual. My mother claims its genetic because her father loaded salt on everything he ate and to the day he died ran low sodium on all his blood tests.

[SoulOfKoRea]

didn't know you were taking a multi so I was just suggesting it, as long as you have a balance of minerals and everything else it shouldn't be a problem, has your doctor recommended anything for the low sodium?

[Fenbay]

No, he even said after giving me the blood results he wasn't advocating the use of salt even with my low numbers, but that was pre the severe muscle cramps and even pre me getting serious into the weights again.

You know how you can kind of intuituvely feel what's going on in your body and apply your knowledge to it? Well I definitely feel like it was a deficiency of sodium or calcium or even both.

I'm going to actively keep my intake of both of those minerals higher for awhile and see if the issue returns. If not I know I've solved it. Common sense also tends to lead me to believe that was the problem. Sweating much more, drinking much more water thus removing more of everything from my body, taxing my muscles a great deal more etc.

[GonePostal]

WEST NILE!

[Fenbay]

You guys are a buncha comedians! :rolleyes:

Maybe it was just sympathy pain for my pregant wife who is complaining daily now of her discomfort and the football that's growing in her stomach. :)

[NPursuit]

Sounds like a sodium deficiency to me homez. I've heard of that happening to guys competing on stage. Sounds like fun!

[bradley]

How much calcium are you supplementing with?

[Fenbay]

Bradley,

I was supplementing none when the cramps occurred. Now I am taking two 600mg caplets a day. One with breakfast, one with noon meal.

[chocko]

Speaking of calcium, is there anything to the claims that 'coral calcium' is somehow superior to other kinds?


Originally posted by bradley
How much calcium are you supplementing with?

[Raiden]

I think its just a marketing angle. lemmy do some research.