4 Ways to Fix Muscle Cramps + DIY Natural Electrolyte Drink Recipe

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

Plagued by sudden, random muscle cramps? Here’s some common causes of muscle cramps, and how to stop them. Plus, get a tasty, easy drink recipe below to naturally replenish your electrolytes.

Muscle cramps are involuntary contractions of certain muscles in your body. While they most commonly occur in your legs, feet, and calves; they can plague any muscle that is having trouble relaxing.

Some examples of pain caused by muscle cramps include lower back pain, menstrual cramps, and aching calves. This type of pain is different from the pain of a pulled muscle, which will come on suddenly from activity and possibly start to swell. Also the pain of a pulled muscle will usually stick around much longer than a muscle cramp.

4 Common Causes of Muscle Cramps

There are several causes of muscle cramps, with each depending on your lifestyle and activities.

1. Electrolyte Imbalance

One of the most common causes of muscle cramps is electrolyte imbalance.

Electrolytes are natural chemicals such as calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, and chloride, that are used by your body for nerve signalling, regulating blood pressure, and maintaining fluid balance.

Each contains an electric charge (hence the name) that causes your nerves to send signals throughout your body. Specifically, a good balance of electrolytes keeps your muscles contracting and relaxing as they should.

Unfortunately, every time you sweat or urinate, you lose a certain amount of these electrolytes. In a perfect world, these would automatically be replaced through mineral-rich foods in the correct amounts.

However, if you don’t regularly consume a lot of organic veggies and fruit, you might end up getting too much sodium and not enough potassium or magnesium, which can cause your muscles to spasm because your nerves don’t have the means to send them proper signals.

In the same vein, if you avoid all sodium sources, you might find yourself with extremely low sodium levels, which can also affect how efficiently your muscles receive signals from your nerves. It’s a truly delicate balance that can easily be thrown out of whack if you’re not paying attention.

2. Lactic Acid Buildup

Researchers have long blamed sore muscles on the buildup of lactic acid – a by-product of muscle breakdown and repair.

While this soreness usually occurs around 12-48 hours after a workout, some evidence has shown that lactic acid accumulation during exercise can also cause muscle spasms, especially when the muscle is worked to fatigue. If you find you’re getting cramps during intense exercise, this could be to blame.

3. Lack of Circulation

If you’ve ever experienced your feet or hands feeling numb, you know that lack of blood circulation can definitely have an immediate effect on your body. One of these effects could also be muscle cramps, since a blockage or compressed area could reduce the blood flow of nutrients to certain muscles.

4. Posture

Similar to lack of circulation, poor posture can also put unnatural pressure on the muscles, ligaments, and nerves throughout your body. This could result in the signals to your muscles being blocked or compressed, causing them to spasm. Sit up straight! Poor posture could lead to muscle spasms.

If you’ve been getting enough electrolytes and regularly stretch your muscles, but still find you have persistent muscle cramps, you might want to work on your posture or see a chiropractor.

4 Ways to Fix Muscle Cramps

1. Eat More Mineral-Rich Foods

There’s a reason you’ve probably been told at least once in your life to eat a banana if you’re having cramps. Namely, bananas and several other fruits and veggies, are rich in potassium and electrolytes that can help get your muscle contractions back on track.

Some other excellent sources of minerals and electrolytes are avocado, sweet potato, citrus fruits, kale and leafy greens, root vegetables like carrots and beets, and seeds. Try adding more of these into your daily diet, making sure to get plenty before and after sweaty, intense workouts.

2. Get Moving

If your muscle cramps are being caused by lack of circulation, your best bet is to add more movement into your day. This could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and standing once or twice every hour and doing some active stretches like arm circles and leg swings.

3. Stretch and Foam Roll

Stretching and foam rolling have been shown to help remove lactic acid buildup in muscles, which could reduce the chances of experiencing cramps. Massaging the area that’s cramping up can also bring immediate, effective relief.

4. Increase Electrolytes

As mentioned earlier, electrolyte imbalances are a common cause of repeated muscle cramps. Increasing electrolytes can help re-balance your system to help your muscles fire properly. Drink coconut water or pickle juice after your workouts — not Gatorade!

Aside from increasing your intake of mineral-rich foods, you can also consume drinks like coconut water and pickle juice, before and after your workouts, to help keep you hydrated. One thing you shouldn’t do, however, is down commercial sports drinks, since they’re often loaded with sugar and artificial colors, flavors, and chemicals.

Instead, check out the do-it-yourself electrolyte water recipe below!

DIY Natural Sports Drink with Electrolytes

Recipe by Megan Olson

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of coconut water
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• 1/8 cup lime juice
• 1 t honey
• ½ t sea salt

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Process on high 2-3 minutes until honey is fully incorporated.

• Transfer to a glass and drink.

Watch this video – Fix Muscle Cramps – 7 Causes & 7 Cures

Written by Megan Patiry

Author Bio:

Megan is an inquisitive nutrition and wellness writer harboring an editorial love affair with the decadent and the nutritious. She is a dedicated researcher in all areas of ancestral health, a certified specialist in fitness nutrition, personal trainer, and professional almond milk latte addict.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

Top 11 Healthy Potassium-Rich Foods You Should Eat Often

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

While you tend to think of bananas when it comes to potassium, many other foods – like avocados and sweet potatoes – naturally pack more potassium.

When it comes to filling up your plate with potassium-rich foods, knowing which sources to reach for and having a range of healthy options are essential.

Discover why this nutrient is key to your health, and the top eleven foods that are chock-full of potassium.

What is Potassium?

Potassium functions as an electrolyte in the body, controlling fluid balances and muscle contractions.

This essential mineral lives mostly in muscle cells but is also found in red blood cells, the liver, and the bones.

Potassium intake today is well below what it would have been for people who lived in the pre-agricultural time. This is because the soil is no longer as rich in minerals as it was before the age of agriculture.

Symptoms of low potassium can range from fatigue and muscle cramping to insomnia, depression, and even irregular heartbeat.

To ensure proper electrolyte and fluid levels, you should eat plenty of potassium-rich foods every single day.

6 Benefits of Potassium

Potassium is crucial for healthy bones, kidneys, and blood pressure. While we don’t often think of potassium as being involved with our health issues, it can play a bigger role than we may realize. Here are six of the biggest health benefits that potassium can provide.

1. Reduces High Blood Pressure

Potassium helps to regulate fluid levels in the body, supporting a healthy blood pressure. This helps reduce the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease.

2. Supports the Nervous System

The nervous system is the great communicator of the body and requires healthy muscles to function. Potassium supports proper muscular contraction, which influences how the nervous system sends messages throughout the entire body.

3. Aids in Muscular Function

As we touched on above, potassium can alter how muscles work by changing the way nerve cells are able to communicate. The heart – a particularly important muscle – can be dramatically impacted by too little or too much potassium, leading to an irregular heartbeat.

4. Balances Fluids

Without electrolytes, the body’s fluid balances would be out of sorts. More than 60 percent of the body is water, and this balance of fluids in and out of the cells is carefully regulated by electrolytes and potassium. When potassium is out of balance, muscle contractions, heart problems, and kidney stones or disorders can occur.

5. Provides Healthy Bone Mass

Got potassium? While many studies focus on calcium for strong bones, some research shows that potassium also directly strengthens bones.

Osteoporosis and bone density problems are mostly genetic, but as much as 40 percent can be influenced by diet.

6. Promotes Kidney Health

Kidney stones often form when excess calcium isn’t buffered by the right fluid balance. Potassium can help lower the amount of calcium in urine, preventing kidney stones and keeping the bladder and kidneys free from calcifications.

11 Potassium-Rich Foods

Here are the top nine Paleo-friendly foods with the highest amounts of potassium.

1. Winter Squash

Winter squash, including varieties like acorn, butternut, and pumpkin, is rich in potassium, B vitamins and vitamin C. Roast them for savory or sweet side dishes, soups, and chilis.

2. Cooked Spinach

Raw spinach has less than five percent daily value of potassium, but lightly cooking spinach until soft increases its potassium levels significantly. Try stuffing cooked spinach into Portobello mushrooms, top it on a burger, or jazz up your next pot of soup.

3. Sun-dried Tomatoes

While raw tomatoes contain some potassium, sundried tomatoes are an epic source of this mineral for such a small serving. Get your fill with this recipe for chicken smothered in a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce.

4. Bok Choy

Bok choy is a nutrient-dense leafy green vegetable perfect for stir-fries, sautéed veggies, and Asian-inspired dishes. Just one cup cooked – which shrinks down fairly small – contains 18 percent of your daily value.

5. Avocado

This beloved fruit is rich in fiber and B vitamins and packs a wallop of potassium with nearly a quarter of the day’s needs in just one cup of mashed avocado. Mix it into a hearty guacamole and pile it onto burgers and sandwiches.

6. Banana

While most people associate bananas with potassium, it’s definitely not the food highest in this nutrient. Still, a single banana contains more than 10 percent of your daily value, making it a great choice for a snack.

7. Wild-caught Salmon

Salmon is rich in potassium and other minerals like phosphorous, selenium, and magnesium. Bake it any night of the week for a hearty meal rich in healthy omega-3 fats.

8. Broccoli

When steamed or boiled, broccoli contains well over 10% of the day’s potassium needs. It also contains lots of healthy B vitamins and fiber. Add them to stir-fries, toss them into broccoli salads, or blend them up into a soup.

9. Sweet Potato

These yam-like vegetables carry a nice amount of potassium, but also manganese, vitamin A, and vitamin B6. Roast them, spiral them up into savory “noodle” dishes, or even whip them up into sweet potato pancake batter.

10. Watermelon

This juicy fruit is considered by many to be mostly water, but it’s actually packed with plenty of nutrients like vitamins A and C as well as 14 percent daily value of potassium. Slice it up and enjoy as a delicious snack.

11. Coconut water

Coconut water is better than any sports drink for fighting off muscle cramps and dehydration – it contains natural electrolytes like magnesium, calcium, sodium, and manganese alongside a healthy dose of potassium to help you bounce back quickly. Plus, it has no artificial coloring or refined sugars.

Potassium-Rich Recipes

If you want to add more potassium to your diet, try these delicious home-style recipes.

1. Salmon Sweet Potato Cakes with Avocado Salsa
This recipe packs the double whammy of potassium from both the salmon and sweet potatoes.

2. Roasted Acorn Squash
This squash makes the perfect anti-inflammatory side dish for holidays or just everyday eating.

3. Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies
Potassium-rich sweet potatoes are the not-so-secret ingredients in these moist, decadent brownies.

4. Keto Avocado Brownies
Speaking of brownies: this batch of goodness relies on the creamy perfection of avocado for a superb texture.

5. Cream of Broccoli Soup
Cooked broccoli contains plenty of potassium and what better way to enjoy it than blended up in a dairy-free soup.

Watch this video – 20 High Potassium Foods (700 Calorie Meals) DiTuro Productions

Bottom Line

Potassium is required for healthy functioning muscles and nerves. There are plenty of foods rich in potassium, so be sure to eat a lot of them to get enough electrolytes in your system.

Written by Aimee McNew

Author Bio:

Aimee McNew is a Certified Nutritionist who specializes in women’s health, thyroid problems, infertility, and digestive wellness. She ate her way back to health using a Paleo diet, lost 80 pounds, and had a healthy baby after numerous miscarriages. She focuses on simple nutrition practices that promote long-lasting results.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

Boost Brain Health – Dementia Defeated Using This Delicious Treat

 

Click Here for Help with Alzheimer’s, Other Types of Dementia and General Memory Loss

It’s sweet. It’s delicious.

And it instantly boosts your brain health, according to a new study conducted by scientists from the University of Birmingham and published in the journal Scientific Reports.

What’s more, it comes in various forms from the foods we all love to eat and drinks we all love to drink.

Flavanols are a group of flavonoids that appear in especially high amounts in cocoa, grapes, red wine, berries, citrus fruit, onions, parsley, and tea.

It has proven benefits for cardiovascular health, but the researchers decided to establish exactly what effects it has on the brain and cognitive abilities.

They recruited 18 adult subjects who were non-smokers and free of brain, heart, and respiratory diseases.

The researchers devised two trials: one in which the subjects received a cocoa drink enriched with flavanols and another in which they received a plain cocoa drink.

The researchers conducted the same tests after both trials to see whether subjects performed better after drinking the flavanol-enriched drink.

The first test consisted of the inhalation of air with 5% carbon dioxide two hours after consumption of the cocoa drinks. This is air with carbon dioxide at approximately 100 times the normal level.

This is a common test for checking how well the brain’s blood vessels work, because our bodies usually respond to high carbon dioxide levels by increasing blood flow to the brain. This helps to protect the brain from oxygen starvation, as the blood contains oxygen.

The scientists discovered that the subjects who drank the flavanol-enriched drink had three times more oxygen in their brains than those who drank the normal cocoa drink, and that their brains were one minute quicker in oxygenating.

This proves that the vascular structures of brains on a high amount of flavanols are superior to those of brains on fewer flavanols.

But the scientists did not stop here. They also gave their subjects some cognitive tests that ranged from easy to complex.

They noticed that the subjects taking the flavanol-enriched drink were better at completing complex cognitive tasks, and that they managed to complete them 11% faster than the other subjects did.

Therefore, people’s brains recover faster from a vascular challenge and perform better on complex tasks after they’ve consumed flavanols.

Another interesting finding was that 14 of the 18 participants benefited from the flavanols.

The researchers noticed that the minority that did not benefit already showed high performance on oxygenation and cognitive tests without the flavanols, and speculated that they were probably fit, healthy dieters who had little room for improvement from additional flavanols.

So why not defeat dementia for good and make yourself a fit, healthy brainer by loading your brain with the one ingredient it needs? Learn all the details here…

This Enjoyable Activity Defeats Dementia and Boost Brain Health

The traditional medical system has no solution for Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. There are no drugs that cure it or stop it from progressing.

That’s why we celebrate a new study in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

It reveals how a quite pleasant activity can change your brain’s microstructure to tackle dementia.

The scientists from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health recruited 293 people with an average age of 83 years.

The data were originally collected by something called the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study.

They specifically collected information regarding social interaction and the frequency of their social interaction, such as whether they were married, lived alone, worked, volunteered in church, or engaged in other activities, such as regularly getting together with friends or relatives, and so forth.

They also gave their subjects a new sensitive brain scan called diffusion tensor imaging MRI, which measures the cellular integrity of the brain cells that make up several parts of the grey matter in the brain.

In particular, the scientists were interested in the gray matter in parts of the brain that had previously been associated with both social engagement and dementia.

They found exactly what they expected: that greater social engagement helped maintain the microstructure of the gray matter, thereby maintaining the cells that need to stay alive to prevent dementia.

The researchers attributed this finding to the fact that social interaction activates regions of the brain required for emotional processing, decision-making, and the recognition of faces and relationship histories.

Best of all, seniors don’t have to turn into social butterflies to receive this benefit. Once or twice per week is enough.

Neither do they have to go out and meet large groups of people in busy environments. Merely interacting with one or two relatives at home is sufficient.

Being social is helpful, but it’s probably not going to be enough to completely reverse dementia, especially if you’re already experiencing some memory loss. For that, you need to load up on one free ingredient explained here…

Boost Brain Health – High-protein Diet May Cause Alzheimer’s

Those who are fan of high-protein weight loss diets, beware! You may be putting yourself at a greater risk to Alzheimer’s disease. New studies points that high-protein diet may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s.

The Study

Researchers studied the link between the progression of Alzheimer’s in mice and different diets. In this research, mice were given four different diets:

–        low fat diet / high carb

–        low carb diet / high fat

–        low carb diet / high protein

–        regular diet

After feeding mice on these four diets for some time, the researchers measured the weight of their body, as well as their mind. Researchers also studied the buildup of plaque in the sections of the brain that are responsible for cognitive functions – these sections of the brain are most affected in Alzheimer’s.

The Findings

The researchers found that total brain size of the mice that were given a low carb / high protein diet had shrunk by 5%. It was also found that certain regions of hippocampus – one of the first part of the brain that suffer damage in Alzheimer’s disease – were less developed in mice that fed on a low carb diet / high protein diet.

The researchers believe that consumption of a diet which is rich in protein, over time makes the brain cells more susceptible to plaque buildup.

According to lead author of the study, Sam Gandy, these new findings have got medical fraternity speculating that the consumption of high-protein diet at particular ages may contribute to the development or fasten the progression of Alzheimer’s.

Experts say that inflammation may be the reason why diet rich in protein contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s. Constant entry of foreign proteins may cause chronic inflammation, which subsequently may damage the blood vessels and obstruct the flow of blood.

The Conclusion

In the study mentioned above, mice were genetically engineered to carry amyloid-beta, the plaque that accounts for death of brain cells in people with Alzheimer’s. So, while medical fraternity acknowledges that more studies are needed to determine for sure whether diet rich in protein contributes to Alzheimer’s disease or not, they accept that these studies clearly show that people who have Alzheimer’s or at risk to this disease should avoid consuming diet that are high on protein.

A balanced diet, one that is rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and includes some amount of meat and fish helps in reducing your risk to Alzheimer’s and also slow the progression of the disease in existing patients. Further, regular exercise is also found to decrease the chances of acquiring Alzheimer’s.

Watch this video – Brain Foods for Brain Health – Boost Brain Health with Good Eats

Click Here for Help with Alzheimer’s, Other Types of Dementia and General Memory Loss

This post is from the Brain Booster Exercise Program created for the purpose of helping to reverse Alzheimer’s, boost memory. It was made by Christian Goodman Blue Heron health news that has been recognized as one of the top-quality national health information websites.  This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to slow down, prevent, or even reverse memory loss and boost your brain with energy and power. These exercises work to deliver as much nutrition and oxygen to your starving brain as possible and begin the restoring of the damaged brain cells.

To find out more about this program, click on Boost Brain Health