The Case of the Killer Leg Cramp

9/8/09

I woke up in the middle of the night this weekend—it was an attack of the leg cramp. After a minute of face-crunching pain from my calf muscle the ache subsided, but my memory of it lingered. 

The next morning I opened up the National Women’s Health Resource Center’s handy Pregnancy Planner that I happened to have in my bookshelf. As if by magic, I turned right to the page on “Common Physical Changes During Pregnancy.” The last thing on the list was leg cramps (and a type of restless legs syndrome), which is a common symptom when levels of iron or potassium are low. 

The planner gives suggestions on how to remedy this problem, including stretching before bed, getting regular exercise, and adding a banana to your daily diet to give you more potassium, but if this is happening to you, you should also ask your doctor to test your iron levels to ensure an iron deficiency isn’t the cause. 

In the meantime, the Vegetarian Society of the UK has a list of food sources rich in iron, the top three of which are chickpeas, bran flakes, and spinach. With all this helpful information, hopefully we’ll sleep like babies tonight.