What do you do to ease the pain when you wake up in the middle of the night with a cramp in your calf muscles?

* Happens to me occasionally; my doctor advises (a) to keep an eye on the amount of salt in my diet (including that in mineral water and so on) and (b) if it happens, swing the feet off the bed and put them flat on the floor. As the pain eases, walk to the nearest cold floor -- perhaps the bathroom -- and stand there, again with the feet flat on the floor.

If it keeps happening, see your doctor for a health check. * Respectfully, the regimen described above would work better for foot cramping, perhaps as the result of circulatory or cardiac issues. From the description, I think this is a different problem altogether.

Two lines of thought present themselves:

(1) If you've had a lot of exercise that day (for you), been hot and sweaty, or of course both, you may be cramping as a result of an electrolytic imbalance. This happens to athletes all the time. Try eating a couple of bananas (high in potassium), drink a sports drink (not the energy kind; the re-hydration kid), or do both. See if the problem passes or eases in 15 minutes or so.

(2) Another possibility is that this sort of cramping is occasionally a side-effect of back injuries in the Lumbar region. The huge nerve plexus that controls the legs branches out from the spinal cord at the Lumbar region of the spine, usually around the vertebrae called L4 and L5. From there, those nerves become the Sciatic nerves that run down each leg. This is the area we call the small of the back. If you've had a back injury in this area, or suffer from chronic back problems in the lumbar region, cramping can occur as a result of the misfiring of the nerves that activate these muscles. Symptoms will typically occur in such a way that both feet turn inwards (decorticate flexion). If this is what's happening to you, consider talking to your doctor about Muscle Relaxants. I like Skelaxin especially for this, as it doesn't seem to present the lingering fatigue that other, more intense, muscle relaxants do, but you'll need to get with your doctor on that.

If this goes away -- great. If not, you may want to have a chat with your doc -- especially if you're suffering from some spinal problems.