Paola Marchi asked
this question:
Hi Anthony, first of all I want to thank you
for all your posts and advices, they're very helpfull, and also I must warn you
about my English, wich isn't very good so I hope you can understand me. Ok, I'm
going to start telling that I started to practice Ashtanga about 10 months ago,
and I'm doing my practice every day since April. All my life I suffered from
cramps, mostly in my twenties (now I'm 35 years old),
sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night with terrible cramps, mostly in
my right leg (gastrocnemius or soleus muscles, I don't know exactly). Well, I
toke some magnesium for a while and the cramps stopped. But now, in my practice
they came back: during purvottanasana, sometimes in bhujapidasana, halasana,
uttanapadasana and sirsasana (every time that I want to strech my feet).
Another thing wich is important, I'm vegetarian, since 4 years ago and I'm
trying to be vegan for about 5 or 6 months (I only eat dairy or eggs socially).
I started to take magnesium again and I'm better but I don't think that's the
solution, I don't want to be an artificial supplement dependent, right? I eat
oat, bananas and others fruits, greens and vegetables, seeds, nuts... So I
don't know what is wrong with me. I will appreciate if you can give me some
advice or share your wisdom with me and help me to find any solution. One more
time, thank you so much.
Answer:
Answer:
You are very welcome. Your question is a very good one and
addresses a common challenge that is associated with worse health problems if
not addressed. It is also common and unsolvable at its’ cause by western
medicine. Of course I can’t say for sure what the problem, nor would I because I
don’t play doctor. Even doctors don’t address this accurately and completely.
It is valuable
first to consider what is artificial nutrition in your mind. The ancients were
processing food for storage and making extracts, concentrates and esoteric
remedies that can only be described as alchemy. The market place is flooded
with artificial or poor quality nutritional supplements; herbs that are not
what they claim to be, that are grown and harvested with low consciousness,
vitamins that are manmade and isolated from their important co-factors,
remedies that are not nearly as strong as the ones used in the studies and
experiments that proved their benefit, etc.. The reason I mention this is to
open your mind to accepting the possibility that high quality nutritional supplements
can be a sustainable method of health and healing. For instance, the magnesium
that you use, what form is it in? Studies show that the manmade types ( the
best at present is magnesium glysinate ) are not nearly as good as the food
concentrates or those grown, for instance in saccharomyces cerevisiae, which are
much more bioavailable and therefore ,
more effective.
If the
magnesium helps, it makes sense to test your pH to see if you might be too
acidic. The easiest, not the best but easiest for you and cheapest, would be litmus
paper. Check your pH throughout the day the most important time being first
thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything. If you get up a 6 am and
go to pee, splash a drop or two from mid stream on the paper and check the
number. Check saliva at the same time by first rinsing your mouth with water,
wait until your natural saliva comes back, a few minutes and then spit on the pH
paper. You are looking to find a number that is close to 7 which is neutral pH.
If you find that it is 5, you are on the right track and now need to work with
alkalizing your body. In this case the cramps are being caused my low pH that
further causes the de-mineralization of muscle, bone and blood. The way I works
is, blood pH is most important so the body intelligence will deplete the
alkalizing minerals from the bones ( osteopenia or osteoporosis) and the
muscles causing cramps rather than letting the blood pH get to low which could
result in death. This is practical as death is worse than cramps or weak bones.
Because you
mention the gastrocnemius and the soleus, if it were me, I would look to
adrenal stress as another possible contributing factor. The muscles mentioned
share lymphatic pathways with the adrenal glands. Basically, if the adrenal
glands are suffering so are the associated muscles. I personally would look to
herbal, nutritional and or glandular support in that case. More than likely it
could be both the pH and the adrenals.
Now it gets
a bit tricky, you can read the blog post on Surgery is just the beginning. If the
propriaceptive mechanisms (sensory mechanisms in the tendon or the muscle
belly, responsible for communication between the muscles) are not communicating
efficiently and the prime movers (in this case the gastrocnemius and soleus) are
co-contracting with their antagonist muscles ( generally the muscles on the opposite
side of the joint/bone) you will get frequent cramps. Another scenario would be
when the antagonists (apposing muscle) are weak or flaccid or not firing for
some other reason ( usually neurological in nature), the prime movers, in this
case the Gastrocnemius and soleus will constantly be in over contraction and
frequent cramps will occur.
There are
certainly more scenarios but this is a good start. I would start with the pH
and adrenals. Have you been under a lot of stress, are you deficient in B
vitamins especially B12, do you eat a lot of acid forming food, has your
transition to vegan cause a detoxification that has lowered you pH ? Let me
know how it goes.
Interesting point of view. I forgot to tell you that I'm trying to alkalinize my body by the food. I`m trying to avoid processed food, I don't drink coffee or alcohol and a take sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride (because I thought that It was maybe a pH issue), but I really never checked my pH so I think that is a very good idea for starting.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I never thought in the adrenal glands. I'm going to read more about that.
So, the first step would be to check my pH.. and then, if it's ok.. I will explore the idea of an hormonal problem.
You`re also right about the antagonist muscles, maybe they're weak so gastrocnemius or soleus are over stressed.
My teacher say that the Ashtanga practice, when it's regular... showing us our strengths and weaknesses, maybe the injuries always were there but they start to manifest with the practice. I don't know what do you think about that...
And, I almost forget, I'm going to add some saccharomyces cerevisiae to my diet.. So maybe it will help! Thank you and I'll let you know how I'm doing!
The challenge here is communication. Muscle testing of the area would be very helpful to you and find nutrition that is grown in the yeast, not the yeast which is brewers yeast. Or find nutrition that is from food concentrates or supper food powders.
ReplyDeleteOk, I thought you was talking about barm (in Spanish: levadura de cerveza, maybe I'm misundestanding what you mean).
ReplyDeleteI found my last blood and urine test, wich were made in April, and my urine pH was 5.. so, you were right.. it was acidic. I must do the test again because in that time I was still eating dairy and eggs regulary.