A new way to prevent muscle cramps

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Nobel laureate Rod MacKinnon has found another way to prevent seizures. Now you know what to do so that your muscles do not crash at the most inopportune moment!

For decades, scientists and sports medicine specialists have assumed that cramping is the result of muscle dehydration (lack of moisture and electrolytes). This caused pain and cramps, which could only be relieved with water and electrolyte drinks.

Now more and more experts believe these arguments are wrong. Nobel laureate Rod McKinnon found that the cause of seizures is not muscle, but nervous. It's one thing when we do a lot of physical activity and our muscles get tired, and water reserves are depleted. But why, then, can we get a cramp just lying in bed in the middle of the night? Or why did Craig Alexander suffer from leg cramps in the early minutes of the Ironman race, when all body stores were still normal?

McKinnon himself experienced muscle cramps when, 10 years ago, his hands cracked while kayaking. Dehydration and micronutrient deficiencies had nothing to do with it. And it was after this that Rod and his fellow neuroscientist began to search for the real cause of seizures.

Instead of focusing on the muscles, scientists hypothesized that the nervous system sends impulses to the muscles and sets the wrong program of action. Perhaps people could avoid seizures if they could regulate overstimulation of motor neurons?

After studying the materials on this topic, McKinnon decided that it is possible to control the work of these neurons by firing receptors in the mouth and esophagus. This usually happens when we try to swallow spicy food. The pungent taste overloads the nerve receptors, creating a kind of analgesic effect. This powerful sensory signal suppresses the motor signal.

Could it be dangerous to suppress a signal such as convulsions? Perhaps it plays the same role as yanking your hand away from a hot stove? After taking a closer look at this issue, Dr. McKinnon concluded that there is absolutely no practical benefit from muscle pain from cramps. It does not help prevent injury or help us survive.

Using himself as a laboratory rat, McKinnon began his experiment. He used ginger and cinnamon to make drinks with varying levels of pungency, and tried to induce seizures with electrical impulses.

As a result, his guess was confirmed: it was much more difficult to cause convulsions after drinking spicy drinks. Then a number of experiments were carried out, and they also confirmed his theory.

After that, the development of a remedy for seizures was approached more carefully. A special spicy drink made from a mixture of ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper is now available in US stores.

In the meantime, we do not sell such drinks, we can offer a recipe for spicy flavored water, which will quite pass for such a remedy. However, before drinking it, make sure that you have no contraindications (for example, problems with the gallbladder or pancreas).

Cayenne pepper + lemon

• 240 ml of cold water;
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Mix everything and pour into a bottle.

Jalapeno + watermelon

• 110 g sugar;
• ½ glass of water;
• ½ hot fresh pepper;
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme;
• 1, 1 kg of watermelon.

Mix sugar and water and bring to a boil. Add hot peppers, seeded and chopped, and thyme. Turn off the heat and let it brew for 5 minutes. Strain the syrup into a bowl of a food processor, add the sliced watermelon pulp and chop. Send the finished drink to the refrigerator or add ice.