Why Do My Feet and Legs Cramp?
Do you experience painful cramps in your feet or legs? Do you want to know the cause of your discomfort so that you can find pain relief? Sometimes, getting answers can be challenging because many conditions can cause foot and leg cramps.
Muscle cramps occur when a muscle involuntarily tightens and won't relax. These intense spasms can be excruciating, and you may be in pain for several days. Muscle cramps of the feet and legs are most often felt in the arch of the foot and the calf of the leg but may include the toes.
Seeing your podiatrist is the best way to diagnose your foot or leg cramps. But in the meantime, we’ll walk you through some reasons why your feet and legs could be cramping.
Exercise and Dehydration
Intense physical activity can overstimulate your muscle fibers. That makes them contract, resulting in a cramp in your foot or leg. If you've been walking for hours or have started a new workout, muscle cramps could cause discomfort.
Insufficient fluid and electrolytes in your body can lead to muscle spasms and cramps. This risk increases when you exercise without adequate water intake. The ongoing loss of fluids during sleep can further exacerbate nocturnal cramps.
Shoes and Hard Surfaces
Wearing unsuitable footwear, such as pointy-toed shoes, high heels, or shoes without proper support, can induce fatigue and cramping in the foot muscles. Hard surfaces like concrete can intensify the problem due to the added strain on the feet from supporting the body weight. On the other hand, restrictive footwear can also impede blood flow and oxygen circulation, leaving one prone to muscle spasms even when not standing. Choose appropriate footwear for proper support and circulation to prevent discomfort and ensure optimal foot health.
Inactivity
Believe it or not, inactivity and staying in one place for too long can cause your feet and legs to cramp. Your muscles were made to move, and when you leave them in the same place for too long spasms or cramps can occur. If you have a job where you sit all day, make sure you take breaks at work and alternate between sitting and standing.
Medical Conditions
Nerve Damage
Sometimes, something more serious could be causing your foot or leg cramps. Certain types of nerve disease, including peripheral neuropathy, can give you foot or leg cramps.
Why does this happen? With neuropathy—a condition common if you have diabetes—your nerves are damaged. As a result, they don’t send proper messages from your muscles to your brain. So your muscles can fire or cramp at the wrong time. Your podiatrist can help decide if nerve damage is causing your leg or foot cramps.
Poor Circulation and PAD
You may develop cramps when your blood doesn't flow properly through your body. That's why leg cramps are a classic symptom of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD). With this condition, your arteries narrow, so insufficient oxygen-rich blood reaches your legs and feet.
This compromised circulation means your legs don't get enough oxygen to support activity. So, if PAD is causing your leg cramps, they tend to show up when you walk or exercise. And the cramps should improve when you rest your legs. Remember, PAD is a progressive condition and a serious medical problem. That's why, if PAD is giving you leg cramps, it's crucial to see your doctor immediately.
Other medical conditions that can cause cramping include spinal stenosis, metabolic issues such as Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, Addison's disease, Parkinson's disease, sarcoidosis, cirrhosis, and being on kidney dialysis.
Medications
Certain medications can induce foot or leg cramping as a side effect. Some of the most common medications include:
Diuretics
Statins
Blood pressure medications
Birth control
Naproxen (Aleve)
Albuterol – asthma medication
Leg Cramps and Your Diet
What you eat (or don’t) can also cause foot and leg cramps. If your diet is low in potassium, calcium, or magnesium, you may experience painful cramps. Deficiencies in vitamin B12 and vitamin D can also cause foot and leg cramps. That’s especially true if you also take a medication, such as a diuretic, that makes it harder for your body to retain these minerals. Your doctor may look closely at your diet or recommend adding supplements. Excessive alcohol consumption may also cause foot and leg cramps.
Diagnosing and Treating Foot and Leg Cramps
You may get foot and leg cramps for many reasons. As we've reviewed, some are serious and will require further treatment. Others are simple and can be quickly resolved. Poor-fitting shoes are one of the most common causes of foot cramps, and it's easy to fix that problem!
Regularly stretching your feet and legs can also help prevent cramping. Check out this YouTube video of stretches that help with toe and foot cramps. And this YouTube video helps with leg cramps.
But if your foot or leg cramps don’t get better with a simple, at-home fix? You could be facing one of the more serious conditions we just reviewed. And that means you should schedule an immediate appointment with our Westfield podiatrist Dr. David Sullivan, also serving Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, and Zionsville, Ind. Once you're in the office, we can diagnose the cause of your cramps and get you on the path to feeling better!