elizat@shark.UUCP (Elizabeth Trojan) (09/12/85)
My mother spent some time in the hospital with her leg in traction after a nasty car accident during which time she developed a tendency to get leg cramps. Obviously for a person in traction this is an extreemly uncomfortable situation and her doctor prescribed quinine for her. I suggest to anyone suffering from muscle cramps to talk to their doctor about getting a prescription for quinine. It was quite effective for my mother. She continued to take quinine for a couple of years but eventually found less and less need for it. There don't seem to be any negative side effects. Elizabeth Trojan (tektronix@elizat)
ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) (09/15/85)
> My mother spent some time in the hospital with her leg in traction after > a nasty car accident during which time she developed a tendency to get > leg cramps. Obviously for a person in traction this is an extreemly > uncomfortable situation and her doctor prescribed quinine for her. I wonder if quinine water would help.
sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (09/15/85)
> My mother spent some time in the hospital with her leg in traction after > a nasty car accident during which time she developed a tendency to get > leg cramps. Obviously for a person in traction this is an extreemly > uncomfortable situation and her doctor prescribed quinine for her. Quinine is quite effective for certain types of leg cramps, especially those which develop in the elderly and occur during the night. Incidentally, quinine is available without a prescription and is a component in several 'night cramp relief' nostrums available over the counter. It is generally pretty safe, except for patients with myasthenia gravis, in whom it can severely exacerbate symptoms, stemming directly from its effect on skeletal muscle. I can't comment of quinine's efficacy in preventing the kind of recurrent 'charlie horses' which an earlier netter reported, because I don't know of any studies which have looked at its effectiveness in treating muscle cramps in general. There are other 'muscle relaxants' (a misnomer if there ever was one) available for use to treat muscle spasm, such as that caused by a bad back. There is a big market for this stuff, as witnessed by the number of prescriptions written every year, but it is hard to distinguish in controlled trials any salutory effect of such drugs from a placebo. Indeed, most of these drugs are mild tranquilizers and it isn't clear that ANY sedative (or a hot bath) wouldn't work as well. Valium (diazepam) is perhaps the most popular benzodiazepine prescribed for muscle strain. -- /Steve Dyer {harvard,seismo}!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer sdyer@bbncc5.ARPA
jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) (09/16/85)
> > > My mother spent some time in the hospital with her leg in traction after > a nasty car accident during which time she developed a tendency to get > leg cramps. Obviously for a person in traction this is an extreemly > uncomfortable situation and her doctor prescribed quinine for her. I suggest > to anyone suffering from muscle cramps to talk to their doctor about > getting a prescription for quinine. It was quite effective for my mother. > She continued to take quinine for a couple of years but eventually found > less and less need for it. There don't seem to be any negative side effects. > > > Elizabeth Trojan (tektronix@elizat) Does tonic water contain enough quinine to have an effect? -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) aka Swazoo Koolak {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
ems@amdahl.UUCP (ems) (09/18/85)
> > ... I suggest > to anyone suffering from muscle cramps to talk to their doctor about > getting a prescription for quinine. It was quite effective for my mother. How about a Gin and Tonic? (Seems to me that quinine was used in tonic... or was that something else...) -- E. Michael Smith ...!{hplabs,ihnp4,amd,nsc}!amdahl!ems This is the obligatory disclaimer of everything. (Including but not limited to: typos, spelling, diction, logic, and nuclear war)